Italy's highest appeals court rules that forcing a wife to kneel and scrub the house floor is a crime. The court upheld the conviction of man for mistreatment after his wife left him for years of alleged abuse and threats.

The court says, "The husband humiliated and burdened her in every way, to the point of forcing her to clean the floor on her knees as a punishment for the insufficient dedication that in his view the woman put into housework."

The man was ordered to pay compensation to his wife and provide child support for their son. She is now living with her parents. Yet, just a day earlier, another of Italy's courts ruled that calling someone a "faggot" is punishable by law. The court has been criticized in the past for being comprised of conservative macho men. In two controversial rulings, the court found that calling a foreigner "dirty negro" is not always racist and that sexually abusing a teenage girl is less serious if the girl is not a virgin.