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.

Amsterdam  - Two employees of the US plane-builder Boeing were among the nine dead in Wednesday's plane crash outside Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the company confirmed early Friday.

A third employee of the firm, who had been on board the Turkish Boeing 737-800 that crashed on approach to the airport, was injured and remains in hospital, the Seattle-based concern said in a statement.

Boeing is awaiting information from the crash investigation about what caused the accident, which came at the end of the scheduled morning flight from Istanbul when the aircraft came down suddenly short of the airport runway.

The Hague  - Days before the official opening of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, its main court room still looks the way it did when the UN staff took over the building: A gymnasium.

The green sports floor with typical yellow, white and red lining is still there, as is other standard gym equipment.

Amsterdam - Dutch authorities Thursday released the list of nationalities of the passengers on the Turkish Airlines plane that crashed just short of Schiphol Airport the day before.

The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 53 Dutch and 51 Turkish nationals, as well as a number of from such other countries as Italy, Germany and Taiwan, said Theo Wetering, mayor of the Haarlemmermeer municipality, at a press conference at the airport.

The nationality of 15 people was still not known, he said.