06 September 2010
From the
Associated Press:
The Dutchman charged with killing a 21-year-old Peruvian woman and suspected in the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway has acknowledged extorting money from Holloway's parents and says he did it to get back at them. In an interview published Monday, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf quoted Joran van der Sloot as confessing to taking money from the family of the American in return for revealing the location of her body. He was indicted in the U.S. in June for extortion after being caught in an FBI sting, though the place he indicated as her burial site turned out to be bogus. Holloway was last seen alive with him on the Caribbean resort island of Aruba in 2005, and he has publicly said he killed her and then retracted his confession several times. "I wanted to get back at Natalee's family — her parents have been making my life tough for five years," the paper quoted him as saying from prison in Peru. "When they offered to pay for the girl's location, I thought: 'Why not'?" He has been charged with killing Stephany Flores in his hotel room in Lima, Peru, on May 30 — 5 years to the day after Holloway's disappearance. He met both women in casinos. Van der Sloot initially confessed to killing Flores to Peruvian police, but later said he only did so because he was intimidated and had been promised he would be extradited to the Netherlands. His requests to have the Peruvian confession retracted have so far been denied and he awaits trial.
Read the full article
here
More about Joran van der Sloot in the archives:
Joran van der Sloot's mom: 'He is not a murderer'
Details from Van der Sloot transcripts
Van der Sloot told Chile police thief killed woman
Joran van der Sloot charged with murder of Stephany Flores
Joran van der Sloot: Murder charges expected today
Police: Dutchman confesses to killing Peru woman
Peru cops grill Joran Van der Sloot
Joran van der Sloot arrested in Chile
Natalee Holloway suspect wanted in Peru
Natalee Holloway snorted coke, fell to death, suspect says
Suspect in Natalee Holloway case confesses
Father of Natalee Holloway suspect dies
Prosecutor considers closure of Holloway case
Dutch official: Aruban Holloway investigators 'corrupt as hell'
Tips renew hopes of solving Holloway case
Report: Natalee Holloway suspect involved in Thai sex trafficking
Emmy for Dutch reporters' Natalee Holloway broadcast
Joran van der Sloot will not be rearrested
Holloway Case News
Update: New clues in Holloway mystery
05 September 2010
From
Reuters:
The Dutch painter Corneille, co-founder of the avant-garde Cobra movement, died on Sunday at the age of 88, the Dutch Cobra museum said on Sunday. The Dutch news agency NOS said he had died in France, where he lived and worked. Born on July 3, 1922, as Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo, Corneille became one of the driving forces behind Cobra, the movement founded by artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam and active from 1949 to 1952.
The group preached complete freedom of color and form and drew inspiration from children's drawings, primitive art forms and the work of Paul Klee and Joan Miro. Corneille was a close friend of Karel Appel, who died in 2006. Together they founded the Dutch Experimental Group in 1948, which later became absorbed into Cobra.
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here
03 September 2010
From
Bloomberg:
The Dutch Liberal Party and the Christian Democratic Alliance failed to agree on forming a coalition with the support of the anti-Islam Freedom Party, leaving the Netherlands without a new government almost three months after elections. Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders told a news conference in The Hague today, broadcast on national television, that his group had lost confidence in the ability of the CDA to form a stable administration. Three Christian Democrat lawmakers said this week they wanted to break off talks.
The collapse ends a third attempt to form a coalition headed by the Liberal Party, which won the June 9 elections. It leaves the Liberals with limited options to establish a government that would have a majority in parliament; the most straightforward would be to team up with the Christian Democrats and the Labor Party, which placed second in the elections.
The talks began to break down after three-time Christian Democrat Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, who initially brokered the discussions, announced he was opposed to cooperation with Wilders, saying he was concerned about freedom of religion. The Christian Democrats held crisis talks this week to try to find a common position to continue talks. The Christian Democrats’ parliamentary leader, Maxime Verhagen, told reporters he was “convinced” that all 21 Christian Democrat members of parliament would have supported any coalition that had come out of the talks. “I was unable to restore Wilders’s confidence, but there was nothing more he could ask me to do,” Verhagen said.
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here
01 September 2010
From
BBC News:
Two Yemenis arrested in Amsterdam on suspicion of planning a terror attack have been released, prosecutors in the Netherlands have said. An investigation failed to find any evidence against the two men, the Dutch national prosecutor's office said. They were arrested on Monday upon arriving at Amsterdam airport on a flight from the US after a request from US authorities. US officials later said they did not believe they were planning an attack.
Both men had been travelling to the Yemeni capital Sanaa, and were arrested on arrival at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on-board a United Airlines flight from Chicago. They were not sitting together. They had checked luggage onto an internal flight in the US that they did not then take. Officials in the US say it appears they missed the flight and were re-routed by United Airlines to travel via Amsterdam. That flight, from Chicago's O'Hare to Washington Dulles International Airport, was called back once it was found they were not on board. US officials believe the two men did not know each other and were not travelling together.
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here
26 August 2010
From
Bloomberg:
Three-time Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, who brokered talks on forming a government between his Christian Democrats, the Liberal Party, and the anti-Islam Freedom Party, said he now opposed the plan, citing concerns about freedom of religion. “My stance has developed from a ‘yes, but’ to a ‘no, unless,’” Lubbers wrote in an Aug. 20 letter to the Christian Democrat leader in parliament, Maxime Verhagen, and party chairman Henk Bleker published by Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant today. Lubbers’s change of view may jeopardize the formal negotiations that started last month on establishing a Liberal- Christian Democrat government that would rely on the support of the Freedom Party, led by Geert Wilders, to get legislation through parliament. It would be the Netherlands’ first minority administration since World War II.
If the talks fail, it would leave the Liberals led by Mark Rutte, who won the elections, with limited options to form a majority government. The most straightforward would be teaming up with the Christian Democrats and the Labor Party, which placed second in the elections. Wilders receives police protection around the clock and faces trial in the Netherlands on charges of inciting hatred in his 2008 film “Fitna,” in which he calls on Muslims to rip out “hate-preaching” verses from the Koran.
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here
16 August 2010
From
AFP:
Dutch teen Laura Dekker arrived in Portugal Saturday after a 10-day test cruise with her father leading up to her bid to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo, her manager said. "Laura arrived in the Portuguese port of Portimao in the early morning hours," manager Peter Klarenbeek told AFP, adding the docking had been kept under wraps at the 14-year-old's request.
Dekker set off from Den Osse in the southwestern Netherlands on August 4, days after winning a 10-month court battle with child welfare authorities concerned she was too young to undertake the trip. Accompanied by her father Dick, the petite blonde set sail on her red-hulled 11.5 metre (38 foot) ketch Guppy for Portugal for a trip meant to iron out any technical problems before launching her official solo bid. Klarenbeek said the girl would leave from Portugal "within the next week", and a final date would be announced in the coming days.
Dekker turns 17 on September 20, 2012, allowing her a little over two years to complete the trip, during which she intends to stop at several ports along the way. Dekker has said her route from Portugal will take her across the Atlantic Ocean and into the Pacific via the Panama Canal. She plans to stop at the Galapagos islands before heading to Australia, Thailand and through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden back to Europe.
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here
16 August 2010
From the
Wall Street Journal:
The European Commission said Monday that Air France-KLM's Dutch KLM unit should fully compensate passengers for delays and cancellations caused by volcanic ash that shut most of Europe's air space for periods in April and May and bring its policy in line with European Union law.
The Commission's intervention came after it emerged that KLM was only reimbursing passengers for the first 24 hours that they were stranded by the ash cloud. A KLM spokeswoman said the airline would wait for the outcome of an European Union Transport Council review of compensation before it will alter its reimbursement policy. Airlines have been arguing that EC regulation 261, which says airlines have a duty of care to look after passengers stranded and to reimburse them any expenses incurred, is too tough on airlines, particularly in the event of a natural disaster that is beyond their control.
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here
10 August 2010
From the
Washington Times:
Three right-wing political parties in the Netherlands began formal coalition talks Monday, exactly two months after Dutch voters went to the polls, with the aim of establishing the country's first minority government since World War II. Under the formula being discussed, the election victor -- the austerity-minded Liberal Party -- would join forces with the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal, and the two coalition partners would govern with the outside support of the anti-Islam Freedom Party. Together, the three parties command a bare majority, with 76 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament. The parties have agreed to observe a media blackout during the talks, and a Liberal spokesman declined to comment on the proceedings to The Washington Times. "We're usually a very open country," he said with a laugh. "But not during coalition negotiations."
Liberal Party Chairman Ivo Opstelten, who is leading the talks, has said he expects a resolution in about three weeks, though delays are possible, given the Christian Democrats' resistance to many of the Freedom Party's demands. In addition to calling for a stricter immigration policy, party leader Geert Wilders has also advocated a ban on the Koran, a headscarf tax and other measures aimed at the country's growing Muslim minority. "Coalition talks usually take a little bit of time in the Netherlands," Dutch Ambassador to the United States Renee Jones-Bos said in an interview. "The [postwar] average is 87 days, and sometimes it has taken longer.
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here
23 July 2010
From
Time:
BP might be the corporate bad guy du jour, but the toxic transgressions of another multinational corporation are giving them a run for their money. A Dutch court has found the oil trading company Trafigura guilty of transporting toxic waste to the Ivory Coast in west Africa and dumping it there, injuring as many as 30,000 Ivorians since 2006. The corporation was also fined $1.5 million for the activity. The court also said Trafigura had concealed the dangerous nature of the cargo when it was originally taken from a ship in Amsterdam. The company faced criminal charges over the scandal for the first time since it began four years ago when Ivorians began to fall ill from the waste in the nation's largest city Abidjan.
The waste was placed on tankers in the Netherlands, then moved to the Ivory Coast, where the cost of getting rid of the waste was cheaper. But rather than disposing of it properly, Trafigura "dumped it over the fence" without considering the consequences.
Read the full article
here
19 July 2010
From the
Associated Press:
The mother of a 14-year-old Dutch girl who wants to sail solo around the world said in an open letter published Saturday she has given up her opposition to her daughter's planned trip. Laura Dekker's dream of becoming the youngest person to sail alone around the globe has been thwarted by a Dutch court that last year made her a ward of the state amid concerns over her physical ability and her social development if she is isolated and out of school for months. Dekker's mother, Babs Mueller, wrote in an open letter published in the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper that she no longer opposes the voyage. "I know she can do it, she's a strong girl who does not give up easily," Mueller wrote. "Of course no mother on earth likes it if her daughter goes to sea alone. I will have sleepless nights from the worry, but this is about Laura and how I can help her." Last year, Mueller told another Dutch paper, De Volkskrant, that she opposed her daughter's trip.
Dekker is due in court Tuesday for a hearing on whether she should remain a ward of the state. Mueller also wrote that she has lost faith in child care agencies monitoring Dekker. "Laura isn't a criminal, she just wants to sail," she wrote. The dangers Dekker faces were highlighted last month when a 16-year-old California girl, Abby Sunderland, ran into trouble on a solo attempt when powerful waves snapped her mast in the Indian Ocean, prompting a tense 20-hour rescue mission.
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here
15 July 2010
From the
Associated Press:
Maverick Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders says he is launching an international "freedom alliance" to spread his anti-Islam message across the West. He told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday he will launch the international movement late this year, initially in five countries: the United States, Canada, Britain, France and Germany. Wilders, who calls Islam a "fascist" religion and wants an end to immigration from Muslim nations to the West, has seen his support in the Netherlands soar in recent years.
Wilders is due to stand trial in October on hate speech charges.
Full article
here
30 June 2010
From the
Associated Press:
Archeologists have uncovered a mass grave with the complete skeletons of 51 horses buried side-by-side, probably the long-forgotten equine victims of a 17th century battle over a strategic Dutch river. It was the largest known equine burial ground in Europe, although chief archaeologist Angela Simons said Wednesday that many such sites have probably existed and have been plowed up over the centuries by unwitting farmers. The archaeological team had been looking for evidence of prehistoric human settlements in the area when they came across the unexpected find. "From the first shovel, it was horses, horses and more horses," said Angela Simons, of the Hazenberg company, which was employed by the Dutch government to survey the ground ahead of a construction project.
The skeletons were in a ditch in a field near the Maas River in Borgharen, around 2 miles (3 kilometers) north of the Dutch border city of Maastricht. Initial carbon testing dated the bones to the 17th century, when the Netherlands was still struggling to emerge as a nation. If the horses were killed in a battle, likely candidates include a fight in 1632 during the Eighty Years' War, when Dutch rebels quartered in Borgharen repelled a surprise charge by the Spanish cavalry. Another possibility is the 1673 siege of Maastricht by soldiers of French "Sun King" Louis XIV. That battle is considered a milestone in siege warfare, because of how the attacking French used zigzagging ditches to give their soldiers cover from the city's battlements.
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here
18 June 2010
From
ABC News:
Anita van der Sloot hasn't spoken publicly since her son's arrest in Peru, until now. In an exclusive email sent to ABC News, Anita van der Sloot wrote: "I am not giving interviews to any American media station because I don't trust them. Stay safe and pray for Joran. He is not the monster they like the world to see. he is traumatized, depressed an has an addiction. He is not a murderer. It stinks and feels like a big trap set up for him." Anita van der Sloot's email, apparently typed out quickly, was sent to close confidant and ex-girlfriend of Joran's, Melody Granadillo.
Despite their break-up, Granadillo never lost contact with van der Sloot, staying in touch through the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway and up until his now-infamous trip to Peru. On the day that van der Sloot was arrested for the murder of Flores, Granadillo says she received a text message from van der Sloot asking him for money to buy a ticket back to Aruba. In the text message van der Sloot reportedly wrote, "I have some cash with me still so I am fine just lost the bank card and the ticket back today is 520 I would have liked to be able to be back today but cant do anything about it so much bad luck sometimes." Van der Sloot's text messages stopped as Granadillo heard about the murder of Flores. "I did feel guilty," said Granadillo. "Maybe if I had stayed in his life, you know, nothing would have happened."
Read the full article
here (includes video)
14 June 2010
From
CNN:
Joran van der Sloot said he elbowed murder victim Stephany Flores Ramirez in the face before strangling her and then suffocating her with his own shirt, according to transcripts of his confession. The transcripts -- provided to CNN by an anonymous police source -- give shocking details of the murder van der Sloot is accused of and also give the public its first glimpse of why van der Sloot says the alleged murder took place. The source has not been named because he was not authorized to pass along the material. "There was blood everywhere," van der Sloot said in the transcripts. "What am I going to do now. I had blood on my shirt. There was also blood on the bed, so, I took my shirt and put it on her face, pressing hard, until I killed Stephany."
In the transcript, van der Sloot said that after Flores read the e-mail, she punched him in the face. "At that moment impulsively, with my right elbow I hit her in the face exactly on top of the nose," van der Sloot said. "I think she started to faint. It affected me so that I grabbed her from the neck and strangled her for a minute." Van der Sloot said he had a quick thought that he might try to hide the body but instead fled. He was arrested in Chile on June 3 and was returned the next day to Peru. Along with killing Flores, who had a broken neck, he took money and bank cards from her wallet, police said. Van der Sloot told police in Chile a different story of how Flores died when he was arrested there, according to transcripts. He blamed the death on robbers who had waited for him at his hotel in Peru. "There was a man coming from the access door with a knife in his hand," van der Sloot said. "The man with the knife hit her in the face, making her bleed through the nose." But Peru authorities said they had overwhelming evidence pointing to van der Sloot, and when he was transferred to Peru, van der Sloot confessed to the crime, police said.
Read the full article
here (includes video)
13 June 2010
From the
Associated Press:
Joran van der Sloot told police in Chile that it was an unidentified robber who beat a young woman to death in his hotel room, a killing for which the Dutchman has been charged with murder in Peru. Peruvian police say Van der Sloot, long suspected in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway, has confessed to killing 21-year-old business student Stephany Flores on May 30 after they met playing poker. But according to a Chilean police report obtained by The Associated Press through Peruvian authorities late Saturday, Van der Sloot gave a different account of events while in custody in neighboring Chile, where he was captured after the killing and quickly extradited.
"A man came out of the bathroom blocking the access door with a knife in his hand. On the bed was another man with a gun," the Spanish-language report quotes him as saying. "The man with the knife said to be quiet, but Stephany began talking in a loud voice and he hit her in the face, making her nose bleed." It also says Van der Sloot told Chilean agents that the previous day, he and Flores had been extorted by apparent police officers who demanded $4,000 and a wristwatch he brought from Thailand.
Police in Peru say he confessed to beating Flores to death after she learned details of the Holloway case from his laptop. He allegedly broke her nose, strangled her, threw her to the floor, then emptied her wallet and drove away in her SUV, said Gen. Cesar Guardia, chief of the criminal police. He then traveled south to Chile by bus. If convicted on the murder and robbery charges, Van der Sloot could get 15 to 35 years in prison.
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here
11 June 2010
From
CBS News:
Joran van der Sloot has been charged with murder in the slaying of 21-year-old Stephany Flores. Peruvian judge Juan Buendia has ordered van der Sloot jailed on murder and robbery charges, and described van der Sloot as having acted with "ferocity and great cruelty." Police say van der Sloot smashed in the face of Lima business student Stephany Flores, whom he met playing poker at a casino, after taking her to his hotel room on May 30. They say he then strangled her, threw her to the floor and emptied her wallet.
Police say van der Sloot gave a remarkably complete confession in the beating and strangling death of Stephany Flores. But van der Sloot's attorney, Maximo Altez, said Thursday that his client's confession was void on the grounds that he made it in the presence of a defense lawyer who was appointed by police. The chief of Peru's criminal police, Gen. Cesar Guardia, disagrees, saying that not only was van der Sloot properly represented by his government-appointed defense attorney, but the Dutch translator present during the interrogation was assigned by the Dutch Embassy. "The incriminatory elements were so powerful that he had to confess," Guardia said, adding that the evidence included blood stains found on van der Sloot's clothing.
Read the full article
here
More about Joran van der Sloot on Onlyinholland.com:
10 June 2010
From
CBS News:
Prosecutors are expected to file formal charges today against Joran van der Sloot, who allegedly offered up a complete confession to police of the murder of Stephany Flores. Peruvian police are confident. They believe they have "practically closed the case," says criminal police chief Gen. Cesar Guardia. But van der Sloot, who remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, has eluded police in the past. He was arrested twice by Aruban authorities in the disappearance of Holloway, but never tried. Peruvian police say Van der Sloot killed Flores, because she used his laptop without his permission and saw information related his alleged involvement in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Days before van der Sloot left for Peru, the murder suspect was the target of an FBI sting related to the Holloway case. He allegedly contacted the Holloway family and asked for $250,000 in exchange for information pertaining to the remains of their 18-year-old daughter. Investigators later realized that the information he provided to the Holloway family was false.
Read the full article
here
Peru murder suspect van der Sloot taken to attorney general's office (CNN)
Peru murder suspect Joran van der Sloot, a longtime suspect in the disappearance of an American teen in Aruba, was transferred from a police facility to the national attorney general's office Thursday morning, according to images broadcast by CNN affiliate America TV. Van der Sloot's attorney, Maximo Alonso Altez Navarro, told CNN his client will go from the attorney general's office to the Justice Ministry, where a judge will determine which jail he will go to. Van der Sloot, twice detained but never charged in the disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway five years ago in Aruba, was arrested last week in connection with the slaying of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman in Lima, the nation's capital. He confessed to the slaying earlier this week, police said.
Van der Sloot confessed Monday night after a seven-hour interrogation to killing Flores, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation told CNN. The Dutch citizen told investigators that he left the hotel room to buy bread and coffee at a gas station next to the hotel, the source said. Upon van der Sloot's return, he found Flores going through his laptop, where she found something linking him to Holloway's disappearance, the source said. At that point, Flores wanted to leave, and the pair started arguing, according to the source. Flores slapped van der Sloot, and he hit her back, and then grabbed her neck, the source said.
While he was never charged in connection with Holloway's disappearance in 2005, he has been charged in Alabama with extortion and wire fraud charges. According to a document from Interpol, van der Sloot contacted a representative of Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway, on or around March 29 to ask for $250,000 in exchange for information on the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway's remains.
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here
10 June 2010
From
Deutsche Welle:
Coalition options look tough in the Netherlands after voters send a mixed message in parliamentary elections, giving the pro-business Liberals a lead of just one seat and bumping an anti-immigrant party to third place. Dutch Queen Beatrix brought together top parliamentary and political advisors on Thursday to begin considering possible government coalitions. The process of forming a new government could take months after elections in the Netherlands gave the pro-business Liberals 31 out of 150 seats in parliament, ahead of the center-right Labor party by just one seat. "I would be very surprised if we have a new government before September/October," University of Twente political analyst Henk van der Kolk told the AFP news agency. But Liberal leader Mark Rutte has said he wants to form a new government by the end of the month. The new parliament is set to be constituted on June 17.
The far-right, anti-immigrant Party of Freedom, led by anti-Islam activist Geert Wilders, made the most gains in the election, leapfrogging incumbent Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's Christian Democrats into third place with 24 seats - an increase of 15 seats. The Christian Democrats lost 19 seats, ending up with just 22. Balkenende has resigned but will continue to hold his post until a new government is formed. A coalition of the conservative Liberals, the Labor party, the centrist D66 and the Greens is possible, but politically difficult, putting the Liberals in a minority position in a leftist coalition. And while a coalition with Wilders, who is to be tried in October for inciting racial hatred against Muslims, might seem unsavory, the Liberals have not ruled it out.
Cooperation with Wilders could be essential to coalition building. During a pre-election debate on Tuesday, Rutte said he didn't want to rule out cooperation with any party. And when the Party for Freedom's initial results were announced, Rutte called them impressive. Cohen has said he would not form a coalition with the party of Wilders, who is regarded as his political opposite. But a coalition composed exclusively of left-leaning parties is unlikely, as they don't appear to have enough seats. Wilders himself has said he favors a coalition with the Liberals and Christian Democrats, and that a government without his party's participation would be "not democratic."
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here
09 June 2010
Liberals, Labour tie Dutch vote (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The Dutch centre-right Liberal Party and Labour have tied at 31 parliament seats out of 150 in an early exit poll as an extreme anti-immigrant party leapt to third spot with 23. The VVD led by 43-year-old Mark Rutte had been widely expected to come out tops in pre-election polls, but lost steam overnight to land on par with the PvdA labour party of Job Cohen, 62.
The Party for Freedom (PVV) of anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders more than doubled its parliamentary representation to 23 seats from its current nine, making it the third largest, according to a provisional estimate by polling company Synovate and announced on national television. The PVV surpassed even the Christian Democratic Action of outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, 54, which had been polled in third place but came fourth with 21 seats.
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here
Election triumph puts anti-Islam Wilders in line for Dutch Cabinet role (The Times)
The Freedom Party of the anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders emerged as the third force in Dutch politics last night, more than doubling its number of seats in Parliament in the country’s general elections. Exit polls predicted that Mr Wilders would command 23 seats, up from 9 — pushing the Christian Democrats, led by the outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, into fourth place. With the Dutch Labour Party running neck-and-neck with the cost-cutting right-wing Liberal Party (VVD), it was unclear who would form the next government. A late rally by Labour, led by the former Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, saw them forecast to win 31 seats in the 150-member Parliament — the same number as Mark Rutte’s VVD party.
Commentators were warning yesterday that forming a coalition could take many weeks. The biggest losers were the Christian Democrats, who plummeted from 41 seats to 21 in a damning indictment of Mr Balkenende’s eight years in charge. He is expected to resign and a new leader could still take the party into the new coalition.
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here
Dutch PM resigns amid tie between two other leading parties (Deutsche Welle)
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende resigned Wednesday from both his parliamentary seat and as leader of his party after his Christian Democrats lost half their seats in general elections. “I have informed the party chairman that I will lay down my party membership with immediate effect,” Balkenende told party members at a televised gathering. “The voter has spoken, the outcome is clear." He added that he was taking “political responsibility” for the defeat. The Christian Democrats came in fourth with a historic low of just 21 seats, down from an earlier 41. The austerity-minded VVD had been projected to take the election, but Labor's strong showing suggests prolonged coalition talks are yet to come. The two parties occupy opposite spots on the political spectrum. Balkenende's coalition with the Labor party collapsed in February after the Labor members of the government refused to support a request to extend the Netherlands' troop presence in Afghanistan.
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here
08 June 2010
From the
Associated Press:
Police in Peru say the Dutchman Joran van der Sloot has confessed to killing a young woman in his Lima hotel room last week. Police Colonel Abel Gamarra told The Associated Press early Friday that van der Sloot confessed during an interrogation. Van der Sloot was also the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of an American teenager on the Caribbean island of Aruba.
Read the full article
here (AP updates as breaking news occurs)
07 June 2010
From
BusinessWeek:
Dutch polls show voters are set to oust Christian Democrat Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in elections this week, turning to Mark Rutte’s Liberals, the most committed of the three main parties to spending cuts. The Liberals, known by their initials VVD in Dutch, may have enough support to win 36 of the 150 parliamentary seats on June 9, according to a June 4 poll by Synovate. That’s an increase on the 22 they won in the last vote in 2006. The poll suggests the Christian Democrats may get 23 seats, down from 41 last time, and Job Cohen’s Labor Party 30 seats, down from 33. Geert Wilders’s anti-immigrant Freedom Party is in fourth place.
A VVD election win would leave Rutte, 43, in position to become his party’s first prime minister, though he’d need to form a coalition with two or even three other parties to gain a majority in parliament. The Netherlands hasn’t had a four-party government since 1977. “The formation of a government will be more difficult than ever,” Aarts said in an interview. Polls suggest 10 parties will have seats in the new parliament. The D66 party, which advocates greater use of referendums to decide on laws, is set to increase its number of lawmakers to 11 from 3, according to the Synovate poll. That survey has an average margin of error of 1.5 percentage points.
One issue that may be key in coalition talks is a tax break for home owners on mortgage interest payments, which the Christian Democrats and Liberals want to keep and other parties, including Labor, are seeking to phase out. The Netherlands has the highest level of mortgage debt compared with GDP in the European Union, according to 2008 data of the European Mortgage Federation.
Read the full article
here
05 June 2010
From the
New York Daily News:
His eyes were moist, his wrists were cuffed, and his mouth was shut tight. The Dutch playboy suspected in the Natalee Holloway disappearance and a murder in Peru was paraded silently past the media Saturday before police started grilling him. A rattled Joran Van der Sloot, 22, wore a green bulletproof vest as he was led from an Interpol SUV and marched through a horde of journalists in a packed police auditorium. The accused killer - and prime suspect in Holloway's 2005 disappearance - ignored all questions and stared straight ahead. Police released video Saturday taken by hotel security cameras showing van der Sloot and his alleged victim entering his hotel room together and the Dutchman later leaving alone with his bags.
The circus atmosphere Saturda morning included seven Indian shamans conducting a ritual outside police headquarters in Lima and insults hurled at the murder suspect on the street. Police in Chile, where Van der Sloot went on the lam last week, said the Dutch national insisted he did not kill 21-year-old Flores.
Read the full article
here
On the same day police nabbed Joran Van der Sloot in the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman, the Dutch man was hit with extortion charges in connection with high-profile crime that first put his name in headlines - the disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway. The criminal complaint filed in federal court in Birmingham, Ala., Thursday accused Van der Sloot of promising to divulge the location of Holloway's body in return for $250,000 last month, the Associated Press reported. The target of the alleged extortion plot was not named, but Holloway's family hails from Mountain Brook, Ala.
Read more:
New York Daily News
03 June 2010
From the
New York Daily News:
The Dutch national long linked to Natalee Holloway's disappearance was arrested Thursday in the murder of a Peruvian woman exactly five years later. Joran Van der Sloot was taken into custody five days after authorities charged he fled a hotel in Lima, Peru, leaving behind the battered body of 21-year-old Stephany Flores.
CNN reported his arrest happened in Chile, and there were no immediate details.
The murder suspect's New York lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said he has not heard from his client or law enforcement - and repeated his warning to avoid a rush to judgement. He noted that the killing apparently occurred Sunday morning, yet the body wasn't discovered until three days later. "What happened? They didn't clean the hotel room for four days?" Tacopina asked Thursday. "Something's not right here. I'm not taking any position except let's wait and see."
Read the full article
here
CNN
02 June 2010
From
ABC News:
Joran van der Sloot, the 22-year-old Dutch playboy twice arrested in the mysterious disappearance of American Natalee Holloway, has been named the prime suspect in the death of a young Peruvian woman found dead in a Lima hotel today, five days after she disappeared. Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramirez (21), disappeared Friday and was found dead this morning at the Miraflores Hotel Tac in Lima, Peru . Flores was last seen with van der Sloot, the Dutch national who was twice arrested and released in connection with the disappearance of Holloway, an 18-year-old American student who went missing in Aruba five years ago this week.
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02 June 2010
From the
Christian Science Monitor:
The Dutch government is giving BP officials in the Gulf of Mexico advanced oil recovery technology it says will be more effective than previous efforts. The technology, called the sweeping arm system, was developed by the Dutch in the early 1970s and has been used to successfully combat oil spills – including high-profile disasters involving the Sea Empress, off the coast of Wales, in 1996; and the Prestige, off the coast of Spain, in 2002. On Sunday, the Dutch sent six such systems by airfreight to Houston. They’re also sending a six-member team that can reassemble the parts, load them onto tankers, and train a workforce from T&T Marine – a Galveston, Texas, contractor that BP hired to lead the emergency response effort. The operation should be ready for the BP oil spill in 10 days, says Sjon Huisman, an adviser with the Netherlands’s Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.
The sweeping arm system involves a delicate and slow-moving skimmer that works on the surface of the water, picking up a top layer of oil and water. It moves the concentrated mix to a storage tank where the water and oil are separated and then the water is pumped overboard.
Dutch companies that manufacture the sweeping arm system first contacted BP officials April 23, three days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, according to Mr. Huisman, who spoke by phone from his office in The Hague Tuesday. After receiving little reply, the companies turned to his department for help in reaching out to the US State Department, Huisman says. “We specifically asked those companies that if you have a firm order from BP or the US government, then we can make the arrangements available,” he says. The US Coast Guard made a formal request for the systems May 18, according to Huisman. The six systems that are being sent are new and are from a special reserve that the Dutch government keeps on hand to combat oil spills off its own shores. Dutch law requires the government to combat oil spills, not the oil-rig operators. The Dutch government is acting as a conduit between the US and Dutch companies and is not asking for payment, Huisman says.
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