Results for Tonga

Tonga's Official Public Holidays for next year 2016, were confirmed today by the Prime Minister's Office. Most of the holidays are observed on Mondays or Fridays, as shown (in Tongan and English):

The people of Tonga are advised to conserve water and prepare for warmer days and higher chance for tropical cyclone activity in the next three to six-months. There is drought in the two Niuas, while drought warnings have been issued for the remaining islands.

The implementation of the government’s controversial 1% Foreign Exchange Levy has been deferred again for a “few weeks”, stated the Minister of Finance, Hon. ‘Aisake Eke in a letter, dated 6 November, circulated to general managers of financial institutions in Nuku’alofa.

Two stepbrothers who made a “brutal and ruthless” attack on a market gardener at Longolongo last year, were each sentenced to seven-years nine-months imprisonment. Mr Justice Cato said the sentence "must reflect the need to protect the public from this kind of offending."

A Remembrance Sunday Service to remember the Tongan soldiers who served and fell on the battlefields of the First and the Second World Wars, was held yesterday, 8 November, at a new location at the front of the National Flag Station, Mala’e Pangai. Photos by Pesi Fonua

The solitary soldier atop Tonga’s Cenotaph was removed from Pangai Si'i on November 5 and crossed Taufa’ahau Road where, dangling from a crane and in the protective arms of a serviceman, he was lowered to a new position next to the National Flag Station - in time for Remembrance Sunday Service tomorrow November 8. Photos by Linny Folau and Peter Poulsen.

An application by Hon. ‘Etuate Lavulavu to add a counterclaim against Viliami Uasike Latu was dismissed by Lord Chief Justice O. G. Paulsen in the Nuku‘alofa Supreme Court on 16 October. The Chief Justice stated that Lavulavu's counterclaim was "both irrelevant and useless".

The Foreign Exchange Levy Act 2015 that was originally scheduled to be implemented on 21 October, finally came into force yesterday, November 3, allowing government to collect one seniti from the banks on every pa'anga sold or purchased in foreign exchange transactions.

Tonga’s initiative to open up a new export market for Tongan squash in China could lead to first shipments as early as next season (2016) – if the Chinese government is satisfied that Tonga’s produce does not present a “high risk” for food safety and biosecurity - and that means that Tonga's produce has to be clean to a high standard, throughout the growing, packing and export process.