Tonga

The connections failed nearly a week ago, largely shutting down phone and internet access throughout the country.

Some service has now been restored through the use of a satellite but capacity is limited.

Director Paula Piukala said one of the breaks is 7.7 kilometres from the landing station on Tonga's main island, Tongatapu, and the other is about 11.1 kilometres offshore.

One of the cables is a reconnection to Vava'u and the other northern Tonga islands.

The FEC Act 2018 applies to foreign exchange transactions after November 1, 2018.

The Reserve Bank said the Act authorised it to manage the country’s foreign exchange and was not intended to violate anybody’s Constitutional right to their property or money in Tonga.

However, it said that if somebody chose to convert, transfer or dispose of their property or money in exchange for foreign currency, they would forfeit that right and would be to the exchange control directive issued under the Act. 

The series resumes on Saturday after an extended seven week break over the Christmas and New Year period.

Fiji are not taking recent form for granted as they attempt to defend their Hamilton title.

They defeated reigning series champions South Africa and current leaders the United States en-route to the Cape Town title last year, to climb to third in the overall standings.

Despite winning the inaugural Hamilton event last year, coach Gareth Baber says Fiji have no right to be complacent.

Tonga's submarine cable to Fiji was severed on Sunday night, meaning there were no phone or internet services for several days.

Satellites links have since been provided but the bandwidth is no where near what Tonga needs.

The deputy chief executive of Tonga Communications Corporation, Sione Veikoso, said the company is now providing extra capacity.

"So as we speak we are going to increase our voice capacity and internet capacity by an extra 25 megabits per second and then there will be another increase between the next two days with about 100 megabits per second."

Mr Morrison’s appointment was announced by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Marise Payne in a statement today.

“Australia and Tonga enjoy a warm and productive relationship,” Sen Payne said.

When the Tonga Cable outage began on Sunday morning it took out cell phone and internet coverage.

The sole connection available is a satellite service provided by Kacific through EziNet.

Photo file UN 

New prices were approved by the Tonga Competent Authority.

“Overall there is large drop in all product prices this month, a great news to all Consumers,” said Ministry of Commerce, Consumer, Trade, Innovation & Labour Chief Executive Officer, Edgar Cocker.

The wholesale price for petrol, kerosene and diesel has decreased by 14.26 seniti/litre, 19.14 seniti/litre and 20.58 seniti/litre respectively.

Retail prices for petrol, kerosene and diesel for Tongatapu only are 242.78seniti/litre, 181.91seniti/litre and 260.41seniti/litre respectively.

Sitiveni ‘Esi Muli, 17, was found guilty of the murder of Feng Sheng Pei and his wife Su Jie Wen.

A seven-member jury found Muli guilty on two counts of murder and one count of armed robbery on Thursday.

Kaniva News reports the jury took about less than an hour to reach its verdict.

The court previously heard how a disagreement over a payment led to Muli attacking Feng before he attacked Su.

The couple’s bodies were found with multiple stab wounds on their heads and necks at their vegetable plantation.

The Pacific Medicines Testing Programme assures the safety of medicines in the region and provides participating countries with the opportunity to have up to five medicines tested per year, at no cost, in Australia’s world-class TGA testing facilities.

Other participating countries include Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The first medicine tested from Tonga was a batch of insulin which had to be moved following Cyclone Gita.

Tonga Chief Executive Officer Agriculture, Dr Viliami Manu said Fiji is implementing an international policy that will prohibit powder items that exceed 350 grams per passenger including Tongan kava.

Manu said many passengers traveling via Fiji have been disappointed because the Tongan kava they had packed was destroyed as the packages exceeded the permitted amount.

International policies include the restricted number of liquid items allowed per passenger.

Photo file. Caption:Tongan kava