Israel and Swaziland

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Alan Johnston introduces wit, insight and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. In this edition, Yolande Knell hears from the secular-minded Israelis who feel somewhat sidelined by their state's religious rules on identity, marriage and burial, while Louise Redvers finds all is not well in Swaziland under the absolute rule of King Mswati III. Just how Jewish is really Jewish? In Israel, it isn't only the Jewish and Arab communities who are sometimes at loggerheads. There's also a faultline between the country's religious Jews and its more secular citizens. Much of the time the two groups go about their business calmly. But there certainly are tensions - and they're often most acute when they involve the great rites of passage - birth, marriage and death. Yolande Knell says some Israeli families - particularly those who aren't regarded as fully Jewish - are resentful of the sway religion enjoys in important areas of national life. A very big figure in a very small country The southern African state of Swaziland is one of the world's last absolute monarchies - and now this tiny kingdom is in trouble. It was described recently as a financial ruin - a place simply running out of money. Things were so bad that the country's giant neighbour, South Africa, has just had to stump up a very large loan. And as Louise Redvers has been finding out, some in the country lay the blame for the crisis at the feet of their King.