Profile Hassanal Bolkiah: The sultan of sting

Factfile

Age:72

Appearance: short and trim with a goatee beard

Newsworthiness: the Far East monarch has been condemned around the world for introducing new laws that will make homosexuality and adultery punishable by death

The Sultan of Brunei is not a modest man. In 2004, Hassanal Bolkiah emulated the Pope by amending his country’s constitution to declare himself infallible. “His Majesty the Sultan,” the document now reads, “can do no wrong in either ...