Life in General

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN -- Brunei's Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah has become a father with the birth of his first-born, a baby boy. The future king's wife, Sarah Saleh a half swiss,
gave birth to the boy on Saturday at 3:50 pm and his birth was celebrated with a 19-gun salute.

The crown prince, who turned 33 last month, married his wife, 20, in 2004 in one of the grandest weddings in Asia in more than a decade. It was his first marriage.

She is the third child of a Bruneian civil servant and Swiss-born psychiatric nurse, Suzanne Aeby of Fribourg, who met while studying in London in the 1970s.

Energy-rich Brunei draws its wealth from oil and gas reserves, and its ruler, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, was once reputed to be the world's richest man before the rise of technology mogul Bill Gates and other self-made billionaires.