A good week for …, February 3, 2013

Britain's Prince Charles might have cast an envious eye at the next king of the Netherlands, who will take over when his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicates at the end of April. Becoming head of state of the nation of nine million people will be a far cry from Willem-Alexander's younger days, when his partying earned him the nickname "Prince Pils" in reference to his favourite beer.

The former South Korean minister is celebrating his freedom a year after being convicted in a vote-buying scandal. But the decision by Seoul's outgoing president Lee Myung-bak to pardon his close confidant, along with another friend, businessman Chun Shin-il, provoked a scandal and led to claims of abuse of power, which were denied by the president's spokesman.