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Police officer suspended following arrest during drug raid

By
Kalino Latu
-

A 31-year-old Tongatapu Police officer is suspended and could face termination after he was arrested during a drug raid at a home in Ngele’ia.

The off-duty police officer was arrested along with four other men, Acting Police Commissioner Pelenatita Vaisuai said.

Police seized 8.32 grams of methamphetamine, 1.32 grams of cannabis seeds, cash, electronic devices and a live bullet during this drug raid.

The arrested officer is now suspended from Police duty.

Magistrate Salesi Mafi ordered yesterday for all 5 suspects to be remanded in police custody until Friday 17 August 2018.

Police investigation continues.

Kaniva receives spam e-mails from Ian Jones over human waste dumping stories

By
Kalino Latu
-

An e-mail sender who used the name and email address of Ian Jones has accused Kaniva Tonga News of incorrectly reporting Mr Jones’ dumping of septic human waste in mangroves in Vava’u.

Mr Jones did not say which part of our stories was incorrect.

His first email on July 18 was received through our spam folder and because of that we did not reply.

Mr Jones claimed he was a victim of a what he described as a government cover-up after he threatened to expose what he claimed was illegal dumping thousands of litres of sewage into the mangroves at Kalaka in Vava’u by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications.

“I am prepared to give you a full report and press release together with photos showing what the government is doing.

“Will you publish my release in full?  Will you show the photos?” he asked.

Jones was convicted by a Vava’u court and fined TP$1000 on June 20 after an inspection by the Health Authority following the dump found infectious disease from the waste in the sea near the dumping site.

Fishing and swimming in the area has been banned, affecting residents of Pangaimotu, Toula, ‘Utungake, ‘Utulei, Talihau and Neiafu.

On July 31 we received another email from Jones, but this time he complained about our not replying to his previous email.

“Your lack of response would indicate to me that you are not interested in reporting both sides of the story.

“Your bias is noted with disappointment,” Jones’ e-mail read.

Because of his complaint Kaniva’s editor decided to take the risk of replying to spamming e-mails and sent a reply.

Our response to Mr Jones did not go through and hotmail sent us a returned rejected email message saying we were contacting Jones on trippm1960@yandex.com.

We did not emailed Jones on this email. We emailed him on the hotmail address he was using when he emailed us which was ianjones@hotmail.com.

After following suggestions given to us on the rejected email message which was sent from postmaster@outlook.com we resent the email to Jones this evening. Again our response was rejected with the following same message as before:

“mxfront7o.mail.yandex.net rejected your message to the following email addresses:

trippm1960@yandex.com

The address you sent your message to wasn’t found at the destination domain. It might be misspelled or it might not exist. Try to fix the problem by doing one or more of the following:

  1. Send the message again, but before you do, delete and retype the address. If your email program automatically suggests an address to use, don’t select it.
  2. Clear the recipient AutoComplete cache in your email program by following the steps in this article: Status code 5.1.1. Then resend the message, but before you do, be sure to delete and retype the address.
  3. Contact the recipient by some other means (by phone, for example) to confirm you’re using the right address. Ask them if they’ve set up an email forwarding rule that could be forwarding your message to an incorrect address.

mxfront7o.mail.yandex.net gave this error:

Editor’s note:

Kaniva stands by our stories on Mr Jones’ actions before and after he was convicted in Vava’u. We only run this story to let him know how his e-mails to us were received through our spam folder and when we tried to reply the responses were rejected. He should try contacting us on Facebook on https://www.facebook.com/kanivatongamedia/ or https://www.facebook.com/Kanivatonga. He is welcome to tell his side of the story on Kaniva.

What is spam email?

According Google, Gmail automatically identifies spam and suspicious emails and marks those emails as spam.

In another words, they were irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc.

When you open your Spam label, you’ll see any emails that were marked as spam by you or Gmail. Each email will include a label at the top that explains why it was sent to Spam.

For more information

Vava’u residents react with fury at fishing ban as accused free to leave Tonga

Vava’u residents react with fury at fishing ban as accused free to leave Tonga

New CEO for Ministry of Customs and Revenue

By
Kalino Latu
-

A new CEO has been appointed for the Ministry of Customs and Revenue.

He was Kelemete Vahe and his appointment took effect from August 10 for four years.

Mr Vahe was a Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry where he oversaw the operations of the Customs division.

Mr Vahe holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji.

He was first recruited to the public service in 1979 and has since served in various senior management leadership positions mainly in the Ministry of Revenue and Customs.

“The Public Service Commission welcomes Mr Soane Patita Vahe appointment as the CEO for Ministry of Revenue and Customs and wishes him a successful and a fulfilling term in Office.”

Employee pleads not guilty to storage-container fraud charges

By
Kalino Latu
-

A Tongatapu employee has pleaded not guilty to charges that he had allegedly forged documents to sell storage shipping containers belonging to a company where he worked.

Sepuloni Mateo, who faced six charges following the sales is believed to have received TP$8,250 following the fraud activities.

The Pacific Forum Line (PFL) container company in Tonga alleged the accused forged its documents in August 2017, Kakalu ‘O Tonga newspaper has reported.

The paper said Mateo allegedly sold the containers to a Chinese man.

The accused is expected to reappear at the Supreme Court on August 29.

Serious crash in Counties Manukau; passengers trapped in vehicles

By
Kalino Latu
-

Police and emergency services are in attendance at a serious crash on Kingseat Road, Kingseat that occurred just before 10am this morning.

Three vehicles are involved and two vehicles have gone down a bank.

Occupants are still in trapped in vehicles.

One person is in a critical condition,  two people have serious injuries and one person has moderate injuries.

Westpac Rescue Helicopter will be transporting people to hospital.

Diversions are in place at Kingseat and Irwin Roads and Kingseat and Glenbrook Roads.

The Serious Crash Unit is attending and Police advise motorists to avoid the area if possible.

Tongan man dies while defending his female friend in Australia

By
Kaniva Staff
-

By GRETA LEVY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

A Tongan man has died while trying to defend a female friend from her former partner.

Ben Apikotoa, who is described as “kind, caring and affectionate” by his family, was stabbed multiple times on Saturday night after reportedly being called to a home in Sydney’s west by his friend, Cassie Sanders, who was allegedly being assaulted by her ex-boyfriend Nathan Chatimba.

Chatimba, 31, has been charged with murdering the 34-year-old during a brawl between two men in a cul-de-sac in St Clair.

Police allege Ben responded to the call for help after Ms Sanders was allegedly attacked at the home.

A neighbour told Seven News he saw the men throwing punches before Chatimba allegedly pulled out a knife.

Residents claim the 31-year-old then fled the scene before being arrested by police two hours later.

He briefly appeared at Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday where he was denied bail. He will face court in October.

Chatimba appeared distraught as he was arrested by police.

Paramedics arrived at the home at 6.40pm. Despite the efforts from paramedics, Ben died at the scene.

Tongans can line up for free treatment on Chinese hospital ship from Monday afternoon

By
Philip Cass
-

Doctors on a Chinese naval vessel will offer free medical services in Tonga next week.

The  Ark Peace will offer free consultation and treatment (including diagnosis, examination, surgical operation as well as inpatient and medicine) to local people on board the hospital ship.

The ship will provide medical services on board from August 13-17 at the Vuna wharf.

Treatment times are 1.30-5pm on August 13 and 8:30 to 11:30am  and 1:30-5pm on August 14-17.

People can go to the wharf and wait in line to be called to the ship.

Chinese navy medical teams will also provide free medical services on shore at hospitals, schools, villages and other locations.

The Ark Peace has previously visited to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji. She previously visited Tonga in 2014.

Primarily designed to treat casualties during wartime, the ship is equipped with a 4000 square metre hospital.

She is a Type 920 hospital ship of the People’s Liberation Army Navy and when not carrying out international medical operations, is known as the Daishan Dao.

She has been used to provide free medical services to a number of countries in Asia, Africa and the Pacific since she was launched in 2008.

A spokesman for the Ark Peace described this as “the concrete practice of carrying forward international humanitarianism and disseminating the concept of peace, development and co-operation.”

During the visit to Tonga, personnel from the ship will visit local schools and play a friendly football match against the Tongan defence force.

Rear Admiral Guan Bailin and Rear Admiral Qin Wei, commanders of Mission Harmony – 2018, will pay courtesy calls on both the senior military officers and government officials of Tonga.

For more information

China’s Growing Maritime HA/DR Capabilities

Tongan woman ready to return home after Australian surgeons remove tumour

By
Philip Cass
-

A young Tongan woman is ready to return to Tonga after Australian surgeons removed a large tumour from her jaw.

The tumour, which was benign, was growing in her jaw and distorting her face.

The infected part of the jaw was removed and rebuilt using bone from her leg.

Surgeon William Blake said 19-year-old Silia Tupou’ila had suffered from extreme pain for five years and the growth made her feel shunned.

He said her jaw would have broken without the surgery.

The volunteer surgical team took eight hours to complete the operation in a Melbourne hospital.

Tupou’ila has been recovering for three weeks.

Her operation was sponsored by the Children First Foundation and carried out at the Cabrini hospital.

In 2016 Kaniva Tonga News reported on the case of another Tongan girl, Pulei Latu, 19, who had a similar operation.

It was also done with the assistance of Children First and Cabrini hospital.

As we reported at the time, five surgeons eight hours to reconstruct her face.

The tumour was described as being the size of a tennis ball.

For more information

Teen’s facial tumour removed in risky eight-hour operation

Tongan girl with enormous tumour undergoes surgery in Melbourne

Too many charges may confuse jury in machete murder trial, says Supreme Court judge

By
Philip Cass
-

A Supreme Court judge has criticised the number of indictments brought in a murder case, saying they could confuse the jury.

Mr Justice Cato said there was also some merit in a complaint by defence lawyer Clive Edwards that the accused had been prejudiced by the multiple counts against them and an unnecessarily long winded indictment.

Halahone Taliai and Sione Vea were brought before the court on multiple charges relating to the death of ʻAiveni Teisina during a machete attack in a parking lot in Vaini on October 23, 2016.

As Kaniva Tonga News reported at the time Teisina died from his injuries at Vaiola Hospital on October 24, 2016.

He was survived by his wife and a four-year old daughter.

Mr Justice Cato said Crown accepted that Taliai was responsible for the victim’s death by machete wounds. Vea used a hammer to also effect  injury, but not any fatal injury.

He said the Crown had laid four alternative counts of murder against Taliai.

He said two of the charges were unnecessary and there seemed to be no point in a third.

“The danger of  the  present indictment of multiple murder counts is that it is confusing and may cause the jury difficulty in arriving at unanimous verdicts,” the judge said.

The jury could convict Talia of murder if they found he had murderous intent and caused Teisina’s death.

If the jury was not  satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Taliai was guilty of murder, he could be convicted of manslaughter if they thought he caused the death of the victim by deliberately committing an unlawful act that  resulted  in  death.

Mr Justice Cato also questioned the indictments brought against Vea. He said it was wrong to separately indict for several counts of murder.

“Each accused should face one count of murder, manslaughter as an alternative and a lesser offence, grievous bodily harm or serious harm as an alternative to  manslaughter,” he said.

“I consider  that  the  present  counts in the indictment may give rise to confusion, error in principle, and also there is an element as Mr Edwards complained of prejudice occasioned by an unnecessarily  prolix  indictment  and several counts in relation to each man of   murder.”

Harvesting and exporting of sandalwood still being prohibited, MAF warns

By
Kalino Latu
-

The Ministry of Forestry has warned that harvesting and exporting of sandalwood in Tonga were still being prohibited.

The warning came after the Ministry received reports sandalwood plants had been harvested and stolen in Ha’apai.

Sione Foliaki from the Ministry’s office in Tongatapu said he was aware of the reports.

He said it was reportedly announced on local radios reminding the public that harvesting and exporting of the “protected” plant were illegal.

According to the Ministry it “could be classified as a threatened species in the sense that it is very vulnerable to theft – so much so that the Tonga Timber Company is no longer planting sandalwood.”

“This (sic) species needs special protection if it is to develop as a sustainable export industry,” the Ministry said.

Sandalwood was a type of plant which yields fragrant timber and oil.

Known in Tongan as ahi, the plant was significant not only economically but in the sense that it served as important sources for body oil making process. The oil was used by the nobility and the royals.

In 2014 the Australian’s Tropical Forestry Services (TFS), which has plantations in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, has secured a deal with an undisclosed pharmaceutical company, to sell sandalwood oil for $4,500 per kilogram for up to 20 years.

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