China

The protocol was signed by China's Ambassador to Tonga, .E. Huang Huaguang and the Minister for Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Fisheries, Semisi Fakahau at the MAFFF headquarter.

Radio Tonga reports the Tonga Government has requested financial help for a major construction project at Tonga High School.

The work was to include sports fields, dormitories and a swimming pool.

China has developed a growing influence in the Pacific over recent years and this month Russia sent nearly US$9 million worth of weapons to Fiji with the negotiations for a second shipment underway.

However the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Russel, said all countries could operate in the region effectively.

The dramatic attempted rescue was captured on a surveillance camera in Chongwen Square in the Hubei Province, China.

Feng Ning, a 23-year-old army veteran can be seen in the black-and-white footage rushing into the street, his arms outstretched as a group of passers-by watch on.

Beijing's Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection warned that severe pollution would cloak the Chinese capital for several days, starting Tuesday morning.

According to the US Embassy in Beijing, the air quality index stood at 250, classed as "very unhealthy" and 10 times higher than World Health Organization recommended levels.

“Singles Day” is a one-day online sale hosted every year on November 11 by China’s e-commerce giant, Alibaba. And despite a recent slowdown in their economy, Chinese shoppers handed over $20 billion (91 billion Chinese yuan) in only 24 hours at this year’s event.

That’s 60 per cent more than they spent last year. The cumulative national bill for the day-long commercial orgy overnight dwarfed Americans’ online spending over the five-day frenzy from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday last year.

The research, published in The Lancet medical journal, says two-thirds of men in China now start to smoke before 20.

Around half of those men will die from the habit, it concludes.

The scientists conducted two nationwide studies, 15 years apart, covering hundreds of thousands of people.

The Office of Insular Affairs is accepting applications for 2016 technical assistance which will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis until funds are exhausted.

Assistant Secretary Esther Kia'aina says the island communities continue to face extreme climate events, including typhoons and hurricanes, storm surges, high winds and king tides.

Ms Kia'aina says the areas are also feeling the effects of slow, progressive climate-induced stresses, such as sea level rise, ocean acidification, coral bleaching and saline intrusion into water systems.

But when Prince William did, he urged them both to add their political muscle and influence to the ongoing fight against illegal wildlife trade.

And both world leaders must have felt William's passion for the cause as President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping have issued a joint statement on their countries' aims to combat wildlife trafficking.

This comes amid a stalemate in mediation talks that followed protests last month by truck drivers over the government's policy to not approve exports of low grade ore to China after a decline in exports to Australia.

The drivers were aligned with small miners and the territory's veteran miner SLN who opposed the stance on the issue by the government's leading party, Caledonia Together.

France TV in New Caledonia reports that six of the eleven members of the collegial government have voted in favor of a special session of Congress on the subject of exports to China.