The editor of the privately owned Nation magazine, Bheki Makhubu, was sued for E3.5 million [approx. US $ 500 000] by a Member of Parliament for alleged defamation of character. The MP, Marwick Khumalo, an ex journalist and also a member of the Pan African Parliament, claims to have been defamed by an article Makhubu wrote and published in the June edition of the Nation magazine.

Swaziland's first Demographic Health Survey has found that 26 percent of sexually active Swazis are infected with HIV. The last prevalence survey, based on tests of pregnant women at antenatal clinics, had found a 38.6 percent HIV infection rate. The new figure was derived from a house-to-house survey by the Central Statistics Office for the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

Most Swazi women who face domestic violence do not take their children and walk out of the house. "They say, 'who is going to feed me?'" Nonhlanhla Dlamini, Director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), told IRIN. But this is changing. An innovative SWAGAA programme to empower women economically in Swaziland's patriarchal society is helping many out of a cycle of abuse and dependency.

Swaziland's Health Minister has barred journalists from hospital and banned hospital staff from talking to media, after Swazi media had exposed negligence in state health institutions. The Swazi press already suffers from heavy regulation and self-censorship.

Swaziland's truck drivers, who are twice as likely to be infected with HIV than the general population, are finally getting the programmes required to provide them with treatment and support, a conference was told this week.

A prolonged dry spell and high temperatures ravaged Swaziland’s maize crop in 2007, resulting in the lowest annual harvest on record and leaving more than a third of the population in need of food assistance, according to a report issued today by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and WFP.

The disintegration of the extended Swazi family, partly as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, has created a new phenomenon of urban homelessness. A bitter early-winter cold front awakened Swazis this week to a problem nonexistent a decade ago: a seemingly permanent population of homeless people in urban centres.

More than a third of Swaziland's population is in need of food aid, after its worst ever harvest, said a UN food agencies' report.A prolonged dry spell has left around 400,000 vulnerable people in need of approximately 40,000 metric tonnes (mt) of food assistance until the next harvest in April 2008, according to a report by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), which was based on a joint assessment mission.

A rising incidence of rape in Swaziland, coupled with the world's highest level of HIV-infection, is fuelling a national debate on what punishment should be meted out to rapists, especially if the victims of sex crimes become infected with the disease. "Giving a little girl HIV is like giving her a death sentence," Nonhlanhla Dlamini, director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), told IRIN.

The High Court of Swaziland has dismissed a E750,000 (approx. US$100,000) lawsuit against the "Times of Swaziland" newspaper filed by the Minister for Education, Themba Msibi. The case was dismissed on grounds that the wrong parties were cited in the particulars of claim.

NGOs in Swaziland are shifting the emphasis of their operations from handouts of donated foodstuffs to training households and communities to set up projects that produce food and generate income, to find a lasting solution to perennial food shortages.

Home-based care in Swaziland is increasingly being relied on to compensate for the inadequacies of a public health system buckling under the weight of the country's HIV/AIDS pandemic.

In Swaziland, farming know-how is passed on from parent to child. But for many children whose parents die of AIDS the expertise dies with them, leaving hunger and destitution, according to a report by Nathi Gule for Panos. Many parents don’t pass on their farming techniques to children at such an early stage. Most children learn farming later on through observation and working with elder family members.

For 2007, out of a total enrolment of 300,000, 94,000 Swazi children or nearly one-third of all schoolchildren from first grade to standard five will be assisted to stay in school. A network of community care points has expanded to over 300 in the past year, and government plans to keep orphans and vulnerable children at home and in their schools, in familiar surroundings during the time of parental loss.

Despite Swaziland's humanitarian crisis, local newspapers are largely ignoring issues such as poverty, food shortages and HIV/AIDS in favour of reports about crime and bickering amongst political personalities, according to The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).

The Swazi government expressed cautious optimism after a survey found that 39.2 percent of women visiting antenatal clinics tested positive for HIV, indicating that the infection rate was dropping. Medical data from pregnant women is used as a barometer of HIV/AIDS prevalence among the country's about one million people and although the figure was above the 38.6 percent recorded in 2002, it was down from the 42.6 percent reached in 2004.

The "Times of Swaziland" newspaper has been sued for E75,000 (approx. US$10,000) by a man accused of recently bombing government structures and who is facing high treason charges at the High Court of Swaziland. Vusi Shongwe states in court papers that on February 8, 2006, the "Times" published his picture on the front page next to a headline saying "Bomber" in bold typeface.

A year after establishing a specialised unit to combat domestic violence and child abuse, Swaziland is claiming to have reduced crimes against children by a third. At the launch of the first annual report by the Royal Swaziland Police Force's Domestic Violence and Child Protection Unit, Leckinah Magagula, head of the unit, told IRIN: "Last year, we recorded three abuse offences committed against children every day.

Swaziland's parliamentarians have embarked on an unprecedented stayaway to protest against Cabinet's inability to get grants paid to the elderly. "These people [Cabinet ministers] are well-paid to do some work, but they are doing nothing," said MP Marwick Khumalo during a raucous meeting of the House of Assembly on Wednesday night (8 November 2006), when the members of parliament (MPs) gave Cabinet one week to start paying out stipends to people aged 60 and over, and voted unanimously to suspend all parliamentary work until then.

Swazi gender rights groups have welcomed the appointment of a woman to the post of deputy prime minister in a country that only this year granted women equal rights under the constitution. "I think it is about time we had capable women in that position," said Lomcebo Dlamini, director of the Swaziland branch of the non-governmental organisation, Women in Law in Southern Africa.