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The King of Tonga died yesterday in a New Zealand hospital.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/m...xml=/news/2006/09/11/wtonga11.xml

Tonga king dies after 40-year reign

By Nick Squires in Sydney

(Filed: 11/09/2006)

Tonga's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, a towering figure in the tiny Pacific Island nation for four decades, died yesterday in a New Zealand hospital, according to media reports. It ends one of the world's longest reigns by a monarch in modern times.

His death at the age of 88 came at the end of a long but unspecified illness in a hospital where the king had spent several months, and will plunge the remote archipelago into a mourning period expected to last for months.

Media reports in New Zealand and Tonga said the king died shortly before midnight on Sunday and the nation's Lord Chamberlain was expected formally to announce his death.

The end of Tupou IV's reign is likely to fuel a push for more democracy in the near-feudal kingdom, the only onle left in the South Pacific. The royal family has ruled since tribal groups on more than 170 Polynesian islands united in 1845.

Tupou IV benefited from a historical reverence for the monarchy, which has waned in recent years as some members of the royal family enriched themselves, while the king himself fell prey to scam artists and oversaw bad economic decisions. Thousands rallied last year calling for constitutional reform to curb the royals' power.

Crown Prince Tupouto'a, 57, is expected to be named the new king.

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