Swaziland: Swazi HIV Rate Surpasses Botswana's As World's Highest

A senior U.N. official criticized Swaziland's monarchy Saturday for failing to rein in HIV/AIDS, which now infects 38.6 percent of Swaziland's population, making the southern African nation's prevalence rate the highest in the world, Agence France-Presse reports. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, closed his three-day visit to Swaziland by slamming the kingdom's leadership for being "too slow to recognize the threat of HIV/AIDS on people's lives" and saying it would have to act with "lightning speed" if it wanted to reduce the prevalence rate.