Tonga’s High Commissioner to Australia, Princess Angelika Latufuipeka Tuku’aho is looking for creative artwork or photos and stories that symbolise and celebrate Tonga's 50 years relationship with Australia - and three cash prizes are offered for the top submissions.
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Results for Pacific Islands
Thursday 3 September 2020
Canberra, Australia
Wednesday 2 September 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Two flights arriving in Tonga today repatriated around 56 passengers from Nadi, Fiji. Seven more passengers arrived from Tarawa, Kiribati, with the repatriation of a deceased person. A third flight arrived today from Tahiti for a fuel stop.
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Tuesday 1 September 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
The village of Felemea, Ha’apai needs clean drinking water, and the challenge to find a solution has been taken up by a group of four student engineers from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, as their team design project. The idea for the project came from Siale Faitotonu a technician at the University.
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Monday 31 August 2020
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Honiara, Solomon Islands
Solomon Airlines has today released details of the repatriation flight to Vanuatu, Tonga and Australia on Saturday September 5. It will also be the first repatriation flight from Tonga to Australia via the Brisbane Gateway and an opportunity for foreign nationals in Tonga to return to their home countries.
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Monday 31 August 2020
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Bay of Islands, New Zealand
A fleet of boats have been gifted to the Vava’u Blue Water School in Neiafu, for Tongan youth to learn how to sail. The Vava'u community is fundraising to ship the boats from New Zealand to Vava'u.
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Monday 31 August 2020
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Wellington, New Zealand
Five more Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) buoys have been deployed to provide ongoing tsunami monitoring and detection information for New Zealand and Pacific countries, including Tonga.
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Thursday 27 August 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Seven countries including Tonga have ratified the PACER-Plus agreement which will come into effect 60 days after the eighth country ratifies it.
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Thursday 27 August 2020
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Wellington, New Zealand
New Zealand is increasing its chances of securing access to a CoViD-19 vaccine when it becomes available, after announcing millions of dollars to support domestic and international vaccine efforts. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is also ensuring Pacific Island countries are supported.
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Saturday 15 August 2020
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
The beach and lagoon at Houmale‘eia on the north end of Foa Island in Ha‘apai is a spectacular place. Now home to Matafonua Lodge, its ancient history came vividly to life in 2008 when Australian visitors inadvertently discovered a kaleidoscope of images carved into a beach rock surface. Human feet, triangular bodied people, lizards, dogs, turtles and other representations hinted astoundingly at a Hawaiian connection. By Shane Egan and David Burley.
Thursday 13 August 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Several hundred Tongan nationals who are stranded in distant countries, include a small cluster of surgical patients and their carers, who became stuck in India when Tonga's border closed on March 23. The Ministry of Health wants them to be repatriated but CEO Dr Siale 'Akau'ola voiced his extreme frustration today that he can find no viable pathway home for these patients, without stronger collaboration in the region.
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Thursday 13 August 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A two-day consultation in Tonga, looking at key trends and uncertainties that may drive change in the Pacific region’s future such as climate change, CoViD-19, and technology, was opened by Prime Minister Hon Dr Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa today, 13 August, at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre in Nuku'alofa.
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Wednesday 12 August 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Major economic and social impacts of CoViD-19 on the Pacific was the focus of the Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM) over the last two days, 11-12 August.
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Monday 10 August 2020
Wellington, New Zealand
New Zealand and the Cook Islands are moving closer to the establishment of a travel bubble, to recommence quarantine-free travel between the two countries before the end of the year, and as soon as it can be safely achieved.
Monday 10 August 2020
Auckland, New Zealand
A new tropical cyclone outlook model will generate much earlier predictions for the number of tropical cyclones than current models used in Pacific Island countries, says the University of Newcastle in Australia. According to its current predictions, Tonga should expect one or two cyclones for the upcoming cyclone season (December – April).
Friday 7 August 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A Pacific Unite: Saving Lives Together, is the first televised and digitally streamed concert by the United Nations to call on leaders and citizens across the region to work together with the rest of the world in the fight against COVID-19. Tonga's massed Tupou College Choir and Mia Kami will perform. It premiers on August 15 on Television Tonga and other broadcasters around the region.
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Tuesday 4 August 2020
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Auckland, New Zealand
The New Zealand Pacific Business Council will hold a free webinar tomorrow, Wednesday 5 August, to hear from a diverse range of speakers who will provide their views on the prioritisation of a Pacific Bubble.
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Monday 3 August 2020
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Suva, Fiji
The difficult issue of how to safely reopen national entry points in six Pacific Islands countries, including Tonga, was discussed today in a second virtual roundtable meeting, convened by the United Nations and Asian Development Bank, as COVID-19 continues to cause wide-spread movement restrictions.
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Thursday 30 July 2020
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Ko e ongo Talatupu‘a ‘o fekau‘aki pea mo e hala fononga ‘o ‘Aho‘eitu, ko e ‘uluaki Tu‘i Tonga ‘i he 950BC. Ko e konga ‘uluaki ‘eni ‘o e ngaahi fakamatala ne mau to‘o mai meihe fakatotolo na‘e fai ‘e Rev. Dr Siotame Havea pea pulusi he 2015 ‘i he tohi ko e – Tonga: Fonua ‘a Kainga.
Saturday 25 July 2020
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
This week a World Trade Organisation Negotiating Group said they were ready to start new discussions on a multilateral agreement to curb fisheries subsidies. But while the WTO is pushing for an outcome by the end of the year, it remains an issue that small Pacific Islands states such as Tonga still have to fully address.
Friday 24 July 2020
Gainesville-Florida, USA
A large fruit-eating bird from Tonga joins the dodo in the line-up of giant island pigeons hunted to extinction. New research into fossils shows that ‘Tongoenas burleyi’, a newly described genus and species, inhabited the Pacific islands for at least 60,000 years, but vanished within a century or two of human arrival around 2,850 years ago. The size of a large duck, ‘T. burleyi’ was likely capable of swallowing fruit as big as a tennis ball, said study lead author David Steadman.
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