Tonga

Tonga police arrested the suspect at 3am today.

The 27 year old victim’s body was found near the road at Fatai.

Police launched an investigation last night after it received a report from Vaiola Hospital that the victim had died.

The victim had stab wounds on his body and died in hospital upon arrival.

“Information received by Police so far indicates that the suspect and the deceased were drinking alcohol at a place in Te’ekiu,” Police Acting Chief Superintendent Tēvita Vailea said.

Police Investigation continues.

John McCaffery said the family believed the outbreak of dengue was serious and that New Zealand should offer its help.

Kaniva News reports McCaffery is an uncle of Telefoni, who died in Vaiola hospital on 24 January.

“Tonga apparently  still has no laboratory facilities to do the required blood tests for dengue especially the close monitoring needed to know if the virus is going to advance to the critical life threatening stage,” McCafferey said.

The claims were made by the former Member of Parliament for the Niuas, Lepolo Taunisila.

Taunisila made the claims on Facebook based on an account of the incident she received from her brother, who travelled on the vessels from Niua to Tongatapu.

Taunisila said heavy rain fell while the vessel was loading and passengers were told to climb and enter through a side door as the main entrance could not be opened because of the severe weather.

Passengers had to be loaded into small boats before they were transferred to the vessel, which was heaving in the open sea.

Police arrested the man from a bush allotment in Tatakamotonga at around 2.00pm Thursday.

He has been charged with housebreaking and theft and was remanded in Police custody to appear at the Nuku’alofa Magistrate Court, Police said.

As Kaniva News reported, a CCT video which captured the incident was released to Police and social media after more than TP$10,000 went missing from the Fatafehi road office.

A search of the place where the suspect was arrested from found clothes which match those worn by the person who appeared in the security footage.

Court document says in August 2016 Hekisou Fifita, 48, was taken by the security guard out of the Nauti bar in Ma’ufanga.

When he got outside Fifita elbowed the security, who was also the complainant, in the chest. The· complainant pushed him away.

The complainant went back into the bar and the accused went to his car in the parking area.

Kaniva News reports Fifita returned with a .22 rifle seeking the complainant.

Tonga was selected to be one of the 51 countries to receive the trophy along with Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea during the 2018 World Cup Trophy Tour sponsored by Coca-Cola.

The Deputy Prime Minister Semisi Sika said, “Today marks a historic moment for Tonga as it is the first time in the history of football for the FIFA World Cup trophy to visit our shores.”

As Kaniva News reported on Monday, Telefoni died of what health authorities described as “dengue shock syndrome.”

Her mother, ‘Alavina Telefoni, found it hard to see her cousins and relatives who were
waiting at the airport for her and her dead daughter.

She hugged and kissed some of them in a moment some described on Facebook as
“lo’imata’ia” (full of tears).

Toafei’s body was taken to the Anns Funeral Home and Onsite Cremations in Wiri, Manukau city.

Interplast has been sending teams annually to counter the tens of millions of people in the Asia/Pacific who do not have access to surgery.

In Tonga, a lack of medical resources and limited training means people with repairable conditions are not getting the care they need.

The surgeons will deal with patients who have conditions such as cleft lip and palate, burns scarring, hand injuries or tumours.

The Interplast team will be in Tonga in the last week of February and is encouraging appointments to be made at Vaiola Hospital.

The Ministry also says it has never promised to establish a dialysis unit in the kingdom.

Speaking to Kaniva News, Dr Sione Latu said the claims of 60 deaths were an exaggeration.

He said the last clinical audit in 2016 showed 38 cases who would be on dialysis if they were overseas, of whom five subsequently died. This was in line with world statistics.

Dr Latu was responding to claims reported in the New Zealand media from a Tongan man who was admitted to Middlemore Hospital two days after he arrived in the country with end-stage kidney failure.

This week the prime minister 'Akilisi Pohiva accused unnamed senior officials of being corrupt and said many were slowing the implementation of policy and causing the government to be dysfunctional.

The PSA's Mele 'Amanaki said the claims were general and unfounded.

"The accusation is very serious and very general also, but given the seriousness of the accusations it is unfounded and needs evidence to back up his comments."

She also said the government had provided nothing in writing to plan out the next few years and the same thing occurred during its last term.