Results for Tonga

As the Pacific Islands consider ways to build back economies severely struck by the CoViD-19 crisis, the environmental impacts faced worldwide highlight the opportunity we now have in our hands to build back a ‘Bluer Pacific’, said Kosi Latu, Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) on World Environment Day.

A three-year-old girl died on May 27 when she was accidentally run over by a reversing vehicle at her home in Niutoua. The child from New Zealand had come to Tonga with a grandparent and was waiting for the border to reopen to return home.

A 28-year-old man who pleaded guilty to seriously injuring his brother when he hit him with a machete, suffers from mental illness. He was ordered by the Supreme Court to be involuntarily admitted to the Vaiola Hospital Psychiatric Unit, instead of being sentenced.

Statistics show a major decrease in international visitors to Tonga between January to March, in comparison to 2019, as CoViD-19 started to spread worldwide and in the months before Tonga closed its border.

A 38-year-old man was arrested with 26.76 grams of methamphetamine at his home in Fo’ui on May 26.

Two 16-year-olds who pleaded guilty to carnal knowledge of a young girl under the age of 15 years and simple indecent assault received non-custodial sentences, at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court on May 29. “In the ordinary case, a custodial sentence would be warranted in order to reflect the Court's denunciation of this alarmingly prevalent type of offending, to protect young girls in society and effect adequate deterrence,” the Lord Chief Justice said.

The refusal by Government to reveal the identities of three companies that had won $12 million pa’anga worth of road construction contracts, to construct 2100 kilometres of tar-sealed roads throughout Tonga, has snarled the Budget debate in the Tongan parliament for three days 26-28 May.

Sinela Fifita (45) who was convicted of stabbing Neiafutahi Bloomfield multiple times at Fatai five-years ago, received a fully suspended sentence at the Supreme Court.

Australia has committed a further AUD 2.9 million for new renewable energy infrastructure in Tonga. This will include upgrading Vava'u's power network.