Former Liberian President Charles Taylor ordered his militias to eat the flesh of captured enemies and United Nations soldiers, a former close aide testified on Thursday at Taylor’s war crimes trial. ”He [Taylor] said we should eat them. Even the UN white people — he said we could use them as pork to eat,” said Joseph ”ZigZag” Marzah.
An affiliate of United States-based buyout firm Carlyle Group has defaulted on about ,6-billion of debt and expects its lenders to seize remaining assets as the global credit crunch tightens around leveraged investors. A ”successful refinancing is not possible,” Carlyle Capital said.
Shops selling cannabis seeds and specialist equipment for cultivating marijuana plants face closure under proposed changes to Dutch drugs laws. Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin told Parliament he would amend laws to ban the sale of everything that ”facilitates the production of cannabis”.
No image available
/ 6 February 2008
The guru to the Beatles who introduced transcendental meditation to the West, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, died at his Dutch home on February 5, aides said on February 6. He was said to be 91. The reclusive Indian mystic shot to international prominence when the Beatles visited him in the foothills of the Himalayas in 1968 to learn his meditation techniques.
No image available
/ 6 February 2008
SABMiller, the world’s second-biggest brewer, has acquired 94,7% of Grolsch NV shares, securing its €816-million (,2-billion) takeover of the Dutch brewer. SABMiller said in a statement that its bid was unconditional and shareholders who had not yet offered their shares could tender them until February 20.
No image available
/ 28 November 2007
A vast archive of German war records opened its doors to the public on Wednesday, giving historians and Holocaust survivors, who have waited more than 60 years, access to concentration-camp records detailing Nazi horrors. The 11 countries that oversee the archive have finished ratifying an accord unsealing about 50-million pages.
No image available
/ 15 November 2007
Dutch police have made their first arrest of an online thief — a 17-year-old accused of stealing virtual furniture from rooms in the Habbo Hotel — a popular teen-ager networking website. An Amsterdam police spokeswoman confirmed a report that the teenager was accused of stealing €4 000 ( 864) worth of virtual furniture.
No image available
/ 8 November 2007
Shipping traffic to and from Rotterdam harbour is expected to be suspended from 8pm GMT due to an approaching storm, a port spokesperson said on Thursday. Dutch authorities put flood defences of the entire Dutch coast on alert on Thursday as the storm approached, leading to surging water levels, officials said.
No image available
/ 7 November 2007
Thousands of bananas washed up on two Dutch North Sea islands on Wednesday after at least six containers fell off a cargo ship in a storm and at least one burst open, a local official said. ”I think everybody on the island has a bunch now,” said Gossen Buren, a shipping official at the local lighthouse.
No image available
/ 12 October 2007
The Dutch government will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, a spokesperson for the Justice Ministry said Friday, rolling back one element of the country’s permissive drug policy after a series of well-publicised negative incidents. The decision will go into effect within several months, Wim van der Weegen said.
Former United Nations envoy for Sudan Jan Pronk is concerned about the effectiveness of a UN force for Darfur as the government in Khartoum has obstructed previous UN resolutions. The UN Security Council authorised on Tuesday up to 26 000 troops and police for Darfur and approved the use of force to protect civilians.
Police officers in the Dutch city of Alkmaar were surprised to see a car passing by with a man sitting on a bicycle on its roof. The driver and his wife, when stopped by the police, said they heard a noise while waiting at a traffic light, but did not realise they were taking on an extra passenger.
Judges at the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone have delayed the war-crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor until August 20 so a new defence team has time to prepare, a court spokesperson said on Monday. Taylor has boycotted his trial since it began in June, saying he has inadequate funds to mount a proper defence.
A consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has launched a â,¬71,1-billion (,7-billion) bid for Dutch group ABN Amro, trumping Britain’s Barclays in a battle for the world’s biggest bank takeover. The offer was pitched at â,¬38,40 euros per ABN share — â,¬30,40 in cash plus 0,844 new shares in RBS.
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor opened an investigation on Tuesday into allegations of rape and sexual violence in the Central African Republic committed during the armed conflict of 2002 and 2003. The ICC said reports indicated that rape had been committed against civilians, including elderly women, young girls and men.
The Dutch Authority of Financial Markets (AFM) directed on Monday that all information concerning the ABN Amro takeover be made public. The watchdog of the Dutch financial industry said this is necessary to prevent possible fraud in the proposed takeover.
Dutch shareholder rights group VEB said on Friday it filed a suit attempting to prevent ABN Amro from selling its United States arm, LaSalle Bank, to Bank of America Corporation for -billion. VEB chief Peter de Vries said the LaSalle sale was an attempt by ABN Amro to foil a possibly higher hostile takeover offer.
The wife of one the most prominent Dutch collaborators during The Netherlands’ occupation by Germany in World War II has died aged 92, her son said in a statement. Florrie Rost van Tonningen earned the epithet ”the Black Widow” due to her continued adherence to Nazi ideology after the war.
No image available
/ 27 February 2007
The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor named the first two suspects accused of committing war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region on Tuesday. Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges to issue summonses for Ahmed Haroun, interior minister during the height of the conflict, and militia commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman.
No image available
/ 27 February 2007
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor will name the first suspects accused of committing war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region on Tuesday and human rights activists hope he will pursue senior figures.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
The Netherlands crushed a weakened Russia 4-1 in Amsterdam on Wednesday as visiting coach Guus Hiddink endured another miserable day back on home soil. Just a day after Hiddink, who took Australia to the World Cup last year, was accused of tax evasion, he then found little to cheer on the pitch as the Dutch turned on the style in this friendly international against his Russian side.
No image available
/ 1 February 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Amsterdam late on Wednesday after wrapping up a four-nation African tour that he said opened his eyes to the immense challenges facing the world’s least developed continent. Ban flew in from Nairobi where he held talks with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and huddled with UN staff.
No image available
/ 20 January 2007
Amsterdam’s red-light district will soon get a new attraction: a statue to honour prostitutes around the world. The statue, designed by artist Els Rijerse, will likely be unveiled at the end of March. The statue is meant to give all those men and women strength,” said Mariska Majoor, a former prostitute who commissioned the statue.
No image available
/ 11 December 2006
The Netherlands ceased transmission of ”free to air” analogue television on Monday, becoming the first nation to switch completely to digital signals through its ether. Few consumers noticed the difference, as the overwhelming majority of Dutch get TV via cable.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
A plan to roll and smoke the world’s largest joint was cancelled in Amsterdam when the organisers realised they could be breaking the law. ”We have now read the small print and realise there could be problems,” Thijs Verheij was quoted as saying by ANP news agency after consulting Dutch drugs laws.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
A Dutch woman, who had meticulously planned her own funeral after the death of her husband last year, died next to the grave in Amsterdam where she wanted to be buried, a newspaper reported. The 65-year-old widow probably died of a heart attack while she was visiting the family grave where her name, but no date, was already inscribed.
No image available
/ 26 September 2006
Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy believes he was dropped from the Dutch squad by coach Marco van Basten after the World Cup for non-footballing reasons. ”I have to deal with this situation. It’s Van Basten’s vision,” Van Nistelrooy said in an interview with Dutch weekly magazine, Sportweek.
A heatwave in The Netherlands in July caused about 1 000 more deaths than a normal July, the Dutch statistics office said on Wednesday. The statistics office said an average of 2 730 people died each week in July — the hottest month since Dutch records started in 1706 — compared with a normal figure of about 2 500.
Dutch police arrested 12 passengers on a United States Northwest Airlines plane bound for India that was forced to turn back to Amsterdam’s Schipol airport on Wednesday, media reported. The report quoted a police spokesperson as saying 12 were arrested, but declined to give further details due to the ongoing investigation.
Macabre SMSs among a group of a dozen Dutch girls egging each other on to commit suicide have provided a new twist to the well-documented dangers of modern, instant-communication technology for the young. The revelation has provoked a flood of soul-searching in The Netherlands.
A private treatment centre for young computer-game addicts has opened in Amsterdam, a last refuge for desperate parents who are willing to pay big money to wean their children off their virtual addiction. The clinic also treats alcoholics, drug addicts and bulimics.
Patriotism appears to have played no small part in Dutch gay men’s selection of their World Cup ”first 11” based on looks and sex appeal, as revealed by a survey conducted by a gay newspaper. Dutch squad members Robin van Persie, John Heitinga and Jan Kromkamp all make the team.