Tobias Svensson

For four years Alicia Suárez from Utrecht in the Netherlands has played the Dutch folklore figure of Zwarte Piet at a company, but she has now been told not to do it next year. The reason? Alicia is black, having been adopted from Colombia as a baby. Zwarte Piet has also always been black, but as his skin colour has become a sensitive issue, so has Alicia’s.

On November 10th, Mohammed (17) was sentenced to six months of juvenile detention and a fine of 30 000 euros in damages for the rape of two girls, one of which was only 13 years old. While the investigation was still going on regarding the rape of the 13-year-old, the Salvation Army let Mohammed participate in a conference where he could commit the second rape. When the girl told the adult conference leaders about the assault, they chose not to report it to police, stating that they did ”not want to send Mohammed home”. The girl then contacted her mother and police was contacted.

For the first time the European Freedom Awards was held at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm on November 4th, with guests from several European countries. The Freedom Award 2016 was awarded to the former Czech president Václav Klaus, who was greeted with a standing ovation.

SWEDENA disabled woman on the Swedish island of Gotland reported that she had been raped by several men. Five Afghans were detained, but were soon released after the prosecutor considered the evidence insufficient – the disabled woman was said not to have resisted enough. This led to upset reactions from locals who demonstrated outside the police station.

Sweden’s new ambassador to South Africa, Cecilia Julin, had to leave a lecture hall at a Cape Town university when protesting black students threw faeces on the floor of the auditorium during a science fair on October 5th. At least one person was also splashed with faeces, according to a spokesperson for the university, Lauren Kansley.

RUSSIAThis Sunday, September 18th, the Russian elections take place. West often focuses on the small parties that criticize President Vladimir Putin and his party United Russia, but the real battle is for second place. Will it be communists or liberals who become Russia's second largest party? New Times (NyT) spoke to the political analyst and the head of the International Institute of political expertise Yevgeny Minshenko of the recent electoral reforms and the West's view of the election.

UKRAINEClose to 2,000 people gathered in the city of Odessa in southern Ukraine to lay down flowers in memory of the massacre in the Trade Unions House two years ago, when 48 opponents of the new regime in Kiev were burnt to death after riots in the city. Police and military blocked off the entire area and Euromaidan activists threatened with violence to “stop the separatists”.