Tonga

Mrs Lavulavu and her husband were arrested and charged with knowingly dealing with forged documents and three counts of obtaining credit by false pretences.

She was then dismissed by Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva after she refused to resign.

Ms Ma'asi is a former senior civil servant and CEO of the Ministry of Agriculture who unseated former finance minister, 'Aisake Eke, during last year's election.

Ms Ma'asi and Mrs Lavulavu were the only two women elected during the vote.

The group, understood to contain both foreign based and local Tongans, has launched an online fundraiser in an effort to raise capital so that they can promote their cause.

The campaigners said a united stance is needed against what they allege is government lawlessness and corruption.

They said they need finances for a campaign to gather support and inform people of the issues.

Countries ranked between ninth and 24th basing on the points accrued in the 2016-17 series and first seven rounds of 2018 in Dubai, Cape Town, Sydney, Hamilton, Las Vegas, Vancouver and Hong Kong will kick off their campaign in the pre-round of 16 stage.

A win for Shujaa will see them book a spot in the round of 16 where they have been scheduled to play Scotland. Victory there will hoist them into the Championship which will involve eight teams.

Kalafi Moala says the media environment in Tonga is at a low.

He said the current government was trying to control channels of public information.

Mr Moala gave the move of senior journalists out of the state broadcaster's newsroom as just one example of this.

He said the government also responded to criticism or probing questions by making statements to ridicule the media.

Last week Tonga dropped two places to 51 in the Reporters without Borders freedom rankings.

Mr Moala said it was not an accurate reflection of the country.

The Parramatta Eels centre confirmed he will feature in the Pacific Test against Samoa at Campbelltown on June 23.

Jennings played for both Australia and New South Wales Blues before pledging his allegiance to Tonga ahead of the World Cup last year and tied his colours to the mast on Wednesday.

"My focus now is Tonga," the 30-year-old said.

"I'd love to play Origin but I made the decision I wanted to stay after the World Cup.

The Australians were never troubled from the outset, collating points at more than a point per minute.

Matt McTaggart scored a superb first half hat trick - one of nine first term tries - as captain Tate McDermott and flyhalf Will Harrison ran rings around a Tongan side which provided very little resistance.

Up front, Harry Hoopert turned a Super Rugby debut into a dominant performance with both ball in hand and at scrum time, Trevor Hosea proved near unstoppable every time touched the ball and No. 8 Josh Kemeny was a workhorse around the park.

PCREEE was created as a gateway to promote greener and more efficient energy use in the Pacific as well as to be a platform for stronger partnerships between public and private sector leaders. In its first 12 months of operations, the Centre has made substantial progress and is already having a visible impact on energy use in the region.

The competition went ahead Friday, following a postponement a fortnight ago.

According to Tevita Tu’ifangaloka, coach of the ‘Atele Grade 5 rugby team, he prepared his team well for the competition.

‘Atele has not won a championship shield in a long time and the team is hoping to win this year.

 “’Atele always celebrate their anniversary but the team wanted to celebrate  winning a champion shield as well if they win this year,” said Mr. Tu’ifangaloka.

Tailulu College won their match against ‘Atele College with a score line of 13-8.

Australia won its first clash, against Fiji, 51-5 but Tonga was on the end of a big 97-0 defeat against New Zealand, something Arnold said they’d want to avenge.

“We expect them to be quite angry after the last result,” he said.

“For us, it's probably about getting better at the things we're trying to do and being aware that we're going to come up against a big angry Tongan team.”

Arnold said he was happy with how the backs functioned in their first 2018 outing, but there was still lots to work on.

Kaniva News reports Tonga is now listed as 51st out of 180 countries.

RSF said the re-election of Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva's party in 2017 was accompanied by growing tension between the government and journalists.

Mr Pohiva has had a tempestuous relationship with the kingdom's media and his constant clashes with the state-owned Tongan Broadcasting Commission have drawn particular attention.