About two weeks ago, traditional authorities in the mountain kingdom of Swaziland slapped the nation's most outspoken political columnist, Mfomfo Nkambule, with a fine--to be paid in cows--for criticism of the administration of King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute ruler.

King Mswati III, has expressed concern over the standard services in the health sector of the country. He said the situation is unfortunate because the south African country has several health professionals working abroad. The Prime Minister of Swaziland has disclosed that the King has charged his officials to engage all working professionals outside the country to find the cause of leaving their home soil.

The controversial Suppression of Terrorism Act was passed by the Swaziland parliament in May 2008. Certain provisions of the Act empower the Prime Minister to declare virtually anyone or anything to be a terrorist entity. Lawyers have challenged the Act saying it violates fundamental rights of ordinary citizens protected under the constitution. Political activists and human rights defenders have apparently become persona non-grata, battered and/or arrested.

Although the Swazi constitution stipulates free primary education from 2009, parents will have to pay school fees this year. Only three days before the start of the January term, the country's government announced it will continue to charge for primary education, contrary to the law.

Every five minutes she gives a hacking cough. Ndlaleni Ndzinisa (70) says she has continuously suffered from tuberculosis for the past five years. Because she cannot afford to pay for transport to the nearest hospital, she has repeatedly failed to adhere to her tuberculosis (TB) treatment. Ndzinisa’s doctor, Franklin Ackom, says it is highly unusual that she has not been diagnosed with the difficult-to-treat, multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extremely-drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), which are strains that are resistant to treatment by first-line and second-line drugs, including Isoniazid and Rifampicin.

Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) calls on the International Criminal court to arrest Mswati as a perpetrator of human suffering for presiding over a crime against humanity.

November, often the rainiest month of the year, has left most of Swaziland awash with flash floods: but in the eastern Lowveld, no rain has fallen, and the fear is of yet another drought year in which food aid will be needed. "Are we cursed, the people living here? Not a drop has fallen, not one drop," said Amos Zwane, a smallholder farmer near Lavumisa in the Shiselweni region in the south. The area is nearing its second decade of poor rainfall.

Still wearing a campaign t-shirt with the slogan "FED UP: with violence against women", Dlamini-Shongwe, the public relations officer for the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) is fresh from the Nov. 25 launch of the16 days activism against gender-based violence at Jubilee Park in Manzini.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the attorney general’s threatening remarks to journalists on 17 November. He said journalists who criticise the government could be arrested under a new anti-terrorism law that has just been used to crack down on opposition groups.

Swazi gender activists are angry that King Mswati III and the newly elected Parliament have betrayed their hopes, and the Constitution, by not appointing more women to the House of Assembly and the Senate. In the September elections, just seven women were elected to the Assembly, which numbers 55 members (MPs)

In a country barely the size of the U.S. state of New Jersey, a disease has taken hold. Nearly 40 percent of Swaziland's population is HIV-positive, and the other 60 percent lives at constant risk for the disease. HIV is a constant presence, weighing down on the lives of the estimated one million Swazis and the future of their country.

On 29 October 2008, Swazi journalists were kicked out of a meeting in which the newly-elected and appointed Members of Parliament discussed their pay. The journalists had been allowed to cover the earlier discussions, but when the legislators began to discuss their pay, the media was shown the door.

Hot on the heels of Mauritius, health experts predict Swaziland will be the second country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to eliminate malaria. Malaria kills more than one million people worldwide most of whom are children under five years and almost 90 percent of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria killed five people last year in Swaziland.

Swaziland is holding its first parliamentary election under a new constitution, amid growing protests calling for more democracy. Political parties remain banned in the tiny African mountain kingdom, one of the world's last absolute monarchies. The government says it expects a good turnout at the polls, to be watched by foreign observers for the first time.

What happens to a nation whose people depend on the largesse of international donor agencies for their existence, once support is withdrawn? If forecasts for the small landlocked African nation of Swaziland are an indication, the granting of temporary relief may be followed by a new humanitarian emergency.

here is a growing belief among men in Swaziland that circumcision provides complete protection against HIV, a perception that worries non-governmental organisations (NGOs) battling the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world. In recent years circumcision has been lauded by Swazi public health officials as a procedure that reduces the rate of HIV transmission by about 50 percent, but it is far from the silver bullet solution some men see it as.

Swaziland will hold a parliamentary election on Sept. 19 under the Tinkhundla system of government, the chairperson of the Elections and Boundaries Commission announced on Wednesday, the South African Press Association reported.

With an HIV prevalence of 19 percent -- the highest in the world -- AIDS is having an unprecedented impact on Swaziland. Life expectancy has fallen from 60 years to 31 years, the world's lowest figure, and one in three children are orphaned or left vulnerable from AIDS. Last year, about 40 percent of the population needed food aid.

Larger numbers of pregnant women living with HIV in Swaziland can now access services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus, but activists and health officials say more emphasis should have been placed on quality rather than quantity.

A Cabinet minister is one of 30 Swaziland businessmen who are to be investigated by the country's main anti-corruption unit over how they amassed their fortunes, the government said on Thursday. "We have handed over 30 names to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and it is up to the commission to conclude its investigations," said government press secretary Percy Simelane.