Netherlands

Skating-mad Dutch mark centennial of Eleven Cities Tour

Skating-mad Dutch mark centennial of Eleven Cities TourLeeuwarden, 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.

Dutch navy frees 16 Yemeni fishermen from pirates

Dutch navy frees 16 Yemeni fishermen from piratesNairobi/The Hague  - A Dutch naval unit Saturday freed 16 Yemeni fishermen and their vessel after boarding a boat used by Somali pirates to attack a tanker in the Gulf of Aden, a Dutch military spokesman said in The Hague.

He said nine pirates were briefly detained but then released after their weapons were seized. Pirates had been in a speedboat operating from the fishermen's dhow which they had been using as a "mother ship" after seizing it earlier in the week.

Rutten signs as PSV Eindhoven coach from next season

Rutten signs as PSV Eindhoven coach from next season Eindhoven, Netherlands  - Fred Rutten signed a three-year contract as PSV Eindhoven coach in his native Netherlands on Friday, with the job starting on July 1.

Rutten, 46, put pen to paper three weeks after being fired at German club Schalke 04, where he didn't last a full season.

At PSV, Rutten will take over from Dwight Lodeweges, who acted as caretaker since the January retirement of Huub Stevens.

Europol: Terrorist attacks in Europe down in 2008

Europol: Terrorist attacks in Europe down in 2008The Hague

Dutch right-wing politician to make new anti-Islam film

Dutch, Amsterdam Amsterdam- Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders is to make a film about the "Islamisation" of the West in a follow up to his controversial 2008 film Fitna, which aroused fury in the Muslim world.

In an article in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Wilders said that he intended to show how western Europe had been affected by immigration from Muslim countries.

"We have to attack more, go on the offensive. We have to fight back," the paper quoted him as saying.

Dutch technology firm suffers major loss in first quarter

Amsterdam - Dutch technology firm ASML said it suffered a 117-million-euro (155.32-million-dollar) loss in the first quarter of 2009. Releasing its first quarter results on Wednesday, ASML, which makes lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, said net sales in the first quarter of the year amounted to 184 million euros - compared with 919 million euros in the same period in 2008.

"Semiconductor equipment demand collapsed in the first quarter of 2009," ASML CEO Eric Meurice said in a statement.

However, he added a drastic cost-saving program had freed up more than 300 million euros in working capital, ensuring the company could maintain all its "strategic investments".

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