Spooked

LAST week it was babies - mad, bad or fallen overboard - who thronged this space. This week, ghosts seem to be everywhere. First, there were the "million ghosts" which Hurricane Luis sounded like, according to one tourist, as it howled around the hotel; then the 12,000 phantoms discovered working in the Brazilian civil service who will, the police promised grimly, be hunted down; but most worrying of all are the ghosts which a former Swaziland prime minister says are terrorising people in the Enkhaba mountains.

One family had to take refuge in the royal household after ghosts invaded their house, beating them, ordering them to cook food and stealing their blankets. The spectres have not invaded the royal household because they are mortally afraid of the dogs. But the former PM, Prince Bhekimpi, has himself been verbally abused by the ghosts, AFP reports, while he was out herding cattle.