Ankara - Turkish Airlines Tuesday announced that it was prepared to immediately pay compensation to the families of those killed and all surviving passengers on board flight TK 1951 which crashed while approaching Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport last week.

Amsterdam - Former Bosnian-Serb president Radovan Karadzic declined Tuesday to enter a plea at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

Karadzic was asked to enter his plea in response to the 11 counts in the revised indictment filed against him. Presiding judge Iain Bonomy ordered that the court record Karadzic pleaded "not guilty".

Amsterdam - Until now only well-off Beatles fans could afford to spend a night in the hotel suite used by John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their honeymoon.

But management at the Amsterdam Hilton are to allow members of the public to catch a glimpse of the famous suite where the newly-wed couple spent a week 40 years ago.

Beatles fans can visit the suite from March 21 to 29 when a number of events will be taking place including a photo exhibition about the "Bed-In for Peace."

Amsterdam - The main index of the Amsterdam stock exchange AEX on Monday dropped to 211.86 points as of mid-afternoon, down 3.6 per cent from Friday's close of 219.81 points and well below the psychological "red line" level of 218 points.

The value of Dutch insurer Aegon shares had dropped the most, plunging 11.43 per cent) and stood at 2.55 euros (3.22 dollars).

Amsterdam - Dutch supermarket giant Ahold was holding up against the financial crisis, the company said upon releasing positive fourth quarter results for 2008 on Monday.

The company said net income in the last three months of 2008 was 285 million euros (360.53 million dollars), up from 262 million euros in the same period in 2007.

Ahold runs the biggest Dutch supermarket chain, Albert Heijn, as well as US stores Stop&Shop and Giant-Carlisle.

Responding to the company results Chief Executive Officer John Rishton said Ahold was "well prepared to respond to the effects of recession."

Amsterdam - Turkish Airlines will be flying the bodies of the five passengers who died in a plane crash on Wednesday near Amsterdam back to Turkey, an airline spokesman said Friday.

The transfer of the bodies may possibly take place on Saturday.

Three of the five Turkish nationals who died in Wednesday's crash were crew members.