Home Blog Page 722

Man accused of passport scam appears in court

A 51-year-old man who allegedly impersonated a government officer as part of a Tongan passport scam appeared in court yesterday Monday 23 Police said in a statement.

The Tonga Police Passport Taskforce arrested the man from Hofoa/Tokomololo after complaint he had deceived a foreign national into getting him and his family naturalization certificates and Tongan passports, Acting Police Commissioner Viliami ‘Unga Fa’aoa said

“He impersonated a member of a government ministry without his knowledge that resulted in depriving large amount of money from the victim”.

Fa’aoa said the man has been charged with obtaining money by false pretences contrary to section 164, Criminal Offences Act. He is remanded in police custody and will appear at the Nuku’alofa Magistrate Court on Monday 23 January 2017 for bail.

Police investigation continues.

Missing Tiuke Mahoni found safe and well

A Tongan teen who had been reported missing has been found unharmed, Police said this morning Tuesday 24.

Police said 19-year-old Tiuke Mahoni had not been seen since Saturday, sparking concerns for his safety.

However, on Monday he was found safe and well.

Auckland Police thanked the media and the public for their assistance in this matter.

READ MORE

https://kanivatonga.co.nz/2017/01/distraught-tongan-family-plead-for-news-of-missing-son-tiuke-mahoni/

Serious concerns for missing Auckland man Tiuke Mahoni

Auckland police have serious concerns for missing 19-year-old Auckland man, Tiuke Mahoni.

Tiuke was last seen in the Onehunga area on Saturday evening (21 January 2017) at around 7pm.

Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Newman says Tiuke has not been in contact with his family and this is completely out of character.

His phone is turned off and his bank accounts have not been used.

“We are seriously concerned about Tiuke, as is his family.

We are asking anyone who knows where he may be to contact police immediately.

His family are understandably very upset and want to know that he is safe.”

He was wearing a blue American football style shirt with the number ‘18’ on the front and the name ‘Manning’ on the back on it.

He is approximately 190cm tall an

Can you spot the spelling blunder on this Fu’amotu International Airport sign?

An eagle-eyed Tongan has noticed a spelling mistake on a Fu’amotu International Airport direction sign.

Yvette Guttenbeil Paea posted a picture to Facebook of the error on a sign at the terminal hall way in Tongatapu on Saturday.

The local business woman was waiting at the airport while she noticed the eighth letter ‘r’ was missing from Transportation and posted: “mahalo tonu ke ave o fktonutonu..?? (translated:  I think it should be corrected..??) “Or is it a new Tongan English spelling? Now, I am confused”.

In an email to Kaniva News a spokesperson from the Tonga Airport company said:  “Thank you for bringing this up. We will get this fixed now”.

READ MORE

Hihifo two different speed limit signs confuse drivers

Authorities plead with public to stop changing road signs

VIDEO: Tongan teens confront Gargasoulas with a baseball bat before his murderous rampage

Scroll down to watch 7News video

Two Tongan teens confronted Dimitrious “Jimmy” Gargasoulas with a baseball bat before his murderous rampage on Friday in Melbourne.

A 10-year-old girl, 25-year-old man and a woman, 32, died at the scene after Gargasoulas sped along Bourke Street Mall and a 33-year-old man died in hospital on Friday night. A three-month-old baby boy also died later in hospital.

Hundreds watched as Gargasoulas performed burnouts on Flinders Street but only the two Tongans intervened.

Tevita Mahina, 17, and Isaac Tupou, 17, were heading to a baseball game when they came across the incident.

“We heard a lot of screeching. It was echoing. And it got a lot of people’s attention so we went to have a look. Then we saw a car doing donuts”, Tupou told 7News.

“We have to take action no one was doing”.

“He looks like he gonna hurt people”.

“The car came at us. And I stepped to the side and swung the bat, pretty much, and then he came back and chased us…” Mahina told the News.

Gargasoulas would face murder charges, Australian media reported.

The 26-year-old was known to police and had been driving erratically around Melbourne after allegedly stabbing his brother that morning.

RWEAD MORE

Is the man accused of Melbourne’s CBD deadly rampage having Tongan connection?

Is the man accused of Melbourne’s CBD deadly rampage having Tongan connection?

The perpetrator of the car ramming terrorist attack carried out in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday, January 20,  claimed he was a “Muslim Kurd” on Facebook, but has now been positively identified as a mixed-race person with a Greek father and a Tongan mother, the newobserveronline has reported.

Dimitrious Gargasoulas, also known as James “Jimmy” Gargasoulas. claimed on Facebook however that his racial origin was “greek islamic kurdish” [sic].

On January 13 , acording to news.co.au he wrote that he was not Greek-Tongan, “I am actually Greek Islamic Kurdish ANGEL OF CULT”, saying to Google “Yazdânism”. “Heaven and Hell IS REAL!!! WHO AGREES?” he wrote. “I promise and hold a lot of answers. Ask me something.”

Daily Mail report said: “He also embraced his ‘half Greek and half Tongan’ ethnicity, which in the same post he denied in favour of being referred to as Kurdish”.

Whatever the case, Gargasoulas had just been arrested the weekend before for a number of violent offences, including assault and car theft.

Only six days before the attack, Gargasoulas wrote on his Facebook site that “I’ll take you all out just me you need a army to take me and so far you have presented half a army of useless wait until you see mine” [sic].

The car ramming attack is the latest in a number of similar incidents, all proposed and encouraged by ISIS in a recent issue of its magazine Rumiyah. Other prominent such attacks have taken place in Nice, France, and Berlin, Germany.

The controlled media immediately activated its usual excuse of “mental health issues” to try and hide the fact that the attack was similar to the other Islamist terrorist incidents, with the Daily Mail and the Australian both claiming that Gargasoulas had a history of mental health issues and that he was only “wearing red underpants” at the time of his arrest.

In reality, Gargasoulas was fully clothed when he carried out the attack, and pictures of him in his underwear show clearly that his clothes had been cut off him by medical teams attending to him after police had opened fire to stop his terrorist attack.

Victoria’s police chief commissioner Graham Ashton was also quick off the mark to deny that there was any terrorist link to the attack, even though the suspect had not even been questioned and was still in the hospital when the denial was made.

“We know a fair bit about the driver’s background and the incident is not related to any counter-terrorism or terror-related activity. There’s an extensive family violence history. He’s come to our attention many times in the past,” commissioner Ashton said.

News Observer & Daily Mail

Dr Michael Horowitz assesses Pōhiva’s government as vote of no confidence looms

The chance for Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva’s government to survive the upcoming vote of no confidence will come under scrutiny next week at the Auckland University of Technology Thursday 26.

Dr Michael Horowitz, Academic Dean, ‘Atenisi Institute, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Pacific Media Centre will conduct a seminar and speak on the topic: “Can the Democracy Coalition retain power in Tonga?”

Opposition Leader Lord Vaea has told Kaniva News last week his motion of vote of no confidence against the government still stands.

Asked when exactly he would submit it Lord Vaea said  the no confidence motion will be processed when the House will resume next week January 30.

Introducing the seminar in a statement the director Professor of the Pacific Media Centre David Robie said: “Twenty-two years after Tonga’s insurgent “constitutional convention” of 1992, a coalition of democrat and independent MPs elected the founding leader of the Democracy Party, ‘Akilisi Pōhiva, Prime Minister. Within five months, a contingent of a raucous demonstration of the Catholic Women’s League – a former pillar of the democratic movement – was chanting “Heigh-hee, heigh-ho, ‘Akilisi’s gotta go”; by October 2015, the former Education Minister was demanding the PM’s detachment from that portfolio. Yet a threat by the putative leader of the aristocratic opposition to bring down the coalition – lodged last August in Auckland – has yet to be realised. As the coalition government embarks on its third year, is it possible to assess its durability?

About Dr Horowitz: Dr Horowitz is academic dean of the university at ‘Atenisi Institute in Tonga, which is planning to establish a media academy on its second campus in the ‘Isileli district of Nuku’alofa. He holds US postgraduate degrees in social science from the New School in New York and the College of Public Affairs at Oregon’s Portland State University.

Dr Horowitz’s analyses of US politics and culture have appeared in the Village Voice, Playboy, and the Psychiatric Times, among other periodicals, while academic articles and reviews have been regionally published in Sites, Journal of Pacific History and Journal of Pacific Affairs.

READ MORE

Noble MPs vow to topple government with no confidence motion when Parliament resumes

Pohiva asks date for vote of no confidence motion as Lord Vaea remains silent

CEO ‘Asipeli Palaki’s coffin arrives home

The body of the CEO of Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, ‘Asipeli Palaki, has arrived in Tonga from Fiji, where he died after seeking medical treatment.

Hundreds of people were at the airport to see the arrival of the plane carrying his coffin.

His casket was covered with the Tongan flag and it was welcomed by many government officials and civil servants.

His death has been widely shared on social media.

He has been described by many as “tangata fakalongolongo mo angalelei lahi” (translated: quiet and man with good conduct).

READ MORE:

Tongan government CEO dies in Fiji

Tonga, China ties strengthened as leaders meet

Tonga and China have strengthened friendly cooperation and diplomacy.

Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva met Chinese Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (SCNPC), His Excellency Mr. Ailigeng-Yimingbahai on Tuesday 17  for a three-day visit to the Kingdom.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office says:

At the meeting, the Hon Prime Minister said that it has been 19 years since Tonga normalised relations with the People’s Republic of China. Diplomatic relations and enhanced cooperation between the two countries have developed immensely.  He acknowledged that “Tonga continues to benefit from China’s bilateral assistance programme, particularly commendable for its size and outreach, whose overarching aim has been to support Tonga’s national development priorities and promote the beneficial and peaceful cooperation between Tonga and China.”

The Vice Chairman said that while Tonga and China are distant from other, the people of the two countries have a great friendly relationship and diplomatic ties.  He said that in November 2014, the leaders of the two countries agreed to establish a strategic partnership featuring mutual respect and common development which has chartered the course for future development of bilateral ties. Since then the two countries have frequent exchanges on all levels in areas of common interests such as Trade, Tourism, Infrastructure Construction and Agriculture and so on.

Some of the recent cooperation between Tonga and China included the Mutual Visa Exemption, the Squash export to China, School Scholarships and the donation of the MA60.

China has assisted in the construction of Nuku’alofa and St George Palace and will be assisting with the preparation for the 2019 Pacific Games and other key areas.

The Chinese Vice Chairman was accompanied a fifteen-member delegation from the People’s Republic of China.

Hon. Pohiva, hosted a dinner on behalf of the Government of Tonga at the Tanoa International Dateline Hotel on Tuesday.

On Wednesday 18th of January 2017, a bilateral meeting between the Prime Minister and the Vice Chairman of the SCNPC was held at the Fā‘onelua Convention Centre.

The Vice Chairman and his delegation will depart Tonga today.

Tonga and World Rugby to support ‘Atelea ‘Okati’s family

Tonga Rugby Union (TRU) along with World Rugby were organising supports for the  family of Tonga’s late rugby sevens captain who was killed in a crash December 28.

Atelea ‘Ōkati, 29, died in the Veitongo crash along with another passenger.

TRU Chair Fe’ao Vunipola has confirmed the assistance  to Kaniva News today and said the details of what they would offer to help ‘Okati’s four children and wife will be released soon once they were confirmed.

Okati most recently captained Tonga at the Oceania Sevens tournament in Fiji in November last year.

World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper took to Twitter to express his reaction to the news of Okati’s death.

“All at World Rugby shocked by news of Tonga 7s captain Atelea Okati’s tragic death,” Gosper tweeted.

“Okati played for Sydney Premier Rugby Shute Shield side Penrith in the 15-man game before heading to Romania to take up a role with CSM Olyimpia Bucharest.

“Okati helped the team claim third place in the 2015 Super CEC Bank season and played with the side up until leaving in July 2016”.

READ MORE

Two killed in Veitongo collision this morning