A decline in the incidence of malaria in Swaziland is being attributed to a devastating drought in the country's malaria belt.

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.

Former Bafana Bafana coach Ephraim 'Shakes' Mashaba, who currently holds the reins of Swaziland's national team, has been roped in to that country's youth.

Former Bafana Bafana defender Mark Fish, who is currently on a charity drive in Swaziland, tells KickOff.com that he is impressed with the talent displayed by local youngsters.

ARTICLE 19 is seriously concerned about the constricting environment the government of Swaziland is imposing on freedom of expression. Under a controversial Suppression of Terrorism Act that has been passed by the Parliament in May 2008, Swazi journalists, political activists and human rights defenders have apparently become persona non-grata, battered and/or arrested.

The coaching merry-go-round is well underway in Port Elizabeth with the race to fill Vladislav Heric's shoes at Bay United heating up.

IN THE past few weeks we have been inundated with news of the historic US elections.

The political situation in one of the world's last absolute monarchies is driving the people to despair, the Catholic Church there says.

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.

Phesheya Sibiya, a cameraperson employed by the privately-owned Channel Swazi television station, was harassed and had his camera confiscated by a traditional group performing "sacred" rituals for King Mswati III.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the attorney general's threatening remarks to journalists on 17 November.

On 17 November 2008, Swaziland's Attorney General, Majahenkhaba Dlamini, warned that journalists who report critically against the government would be viewed as supporting "terrorists" and arrested.

The Angolan under 20 males squad on Saturday beat Swaziland by 3-1, a match held in 1º de Maio field, in the Angolan province of Malanje, for the inaugural round of the FESA Tournament.

Mary Ntshangase sits under a big umbrella -- a packet of beans in one hand and a packet of peanuts in the other -- wooing customers to her stall.

Moved by the deplorable conditions he found on a tour of Swaziland's hospitals and clinics, Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini has vowed to reform the healthcare system.

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.

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.

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.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday tabled a damning report before the Sadc organ on politics, defence and security meeting in the capital that was highly critical of former South African president Thabo Mbeki's mediation role in the country's crisis.

Southern African Development Community (Sadc) leaders are on a collision course over Zimbabwe's faltering power-sharing agreement which they are due to discuss at an extraordinary summit, possibly next week.