The Latest Breaking News from Tonga

(Corrects word in headline, paragraph 4 to fix timeline.)

The Kingdom of Tonga exploded into global news on January 15 last year with one of the most spectacular and violent volcanic eruptions ever seen.

In 1989, distinguished Australian geographer Gerard Ward wrote that the Pacific was emptying out. As people on smaller islands left to seek opportunity elsewhere, the region risked becoming Earth’s empty quarter. He wrote:

China said it held a video meeting to discuss police cooperation with several Pacific island nations on Tuesday, with at least two nations telling Reuters their ministers and police commissioners were unavailable to attend.

A deadly volcanic eruption near Tonga in January was the largest ever recorded with modern equipment, a New Zealand-led team of scientists revealed Monday. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted underwater with a force equivalent to hundreds of atomic bombs, unleashing a 15-meter (50-foot) tsunami which demolished homes and killed…

WELLINGTON: A deadly volcanic eruption near Tonga in January was the largest ever recorded with modern equipment, a New Zealand-led team of scientists said on Monday.

A team of scientists — with the help of an uncrewed boat remotely controlled from the UK – join forces to produce one of the clearest pictures to date of what took place underneath the water as an enormous volcano erupted near the Tongan mainland.

Less than a year ago, Tonga was the unranked underdog of world netball. Now they're a top 10 team with a World Cup on the horizon.

The huge earthquake rocked the sea around 130 miles south-east of Tonga and tsunami warnings have been issued for American Samoa and surrounding regions