KING HIT

It's good to be the King

Tens of thousands of bare-breasted young maidens danced in front of Swazi King Mswati on Friday -- hoping to become his next wife.
The 35-year-old king, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, now has 10 wives and one fiancee -- a royal luxury that has drawn criticism as his small southern African kingdom battles poverty and a raging AIDS epidemic.
Lined up in rows, the girls danced topless before the king for three hours, undeterred by blustery winds or last year's controversy surrounding Mswati's choice of three teenage reed dancers as his latest queens -- the mother of one dancer charged that her daughter was abducted from a schoolyard by palace aides and forced to join the royal household.
"I want a limousine, and a house like they give the queens. I want my children to school in England," said 14 year-old Phindile Thwala, one of this year's dancers.