Pushing ahead with its expansion plans, European EV fast-charging network developer Fastned has successfully raised €150 million though an accelerated bookbuild offering to qualified investors.

In The Netherlands, the RET public transport operator in Rotterdam has received a funding of EUR 115 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB), for the purchase of electric and hybrid buses.

Amsterdam - A Dutch court Friday fined a man for sending a death threat to controversial right-wing politician Geert Wilders.

The man, who has not been named, emailed Wilders with a message "We will get you, Kalashnikov AK-47."

Wilders, the leader of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), hit headlines worldwide last year for his film Fitna, harshly critical of Islam.

Amsterdam  - Amsterdam will earmark Olympic locations over the next months in a first step to host the 2028 Games, the city's alderman for public spaces said on Friday.

Amsterdam hopes to land the Games 100 years after hosting the 1928 edition.

Mayor Job Cohen had talked about the plan at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and alderman Maarten van Poelgeest said such Games were for the whole country.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni police arrested on Tuesday one of the kidnappers who took a Dutch couple hostage for two weeks in a mountainous area east of the capital Sana'a, the Interior Ministry reported.

The ministry said in a statement that the kidnapper was among four men listed on an arrest warrant issued by police after the release of the hostages.

Jan Hogendoorn, 54, and his wife Heleen Janszen, 49, were taken captive at gunpoint by armed tribesmen as they were driving in a southern Sana'a suburb on March 31. They were released unharmed on April 13.

Leeuwarden, Netherlands  - The pride of Friesland, a northern province of the Netherlands, is a cross - the Eleven Cities Cross, to be precise. Arend Hansma, a 60-year-old Frisian, is among those who have been awarded one after reaching the finish line of the Elfstedetocht or Eleven Cities Tour, the world's toughest ice-skating marathon.