Tonga

Ragigia Dawai, Digicel Tonga Marketing Manager, said; “We are delighted to introduce the popular E! Channel for our Digicel TV customers who will now be able to have an insight on the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. This will provide our Digicel TV customers viewer enjoyment via top-quality and up-to-the-minute Hollywood entertainment.”

“Hollywood celebrity content is hugely popular and with the launch of E! Channel, we are thrilled to be able to now offer our customers the single, definitive source for news and information on Hollywood entertainment and celebrity.”

The two-day forum is designed to allow Pacific resource owners and Waikato-Tainui to establish business links.

The forum, organised by the Pacific Cooperation Foundation will be held at the Waikato-Tainui College for Research and Development on June 26 – 27.

Representatives from Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea will also attend.

The event is being held jointly by the PCF and Te Ohu Whai Ao, an indigenous business development trust set up by Māori business leaders.

Meet the Athlete is a series by Pacific Media Network - hearing from some of the athletes heading to the Games in Samoa.

Born in New Zealand and raised by a single mother, along with four other siblings, Sione Maama worked his way towards representing Tonga, using lessons learnt from the struggles and determination of his mother.

"As you grow older, you begin to appreciate how hard she worked and how much she had to go through so that we were raised right."

The "Give Every Child a Future" project is the major international focus of civil society group Rotary as it celebrates 100 years of service in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific.

Rotary will partner with the United Nations children's agency UNICEF to support the introduction of three vaccines in the region.

Vathinee Jitjaturunt of UNICEF Pacific said the vaccines targeted three diseases.

"This project I think it will be able to prevent diarrhoea, pneumonia and cervical cancer. These three diseases are high in the Pacific."

Pacific Sunrise Fishing Brisbane started the business to offer high-quality fish from the kingdom to customers in both Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

Kaniva News reports the business is owned and operated by Tongan entrepreneur, Kristian Palu.

The supply came from Pacific Sunrise Fishing Tonga which is operated by Eddie and Rosemarie Palu at Tu‘imatamoana Wharf in Nuku‘alofa. The Tongan supplier has been supplying the Kingdom and other countries, including the USA, Japan and New Zealand for over 14 years.

A two-day meeting in Nuku'alofa last week followed earlier consultations in March this year, and police say it's clear there is a need for a significant shift from a previous reactive approach towards more prevention and rehabilitation.

Police Superintendent Ashley Fua spoke to RNZI after the meeting about the new National Policy on Illicit Drugs and how the police approach is likely to change.

Fua said the Forum Secretariat provided the technical assistance for the consultation and drafting of the policy.

The Kiwis' more accomplished spine dominated the contest on Saturday, much to the disappointment of a bumper crowd predominantly there to support Tonga and hope they could repeat their World Cup boilover of 18 months earlier.

Instead, the home side were too clinical, conjuring six tries to three in a disciplined display which featured an attacking ruthlessness their opponents couldn't match.

Johnson was the spearhead, crossing twice with carbon-copy tries in the 10 minutes before halftime to put his team 16-4 ahead, then adding a third soon after the second-half restart.

RLIF CEO Nigel Wood confirmed on the eve of Saturday’s opening round of Oceania Cup matches between New Zealand and Tonga at Mt Smart Stadium and Samoa and Papua New Guinea at Leichhardt Oval that the international body wanted to play games in the Pacific islands.

An RLIF meeting in Singapore earlier this month agreed that the Oceania Cup would be staged mid-year and at the end of the season on an annual basis, except in 2021 and 2025 when the World Cup is held.

According to the monthly economic review released by the National Reserve Bank of Tonga, agricultural export volumes increased by 330.4 tonnes, more than double the volume in March.

Yams made up majority of the exports with 270.6 tonnes.

Fish exports averaged around 188 tonnes per month since the beginning of 2019 compared to an averare of 67.2 tonnes for the same period in 2018.

Majority of the fish exported are tuna with a total of 164 tonnes exported in April 2019.

There has also been a 97% increase in the export of aquarium products.

The director of the Mental Health Unit and head psychiatrist, Mapa Puloka, made the comments at a recent workshop.

Dr Puloka said most of those who came to the hospital for help were put into the Mental Health Ward, but staff said ineffective services meant many were not properly cared for.

There were almost weekly arrests of drug dealers, especially for methamphetamine or marijuana offences, and among them are senior Customs officials, who have been instrumental in "clearing" container shipments of drugs coming into Tonga from overseas, Dr Puloka said.