Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of the birth of the Internet in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The 226 million websites now dotting the World Wide Web was an offshoot of an experiment by 20 UCLA engineers, who passed meaningless data from two computers 15 feet apart through a grey cable connection on September 2, 1969. Those two computers were the earliest network then called Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or ARPANET.

Swaziland's King Mswati III has sparked outrage by sending his favorite wives on a globe-trotting shopping spree. The monarch - ruler of some of the poorest people in the world - used £4 million [$7 million] of state money to send at least five of his 13 wives and dozens of their aides to France, Italy, Dubai and Taiwan on a secret trip last week.

Although it is a criminal offense to criticize the king's private life in Swaziland, campaigners have blasted the British government, who give the landlocked African country the majority of the £65 million it receives in European aid each year.

President Barack Obama marked his 48th birthday on Tuesday with a full plate of meetings at the White House, and a luncheon with Democrats that also served as a final powwow on a healthcare reform bill before lawmakers take a month-long recess. In between, the President blew candles along with veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas, who turned 89 that day, and had a mountain in the Caribbeans named after him.

The nation's fifth youngest commander-in-chief, Obama on his first birthday at the White House made a surprise visit to the James Brady Briefing Room with a plate of cupcakes and singing "Happy Birthday" for Thomas. He was joined by an excited press corps that could not help but greet and ask him mid-song about his own birthday.

Madonna had her phone confiscated at Jennifer Lopez's 40th birthday party. The singer and other celebrity guests, including Rihanna, Beyonce Knowles, Alicia Keys and Mary J Blige, were forced to hand over their mobile phones and any cameras before they were allowed into New York's Hotel Griffou to celebrate with Jennifer last Friday.

The strict rules angered some partygoers, but Madonna and Rihanna reportedly used the increased privacy to dance "exuberantly" to Rob Base and DJ EZ's hit "It Takes Two."

Britain's Queen Elizabeth joined over 140 children at a giant birthday party in Scotland Wednesday. The monarch joined a group of 10-year-olds at the Scottish Parliament building of Holyrood after all 163 youngsters born in Scotland on July 1, 1999 -the day of devolution, when Scotland got its own government - were invited to join festivities.

Accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, the queen toured parliament's main hall, which was filled with children creating "Happy Birthday" posters from cut-up photographs.