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King Mswati III of Swaziland, Africa’s last absolute monarch and ruler of some of the poorest people in the world, has sent his favourite wives on a multimillion-pound shopping jaunt through Europe, the Middle East and Asia, provoking fierce criticism of his profligacy. Britain has been drawn into the row because of the millions of pounds in aid reportedly given to the kingdom, with campaigners accusing Whitehall of double standards. “They shout about Zimbabwe, but keep quiet about what is happening in Swaziland, even though they are one of its biggest aid donors. They are wasting British taxpayers’ money on...

BANGKOK, Thailand - A Russian dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for allegedly supplying weapons to Africa's bloody conflicts over power and diamonds was arrested Thursday in Thailand on suspicion of conspiring to smuggle guns to Colombia's leftist rebels. Viktor Bout, 41, whose dealings reportedly inspired a 2005 movie about the illicit arms trade, was arrested at U.S. request in his hotel room in Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan. Bout had eluded arrest for years and was finally seized after a four-month sting organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In New York, federal authorities unsealed a criminal complaint...

LUDZIDZINI, Swaziland — Once upon a time, a young and handsome king ruled over a land of mountainous splendor near the southern tip of Africa. He liked to get married, and as the years passed he took 13 wives, each of them a great beauty. His countrymen wanted His Majesty to be happy, but some also thought so many spouses were an extravagance for a poor, tiny nation. After all, the king, Mswati III, often provided these wives a retinue, a palace and a new BMW. A great event was soon forthcoming — on Saturday, in fact. To prepare for...

Phindile Nkambule, 17, was revealed to the public when she took part in a traditional Reed Dance ceremony, in which girls perform before the king. The announcement comes just weeks after Mswati III ended an official ban on sex for women under 18. The ban was aimed at curbing the spread of HIV/Aids. According to custom, King Mswati, 37, will marry Phindile Nkambule once she becomes pregnant. She is reported to have caught the king's eye during the main annual Reed Dance in late August, when tens of thousands of bare-breasted girls took part in a traditional rite of Spring.

THE king of Swaziland has picked a teenage student to be his 13th bride less than a month after more than 50,000 bare-breasted virgins vied to catch his eye at the annual Reed Dance ceremony. King Mswati III, who is 37, presented 17-year-old Phindile Nkambule as his new wife-to-be at a traditional ceremony, where she appeared topless but donned the red feathers worn only by royalty for the first time. Women's groups and political opponents said King Mswati's penchant for multiple young brides ill befits a country with the world's highest rate of HIV/AIDS, but the monarch said polygamy is...

EZULWINI VALLEY, Swaziland (Reuters) -- The king of Swaziland's daughter was whipped by a palace official at a party of teenage virgins ahead of a festival where more than 50,000 maidens are available to become her father's 13th wife, media said on Sunday. Princess Sikhanyiso, 17, told the Times of Swaziland a palace official whipped girls, including beauty queen Miss Swaziland, at the party as a punishment after they refused to turn down the music. She was pictured showing her bruises. Thousands of bare-breasted virgins will dance for Africa's last absolute monarch in Monday's Reed Dance ceremony, which King Mswati...

Swaziland's King Mswati III, who imposed a five-year sex ban on the kingdom's teenage girls, has dropped it a year early. The girls have had to wear large woolen tassels as a sign of their chastity since 2001. The sex ban was imposed to fight the spread of HIV/Aids. Swaziland has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates, at almost 40 percent of the population. The king meanwhile fined himself a cow for breaking the ban by marrying again, a 17-year-old who became his ninth wife. (UPI)

Will this be the first country to die from Aids? By David Blair in Matsanjeni (Filed: 04/06/2005) A dirt floor and the stinging odour of wood smoke were Margaret Zwane's only companions when she died inside a tumbledown mud hut in rural Swaziland. She never left her children to seek hospital treatment and, until a few days before Aids dragged the life from her, this emaciated mother was struggling to work the fields with a hoe. One in eight Swazis will be Aids orphans in five years When Mrs Zwane succumbed, her daughter and two sons became orphans, for Aids...

King buys golden car fleet with 'purses of the poor' By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg (Filed: 18/04/2005) King Mswati III of Swaziland has enraged the people of his impoverished kingdom once again by splashing out on a fleet of luxurious German cars at a cost of £500,000. The 36-year-old absolute monarch, under pressure at home and abroad over his autocratic rule and personal profligacy, has bought eight S-350 Mercedes Benz vehicles with gold-plated number plates. In 2004 the King bought BMWs for his 11 wives "He was so taken with the car when he saw it in a brochure that...

Ali KhameneiGuide of the Islamic Republic   Journalists live with the permanent threat of being imprisoned and tried without good reason. Photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was murdered in prison in July 2003. A total of 43 journalists were jailed in 2003, making Iran the Middle East's biggest prison for journalists.           Predators:There are instigators and powerful people behind press freedom violations whose responsibility is not always apparent. Whether presidents, ministers, chiefs of staff, religious leaders or the heads of armed groups, these predators of press freedom have the power to censor, imprison, kidnap, torture and, in the worst cases, murder journalists....

Swaziland's King Mswati III has bought 10 new BMW series 5 cars for his wives. Swaziland's media reports that it has cost him $820,000. The 36-year-old king frequently hits the headlines with stories about his lavish lifestyle. Two months ago, Africa's only remaining absolute monarch was criticised for buying himself a $500,000 luxury car. Swaziland has one of the world's highest Aids rates and about a third of his subjects rely on food aid handouts. "This is basically an upgrade of the ones they have been using," a royal official told the Swazi Times The Maybach car, which the king...

Mbabane - Swaziland's King Mswati III has picked a 17-year-old schoolgirl as his new fiancée and she will be introduced to the public as his 13th bride-to-be once she passes an HIV test, said royal sources on Monday. Less than five months after picking 16-year-old Nothando Dube as his 12th bride-to-be, the 36-year-old Mswati has now chosen Colile Nosiphe Magagula, known as Titi, as his next fiancée. She will be "unveiled" once she passes an HIV test and once she gets royal blessings from the Queen Mother Ntombi Thwala of Swaziland, where close to 40% of the population is living...

Mbabane - Swaziland's King Mswati III has picked a 17-year-old schoolgirl as his new fiancée and she will be introduced to the public as his 13th bride-to-be once she passes an HIV test, said royal sources on Monday. Less than five months after picking 16-year-old Nothando Dube as his 12th bride-to-be, the 36-year-old Mswati has now chosen Colile Nosiphe Magagula, known as Titi, as his next fiancée. She will be "unveiled" once she passes an HIV test and once she gets royal blessings from the Queen Mother Ntombi Thwala of Swaziland, where close to 40% of the population is living...

King Mswati of Swaziland has chosen a 16-year-old beauty queen to be his 13th wife after the annual reed dance ritual in which 20,000 bare-breasted maidens perform in his honour, hoping to catch his eye. The maiden, a finalist in the Miss Teenage Swaziland competition, was whisked off for the much more modern routine of an Aids test - 40 per cent of the country's population are HIV positive - before being taken to the heavily protected seclusion of a royal guest house. The news was greeted without enthusiasm by most of the mountain kingdom's people, who are becoming increasingly...

Swazi King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, has picked a 16-year-old girl as his new wife, bringing to 12 the number of official spouses, sources in the royal household said yesterday. A source confirmed a report in the Times newspaper that said the teenager was a Miss Teen Swaziland finalist who took part in the annual reed dance last week when bare-breasted young women, who are supposed to be virgins, dance for the king. "Yes there is one lady that is currently kept at Prestige Guest House and we are not allowed to talk about the particulars of the...

King asks poor Swazis to pay for 11 palaces for wives Rory Carroll in Johannesburg Tuesday January 13, 2004 The Guardian (UK) He did not get a private jet, but King Mswati III has found another way to drain Swaziland's treasury: a palace for each of his 11 wives. Sub-saharan Africa's last absolute monarch has reportedly asked his government for £8m to redecorate three royal palaces and build 11 new ones - a big sum for a tiny country reeling from drought, food shortages and HIV/Aids. Most of the wives share a single palace and occupy guest houses, but before...

LUDZIDZINI ROYAL VILLAGE, Swaziland (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of bare-breasted young maidens danced in front of King Mswati on Friday -- many hoping to catch his eye and become his next wife. A record 50,000 young women staged Swaziland's annual "Reed Dance," taking part in a traditional ceremony now seen as an audition to join King Mswati's many wives. The 35-year-old king, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, now has 10 wives and one fiancee -- a royal luxury that has drawn criticism as his small southern African kingdom battles poverty and a raging AIDS (news - web sites)...

<p>Their father died in 1999, their mother in 2000, both of them from what social workers and village officials believe were complications from AIDS. Since then, Makhosazane Nkhambule, now 16 years old, has been caring for her four younger brothers and sisters in their one-room mud-brick shack.</p>

LOBAMBA – Home Affairs minister Prince Sobandla is spitting fire following what he claims are serious allegations to the effect that he and the Director of Sports and Culture Maswazi Shongwe bewitch the national team, Sihlangu. Speaking at a press conference held yesterday at the Somhlolo National Stadium where he had gone to inspect the stadium ahead of Sunday’s Castle Cup quarterfinal against Madagascar, an obviously angry Prince Sobandla attributed the allegation to the Football Association officials. He said so serious is the matter that the FA executive had to hire a private coach, CI Transport (Colisani Inhliziyo) to take...

MBABANE, Swaziland (AP) -- Reneging on a promise not to buy a $45 million jet for Swaziland's king, the government said Monday it would go ahead with the deal in defiance of criticism over lavish spending in a nation facing a food crisis. The cabinet had canceled its original plans for the jet after a storm of protest from foreign donors and the Swazi parliament, citing the country's economic problems. Criticism of King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, is rare in the royalist-dominated parliament of this mountainous, impoverished nation wedged between South Africa and Mozambique. The initial announcement that...

LUDZIDZINI – About 30 000 maidens yesterday arrived at Ludzidzini, in preparation for the Umhlanga Reed Dance that will be taking place on Friday and Saturday. Nqobile and Bethusile Magongo said the number of maidens registered proved to be more than those registered last year. The two including Indvuna Yembali yeMaswati, Lungile Ndlovu, have been registering the maidens since 9 a.m., when they started to arrive in their numbers but, by after lunch, more and more were still alighting from hired buses. There were over 30 000 maidens last year, when tassels were introduced, to be worn by the maidens...

Swaziland’s MPs demanded the resignation of their prime minister yesterday for plundering government development funds to buy a £29 million private jet for King Mswati, absolute monarch of the impoverished African mountain kingdom.Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini defended his decision, saying a personal jet was cheaper than “costly air charter” and essential for security “in these troubled times of international terrorism”.But he still faces a vote of no confidence for authorising the purchase of the Bombardier Global Express aircraft.“This is a ridiculous indulgence in luxury at a time when hundreds of thousands of Swazis are starving and the economy is close to...