After the football match Ajax-Celtic a Celtic football fan was gunned down in Amsterdam yesterday afternoon after challenging a thief who was picking his pocket in an incident that is likely to cement the Dutch city’s reputation for serious gun crime. The unidentified 41-year old… Read More

On the 19th of January 2000 the Dutch brothel ban was abolished, making the Dutch prostitution branch completely legal. The explanatory memorandum to the law lists several reasons: protection of the position of prostitutes; combating the exploitation of involuntary prostitution; controlling and regulating the exploitation… Read More

After a Dutch girl gets wounded in a train crash during a vacation in Austria, she is flown back to the Netherlands. The news program Tagesschau from the Austrian public TV broadcaster ORF wants to broadcast an interview with the girl and with her doctor…. Read More

Britain’s 30-year-old cannabis laws, the most stringent in Europe, are to be relaxed under plans announced by the home secretary, David Blunkett. Cannabis – which is tried by more than 40% of British schoolchildren – is to be downgraded from a class B to a… Read More

It seems that the high Swiss taxes for foreign cheese will be lowered. The morning program from the Swiss public TV broadcaster Schweizer Fernsehen invites Swiss cheesemakers, -tasters and -experts to talk about and to taste domestic and foreign Emmentaler-like cheeses. Since the cheese specialists… Read More

Continuation of the non-vaccination policy against Foot-and-mouth disease in the European Union is, according to the Dutch agriculture and horticulture organisation LTO Nederland, no longer justified. During a press conference in the Hague LTO-president Gerard Doornbos explains why his organisation is against the continuation. Looking… Read More

On 12 April 2001, the Dutch Euthanasia Act, fully named the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act, was passed by a parliamentary majority in the Lower House. The law applies to life termination on request (also called euthanasia) and assisted suicide, both… Read More

War criminal Dirk Hoogendam alias ‘The Boxer’ was sentenced to death by the court in the Dutch town Assen after World War II for several violent assaults and batteries and participating in foreign military service. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. However, Dirk… Read More

Although homosexuality is very accepted in Holland and Amsterdam is seen as the gay capital of Europe, it is still a taboo in old people’s homes. Elderly homosexuals fear the moment they will need care. An ordinary nursing home in Amsterdam established the L.A. Ries… Read More

On the morning that the Dutch Senate is approving a new law, full title Control of Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act, that is legalising euthanasia in the Netherlands the program Morgenmagazin from the German first public broadcaster ARD broadcasts live from… Read More

A fire is reported at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol at about quarter to six on Sunday afternoon in the Plaza shopping centre. The fire reportedly started at fast food restaurant Burger King. According to the fire brigade, an explosion may have occurred. Flames beat out of… Read More

After England, France and The Netherlands, Germany is the fourth country in Europe that is struck by the devastating foot & mouth disease. The Dutch Agriculture Minister declared strict measures to prevent the highly contagious livestock virus foot-and-mouth disease from spreading around the Netherlands and… Read More