Results for Tonga

Tonga can better fight its NCD crisis by removing tax on chicken meat and putting new tax on local tobacco, while ensuring stronger price control, monitoring, and enforcement, a new World Bank study recommends.

Prosecutions for illicit drugs in Tonga may be in jeopardy, a judge has warned, after discharging a man charged with possession of methamphetamine, due to the prosecution's failure to admit analyst evidence, at the Supreme Court in Nuku'alofa on August 29. Hon. Mr Justice Cato said new legislation is urgently required in Tonga regarding analyst evidence of drug identity or there will be serious consequences for law enforcement and the health of Tongans.

Over 20% of smokers in Tonga have shifted to consuming the local hand-rolled tobacco, tapaka Tonga, because it is not taxed and cheaper, following a tax increase on manufactured cigarettes, according to a new study by the World Bank.

Pouono ‘Aisake (28) appeared at the Fasi Magistrate’s Court on Monday, September 3 on charges related to injuring a Senior Police Constable with a machete last month.

A commitment to promote trade and entrepreneurship between Tonga and New Zealand was formalised when the New Zealand Tonga Business Council (NZTBC) and Tonga’s Ministry of Commerce, Consumer, Trade, Innovation and Labour signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the residence of the New Zealand High Commissioner in Nuku’alofa on 29 August.

Tonga's Prime Minister, Hon ‘Akilisi Pohiva is leading Tonga’s delegation to the 49th Pacific Islands Forum Meeting held in Nauru from September 3-6.

Five male students have been charged with disturbance in relation to a school brawl that broke out at the bus station in Nuku’alofa on Wednesday, August 29.

The President and Convenor of a Pacific China Friendship Association visited Tonga on August 27, ahead of its second conference in Hainan in November this year.

Some 30 cylinders of a banned refrigerant R22 Hyrochlorofluorocarbon HCFC that were seized by Tongan Customs at Queen Salote Wharf in September 2013 are still under the care of the Customs Department.