NEWS AND VIEWS

"Swaziland's King Mswati III has ended a five-year sex ban he imposed on the kingdom's teenage girls a year early.

The girls have had to wear large woollen tassels as a sign of their chastity since 2001. These are to be burnt in a huge ceremony on Tuesday.

The sex ban was imposed to fight the spread of HIV/Aids. Swaziland has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates, at about 40% of the population.

The king fined himself a cow for breaking the ban by marrying again.

He took a 17-year-old girl as his ninth wife just two months after imposing the sex-ban in September 2001, sparking unprecedented protests by Swazi women outside the royal palace.

Meanwhile, the health ministry has released new figures which show that 29% of Swazis aged 15-19 are HIV positive.

For pregnant women, the figures were 42%.

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# posted by R @ 4:06 PM