Amsterdam - Women who are career-minded should only seek
employment with Royal Dutch Shell, electronics manufacturer Philips or
telecommunications company KPN - but the best treatment comes from the
Dutch government, according to a survey published Thursday.

A survey conducted by marketing research institute TNS NIPO among
1,096 Dutch managers of 150 companies showed the three multinationals
were the most women-friendly companies in the Dutch business sector.

The survey, published on Thursday in Management Team magazine, also
said civil-servant positions with national or local authorities were
considered most women-friendly.

Civil-servant jobs received 4,006 points from the managers

Amsterdam - The European parliament on Wednesday refused to allow the screening of an anti-Isla

Amsterdam - Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen should convince NATO to appoint an independent inspector-general to supervise Afghanistan's reconstruction, Dutch legislator Femke Halsema said in the Dutch parliament on Tuesday.

If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization does not want to appoint such an official in Afghanistan, then the Netherlands should appoint an inspector-general itself, Halsema said.

The leader of the Greens Party was speaking following the recent report in the US daily The New York Times citing a draft US federal government document as saying the

Amsterdam  - Marijuana may still rank third on the list of most popular export Dutch products, but the liberal Dutch approach to drugs and sex seems to have ended in the Netherlands.

In a new attempt to curb crime seen as linked to the sex and drugs trade across the Netherland, several major Dutch cities decided dramatically to cut back their officially regulated local prostitution zones in 2008.

Dutch mayors joined forces to close down or replace their local 'coffee shops' - stores were so-called soft drugs are sold legally.

In addition, the Dutch parliament outlawed the sale of particular soft drugs, such as certain types of mushrooms, that had only been legalized a few years earlier.

Amsterdam - The number of Dutch right-wing extremist rallies increased from eight to 12 in 2007, but extreme-right activists committed less incidents involving violence, an annual study released Thursday showed.

The 2008 study on racism and extremism by the Anne Frank Foundation and the University of Leiden said the number of violent incidents committed by Dutch extremists dropped by almost 10 per cent from 259 in 2006 to 223 in 2007, the lowest number in the past 10 years.

At the same time, extreme-right nationalists increasingly sought confrontations with individuals and the police.

Amsterdam - The major organizations active in the Dutch residential real estate market want the government to take extra measures to boost home sales, Dutch media reported on Thursday.

The organizations sent a letter to Minister of Residential and Urban Affairs Eberhard van der Laan (Labour) requesting special measures to boost the home market.

On Wednesday the Central Bureau of Statistics said the number of home sales in November dropped by more than 50 per cent compared with the same month last year.