Amsterdam - Dutch bank and insurance giant ING Group suffered a loss of 478 million euros (609.93 million dollars) in the third quarter of 2008, the firm's first-ever quarterly loss, ING reported on Wednesday.

The quarterly report said the loss was partly the result of write-downs of more than 1.5 billion euros on ING's various assets, including those related to the US real-estate market.

In the third quarter of 2007, ING posted a net profit of 2.3 billion euros.

Wednesday's quarterly report did not come as a surprise.

Amsterdam - The arrival in Rotterdam of the first shipload of palm oil certified as "sustainable" was celebrated on Tuesday, despite the release of a report by the environmentalist group Greenpeace that claimed the producer had violated sustainability standards.

The palm oil from Malaysian producer United Plantions had been certified as sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in September. But Greenpeace claimed in a report that the company does not meet all criteria set for an environmentally friendly product as laid down by the roundtable.

Amsterdam - The first shipload of palm oil certified as "sustainable oil" and due to arrive in Rotterdam on Tuesday, does not meet the criteria set for an environmentally friendly product, Greenpeace told Dutch media on Tuesday.

Greenpeace, the international environmental campaigner, said that United Plantations, the company producing the sustainable palm oil, is cutting down trees from vulnerable peat forests in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

United Plantations would also not meet other conditions for sustainable oil production either, Greenpeace said.

Amsterdam - The sexual morals of Dutch youth has gone astray, the country's youth and family affairs minister was on Monday quoted as saying in a report by the daily Algemeen Dagblad.

"A girl is seen as an object and sex as a currency. The meaning of love does not play any role anymore in the lives of youngsters," Minister Andre Rouvoet said.

Rouvoet said he wants to raise debate about the subject and emphasized he was not proposing specific legal measures.

Amsterdam - Three finalists were named Thursday in an international architectural competition to design a new home for the International Criminal Court (ICC).

An international jury chaired by Liesbeth van der Pol, the Dutch government's chief architect, picked designs from Ingenhoven Architects of Germany, Schmidt Hammer Lassen/Bosch & Fjord, Arhus of Denmark and Wiel Arets Architects & Associates of the Netherlands.

The winning firm will be decided in the coming months. Construction on the Hague-baed court will begin in 2011. Work is scheduled to be completed by 2014.

Amsterdam  - The value of Dutch insurer giant Aegon's shares fell slightly Thursday on the Amsterdam stock exchange following the publication of its third-quarter company results.

Aegon said it lost 329 million euros (428.92 million dollars) in the third quarter of 2008, below the 350 million euros which the company had announced to shareholders in late October.

By 11 am local time (1000 GMT), Aegon share value stood at 3.92 euros, a drop of 2 per cent.

Aegon said the loss came mainly from the ongoing drop in share value on the stock exchange and write-offs on investments.

Write-offs on the US banks Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, both of which collapsed earlier this fall, amounted to 336 million euros.