The future king of the oil-rich sultanate of Brunei married a 17-year-old half-Swiss commoner yesterday in Asia's wedding of the year, attended by royalty and dignitaries from around the world.
Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah, 30, son of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah -- the absolute and fabulously wealthy ruler of 350,000 subjects -- wed Sarah Salleh before 2,000 people in a traditional Malay Muslim ceremony at Istana Nurul Iman, the 1,788-room main palace.
The sultan escorted the prince -- wearing a gold crown and a kris dagger tucked into his sash -- to a golden chair on the dais. He was joined by his bride, who emerged from a stateroom more than an hour behind schedule.
The prince placed a hand on Sarah's diamond tiara as Muslim marriage prayers were recited for the centuries-old ceremony. She stood radiant in an embroidered blue dress and veil and clasped a gold-and-diamond bouquet. They then descended from the dais and kissed the sultan for his blessing.
The couple embarked in an open gold-colored, Rolls-Royce stretch limousine for an 8km parade across the capital, accompanied by 103 limousines and vehicles carrying family members as a marching band played.
But a tropical downpour soaked the couple, despite footmen walking alongside their vehicle with umbrellas.
The crown prince enjoys billiards and was educated at Oxford. He will be the 30th sultan in a line stretching back 600 years.
His bride, whose father is a manager at the Public Works Department, is "known among her teachers and friends for her grace, intelligence and positive attitude," the official wedding booklet said.
The bride's mother, the former Suzanne Aeby from a village outside Zurich, wore a blue veil and traditional Malay dress at the ceremony. She came to Brunei in the 1970s as a nurse and worked at the Health Ministry.
The ceremony caps two weeks of official celebrations taking place in one of Asia's smallest but richest countries, which shares Borneo island with Malaysia and Indonesia. An extravagant banquet for the guests was scheduled for today, followed by a fireworks display.
The Brunei ruling family's extravagance is legendary, and the sultan was the world's richest man before the advent of the high-tech era -- and a series of financial blunders blamed on his younger brother, Prince Jefri, in the 1990s, that resulted in the loss of an estimated US$7 billion.
Now living in Europe, Jefri was not present at the ceremony. It was unclear whether he was invited.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS