Category Archives: Netherlands

Massacre in Tadamon: how two academics hunted down a Syrian war criminal

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After a rookie militiaman secretly watched a video of 41 people being brutally killed, he knew he had to get the horrific images to the outside world

• Warning: this report contains images readers may find upsetting

On a spring morning three years ago, a new recruit to a loyalist Syrian militia was handed a laptop belonging to one of Bashar al-Assad’s most feared security wings. He opened the screen and curiously clicked on a video file, a brave move given the consequences if anyone had caught him prying.

The footage was unsteady at first, before it closed in on a freshly dug pit in the ground between the bullet-pocked shells of two buildings. An intelligence officer he knew was knelt near the hole’s edge in military fatigues and a fishing hat, brandishing an assault rifle and barking orders.

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Torture photos added to evidence in trial of alleged Dutch drug kingpin

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Images show woman who looks like smuggler known as Godmother of the Coke, who disappeared in 2019

Photographs found on a phone showing the torture of a woman believed to be a Moroccan-Dutch drug smuggler nicknamed the Godmother of the Coke have been added to the prosecution’s evidence against a suspected drug kingpin in his trial in Amsterdam for multiple murders.

Three disturbing images of a woman who bears a close resemblance to Naima Jillal, who disappeared in 2019, were reportedly found on a BlackBerry when Ridouan Taghi was arrested three years ago in Dubai.

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Investigation opened into claims of abuse on Dutch version of The Voice

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Accusations of ‘sexually transgressive behaviour’ and abuse of power cast shadow over original version of popular talent show

Dutch prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into sexual abuse allegations around the talent show The Voice of Holland, saying four suspects are under investigation.

Accusations of “sexually transgressive behaviour” and abuse of power rocked the Netherlands in January, in the country’s first major #MeToo scandal.

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Harry and Meghan to speak at opening of Invictus Games

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Duke and Duchess of Sussex will address spectators in The Hague accompanied by Netflix film crew

The Duke of Sussex took part in a driving challenge as the Invictus Games got under way on Saturday. Ahead of the opening ceremony, he and the Duchess of Sussex joined a junior driving contest where they were driven round a circuit of miniature Land Rovers.

The couple are expected to speak on stage at the Invictus Games opening ceremony on Saturday night.

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ABN Amro apologises for historical links to slavery

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Dutch bank says sorry for ‘pain and suffering’ caused by past actions and activities of its predecessor firms

The Dutch bank ABN Amro has apologised for its predecessors’ role in the slave trade, after it commissioned an investigation into the “untold suffering” it caused.

The investigation, by academics at the International Institute of Social History (IISH), an Amsterdam archive, found that two of ABN Amro’s predecessor companies were involved in either financing the operation of slave plantations directly, or underwriting the trade in products produced by slaves.

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Boy, 14, missing in Malaysia diving trip believed to have died

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Adrian Chesters, a Briton who was rescued on Saturday, says his son Nathen died while they were adrift

The 14-year-old son of a British man is believed to have died following reports that he went missing on a diving trip in Malaysia.

Adrian Chesters, 46, reportedly told the Malaysian coastguard his son Nathen, who has Dutch nationality, had died while they were adrift. Following a dive off the coast of Mersing, in the southern state of Johor, on Wednesday, the group surfaced but were unable to find their boat.

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Putin’s daughters targeted in US sanctions against Russia

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Joe Biden links new measures directly to accounts of atrocities committed by Russian forces in Bucha

The US has announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russia’s top public and private banks and two daughters of Vladimir Putin, following mounting global accusations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

The sanctions targeted Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, two adult daughters of Putin’s with his former wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva.

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Anne Frank: Dutch publisher recalls book on diarist’s betrayal after critical report

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The book named a Jewish notary as a main suspect in exposing the family’s hideout to the Nazis, prompting widespread backlash

The Dutch publisher of a discredited cold case investigation into the betrayal of teenage Jewish diarist Anne Frank said it was recalling the book following a critical report on its findings.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Canadian bestselling author Rosemary Sullivan has been widely criticised by experts since its release in January.

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Finland named world’s happiest country for fifth year running

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Experts say social support, honesty and generosity key to wellbeing, as Afghanistan and Lebanon struggle in global ranking

Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the fifth year in a row, in an annual UN-sponsored index that ranked Afghanistan as the unhappiest, closely followed by Lebanon.

The latest list was completed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Boris Johnson to host Nordic and Baltic leaders for talks on Ukraine invasion

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Prime minister to host summit of Joint Expeditionary Force as he seeks to bolster European resilience

Boris Johnson is preparing to embark on a series of meetings with Nordic and Baltic leaders as he seeks to bolster European resilience after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The prime minister will host a summit of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) in London, where he will urge leaders to work together to ensure no further nations fall victim to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s aggression, No 10 said.

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European countries dominate half of Asian shark fin trade, report reveals

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Despite nearly a third of shark species nearing extinction, Spain supplied 51,000 tonnes of shark fins from 2003-20, says IFAW

European countries are selling so many shark fins to Asia that they dominate nearly half the trade, a study has found.

Shark populations continue to decline, driven by the global shark fin trade. Last year, scientists found a third of sharks and ray species have been overfished to near-extinction, jeopardising the health of entire ocean ecosystems and food security for many countries.

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Amsterdam hostage who helped end siege praised for bravery

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Man who fled armed suspect in Apple store hailed a hero by police

Police hailed a hostage held by a gunman in an Apple store in Amsterdam as a hero on Wednesday after he helped end the tense, hours-long ordeal that gripped the Dutch city.

A 27-year-old man carrying a handgun and semi-automatic weapon entered the store late on Tuesday, taking a Bulgarian man hostage and demanding €200m in cryptocurrency.

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Amsterdam: gunman overpowered and all hostages free after Apple store siege – police

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Dutch police say all hostages are safe after a man with a firearm entered a shop in the city centre, starting a siege that lasted several hours

A man with a firearm who held several people hostage in an Apple store in central Amsterdam has been overpowered after a siege lasting several hours, police have said, adding that the last of the hostages had been freed.

Police had deployed several special units to “get the situation under control” after being alerted of an armed robbery at 5.40 pm (1640 GMT) on Tuesday, which had rapidly transformed into a hostage situation.

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Coronavirus restrictions ease across Europe despite high case rates

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France, Netherlands and Germany all announce plans to reduce or remove Covid controls

France’s nightclubs reopen for the first time in three months on Wednesday and the Netherlands returns to “almost normal” from next Friday, as European countries continue to lift their coronavirus curbs despite relatively high infection numbers.

Groups may also play to standing audiences in French concert venues, customers in bars and cafes will be allowed to eat and drink while standing at the counter and cinemagoers and train passengers can snack during their film or journey.

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Protests against Covid restrictions held in France and Netherlands

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French police fire teargas in Paris, while convoy of vehicles brings The Hague’s city centre to standstill

Demonstrators against Covid-19 restrictions in France and the Netherlands staged protests on Saturday inspired by the “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations in Canada.

In France police fired teargas at demonstrators on the Champs Élysées in Paris shortly after a convoy protesting against restrictions made it into the capital.

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Love in a time of terror: the tragic couples who married at a Dutch Nazi transit camp

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‘Aunt Annie’ was killed in the Holocaust – but not before marrying her sweetheart in captivity. Now her great-niece has found 260 other couples who did the same

Saskia Aukema knew little about her great-aunt Annie, who was murdered during the Holocaust. All she knew was that Annie had declined to go into hiding like her siblings, and continued working as a hospital nurse, even after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands began in May 1940.

“That was the family story: this was the woman who didn’t hide and chose to be with her patients. That was all I knew… this line, this one sentence,” she told the Observer.

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Dutch torture container ‘shows cocaine users the consequences of their habits’

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Discovery of containers allegedly used by drug gang should serve as a reminder to casual users, says prosecutor

The discovery of a soundproofed torture chamber believed to have been used by a narcotics gang should remind recreational cocaine users of the consequences of their habits, a Dutch public prosecutor has said.

Koos Plooij told a court in Amsterdam that the violence of the drug trade was a “repulsive, but apparently unavoidable” result of the widespread use of illegal drugs in the Netherlands and its neighbouring countries.

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Netherlands fertility doctor used own sperm to father 21 children

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Investigation into Jos Beek matches his DNA with children of mothers he treated between 1973 and 1986

A gynaecologist in the Netherlands conceived 21 children and potentially dozens more using his own sperm after prospective parents turned to him for fertility treatment, an investigation has discovered.

Jos Beek worked at Elisabeth hospital in Leiderdorp, now part of Alrijne hospital, between 1973 and 1998. He died in 2019.

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As UK households feel pressure, how are other European countries tackling energy crisis?

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Many European countries are a step ahead of the British government, which has yet to announce plans to help homes facing annual bills of almost £2,000

In the next week Great Britain’s energy regulator will announce the steepest rise ever in its energy price cap, effectively saddling millions of households with an annual energy bill of close to £2,000.

The blow to household finances follows almost six months of record high energy market prices because of the global gas crisis. Despite the deepening gloom facing bill payers, ministers are yet to agree a package of measures to prevent a national energy crisis.

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Covid live: UK reports 346 daily deaths; Denmark aims to end all restrictions

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UK also records over 102,000 daily cases; Danish plan would mean most far-reaching easing among Nordic countries

The key lines from UK foreign secretary Liz Truss on Sky News are that she has reiterated her 100% support for the prime minister, she has said that she herself attended no parties during lockdown, and she also said – albeit with a slight pause – that she had not been invited to any parties during lockdown. She declined, when asked, to call for Labour leader Keir Starmer to also be investigated by police over having a beer in a constituency office.

Beyond that she said “I’m not going to prejudice the findings of the Sue Gray report, or indeed, the police investigation” or words to that effect quite a lot. She said:

I believe that he’s done a fantastic job as prime minister, whether it’s delivering Brexit, delivering the Covid vaccines, the booster programmes. We’ve now got a much faster growing economy than many of our competitors, thanks to his work, and I believe that’s what we should focus on … I don’t think it’s helpful to speculate on specific claims or specific accusations about what may or may not have happened.

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