The week at a glance...Europe

Stockholm

Jailed for a smack: A Muslim couple have been in jail for more than a month for allegedly breaking Swedish law by smacking their son on the hand. The four children of Azizul Raheem Awalludin, the director of the Stockholm office of the Malaysian government tourism agency, are in Swedish foster care while he and his wife are in detention pending trial. The children have asked to be placed with a Muslim family at the Malaysian Embassy instead. “We don’t feel comfortable staying with a non-Muslim family and are finding it hard to adjust,” Aisyah, 14, the couple’s oldest daughter, told Malaysian media. All forms of corporal punishment have been illegal in Sweden since 1979.

Rome

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Washing money, not feet: A top Vatican priest already on trial for fraud was charged this week with laundering millions through the Vatican bank. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a former accountant at the Vatican bank, is accused of transferring millions of dollars in fake donations from offshore companies through his accounts at the Vatican’s Institute for the Works of Religion. Italian police seized nearly $9 million of Scarano’s personal assets in bank accounts and real estate, including a luxurious apartment crammed with antiques and oil paintings. Scarano had already been charged with plotting to smuggle $26 million from Switzerland to Italy, allegedly on behalf of a wealthy Italian shipbuilding family.

Kiev, Ukraine

Protesters killed: Ukraine’s ongoing anti-government protests turned tragic this week after police trying to regain control of the city center shot at least two protesters dead. Some 100,000 Ukrainians had turned out against a draconian new restriction that bars protesters from wearing helmets, setting up tents, or even traveling together to rally sites. Many protesters peacefully mocked the new law by wearing pots on their heads, but some attacked police, and Kiev turned into a snowy battle scene with tear gas and water cannons blasting. As smoke rose over the city and riot police marched through the streets, pro--Russian President Viktor Yanukovych finally agreed to meet with opposition leaders, including former boxing champ Vitali Klitschko. “We will not allow a dictatorship,” Klitschko said.