Results for United States

Two convicted murderers in California, Tevita Kaihea (22) and Charlie Hola (22), were handed large prison sentences by a court in Sacramento yesterday 27 August. Kaihea received a prison sentence of 112 years to life whilst Hola received 48 years to life.

American, Dean Jay Fletcher (54) who is wanted in Tonga on the charge of brutally murdering his wife in July 2016 has been ordered released in Hawaii, after the United States District Court on November 1 ordered the dismissal of his extradition. The Tonga Government sought Fletcher's extraditon for the offenses of murder, manslughter, and inflicting grievous bodily harm. However, the US Secretary of State had "determined that Fletcher could not be guaranteed a fair trial in Tonga" because he did not have funds to defend himself.

This weekend, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, from an overlooking hotel, killing at least 59 people and injuring more than 500 others. Paddock, a 64-year-old former accountant with no criminal record, was ultimately found in his hotel room, dead, with some 23 guns, including more than ten assault weapons. Police later found an additional 19 firearms, explosives, and several thousands of rounds of ammunition in Paddock’s home. What the authorities have not yet found, however, is a motive.

Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, the United States took another major step toward establishing itself as a rogue state on June 1, when it withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. For years, Trump has indulged the strange conspiracy theory that, as he put it in 2012, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” But this was not the reason Trump advanced for withdrawing the US from the Paris accord. Rather, the agreement, he alleged, was bad for the US and implicitly unfair to it. - Joseph E. Stiglitz.

A group of 22 United States Peace Corps volunteers were sworn-in today Thursday, November 3, at the Tanoa International Dateline Hotel before they take up assignments teaching English in rural village schools in Tongatapu and the outer islands. U.S Ambassador to Tonga Judith Cefkin said that next year marks the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps in Tonga.

A multinational task group of soldiers from Tonga, New Zealand, China, Australia and the United States are working on projects to improve water storage and sanitation in Tonga as part of Exercise Tropic Twilight 2016, a humanitarian activity focused on disaster relief operations.

New rainwater catchment systems and rehabilitated cement tanks were unveiled at Tefisi, Vava'u, on Wednesday 25 May, in a project funded by USAID.

The Republic of Kiribati and the United States have signed a boundary treaty delimiting the waters between their two countries.

Kurt Campbell, the US Assistant Secretary of State for the East Asian and Pacific Affairs, arrives in Tonga on August 1, the first stop of a tour that includes six other Pacific Island countries.