Alain de Botton's homilies in the Rijksmuseum are proof positive that old Europe is dead You have to pay attention at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum to realise it is inviting the public to witness the death of old Europe. The Dutch don't know it. They have spent 370m refurbishing its 19th-century halls and the museum now shines as one of the world's great cultural centres. Nor do funereal sentiments greet...
Key countries in which UN conventions prohibiting the use, possession and supply of cannabis are being increasingly flouted, or strictly observed Continue reading... ...
Debate among health experts switches to regulation of cannabis as drug policy in US, Uruguay and Spain flouts UN conventions Legalisation of cannabis is making slow but unstoppable progress across much of the developed world, many experts believe, following the end of prohibition in two US states. In Amsterdam, long famous for its coffee shops, identifiable by pictures of marijuana outside and fumes...
What Britain can learn from the Netherlands about defending against floods and adapting to climate change It is 100 days since David Cameron visited the submerged Somerset levels at the peak of the winter floods that devastated swathes of England and hundreds of broken flood defences have now been repaired thanks to £270m of emergency funding from government. But in the Netherlands, also battered...
Calls grow for further ECB stimulus as GDP data shows France and Italy flatlining and Netherlands suffering shock contraction The eurozone's fragile economic recovery suffered a setback in the first quarter after slower-than-expected growth. The combined currency bloc scraped together growth of 0.2% between January and March, in line with growth in the previous quarter but disappointing expectations...
Londons Victoria and Albert Museum took home the gong for best of the best at this year's Museums Heritage Awards, while Portsmouth's Mary Rose Museum won prize for the best permanent exhibition. Here's a selection of shots of all of this year's winners Continue reading... ...
Activists including members of 'Arctic 30' detained as they try to stop Gazprom ship delivering oil to Rotterdam Dutch police on Thursday arrested around 30 Greenpeace activists, including the captain of the lobby group's ship Rainbow Warrior, as they tried to stop a Russian tanker delivering Arctic oil from docking. "The captain has been arrested and the ship is being taken elsewhere else,"...
Prison populations have fallen in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany but elsewhere it is a mixed picture The Netherlands has more prison staff than prisoners. Sweden is shutting down jails because prisoner numbers have fallen by 10% in under a decade. In Germany, the decline is even starker: a fall of almost 20% since 2005. In the Netherlands, almost half of all prison capacity is empty. "Community...
Special report Parties demanding everything from reform to withdrawal are riding high on wave on discontent The Foire aux Fromages et aux Vins in Coulommiers, an attractive town on the undulating Brie plateau an hour east of Paris, is a fabulously French affair: a monumental marquee, hordes of happy visitors and more than 350 stalls laden with Gallic bounty. Among the cheeses are tomme from Savoie,...
Detectives believe Wayne Davies, 22, could have fallen into the city's extensive network of canals and waterways The body of a British tourist who went missing following a night out in the Dutch city of Leiden has been recovered from a canal. Wayne Davies, 22, went missing after leaving the Hifi nightclub in Leiden, in the west of the Netherlands, in the early hours of 19 April. His mother raised the...
Can a device that began life as hairdryer parts in a shoebox really bring countries one step closer to malaria eradication? It started on a kitchen table with a hairdryer, a shoebox and a pile of electronics. Three years later Amplino a low-cost, highly sensitive malaria detector is almost ready for field-testing in rural Zambia. Continue reading... ...
Government-funded body backs service offering individual articles from newspaper and magazine publishers Faced with dwindling circulations, a new Dutch news platform is hoping to boost engagement by letting readers buy articles individually and offering them a money-back guarantee. Continue reading... ...
The Netherlands offers inspiration for designers looking to create environments that harvest water, energy and nutrients Urban farms are transforming inner city spaces rooftops, infrastructure, streetscapes, building skin into generative ecologies that support the lives of people, and pollinators too. They are bringing into cities, and into plain view, the natural systems that sustain urban life. That...
World-famous musician, 71, surprises many with announcement he is to leave Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam The chief conductor of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariss Jansons, is to step down after leading the world-famous ensemble for a decade. The RCO announced on Tuesday that the celebrated conductor will retire at the end of the 2015 season from what is widely considered...
Teens from UK and US believed to have been targeted by man charged in connection with suicide of Canadian Amanda Todd A British teenager may have been among the victims of a man who has been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of inciting 15-year-old girls to perform sex acts on the internet. Britain's National Crime Agency said Dutch prosecutors had started proceedings against the unnamed 35-year-old...
Canadian teenager committed suicide in 2012 after posting YouTube video detailing harassment and bullying An arrest has been made in the Netherlands in the case of the Canadian teenager Amanda Todd who was blackmailed to expose herself in front of a webcam, Canadian police confirmed on Thursday. The 15-year-old later committed suicide after detailing her harassment on a YouTube video watched by millions...
Tax campaigners question benefits of move from Netherlands where firm's office is little more than 'conduit or moneybox' Tax campaigners have questioned whether Starbucks will make a significant additional contribution to Treasury coffers after the coffee chain announced that it is moving its European head office from the Netherlands to the UK. Accountant and campaigner Richard Murphy said the coffee...
Pope Francis pays tribute to Francis Van Der Lugt and others dying in his 'beloved Syria' Pope Francis has denounced the "brutal slaying" of an elderly Jesuit priest in Syria and called for an end to the violence. A masked gunman killed Francis Van Der Lugt in his monastery on Monday in the besieged Syrian city of Homs. The slaying underscored fears among many of Syria's Christian and Muslim...
Case at The Hague brought by Mothers of Srebrenica group blames Dutch peacekeepers for not preventing genocide Survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre opened a civil suit against the Dutch government on Monday, saying Dutch peacekeepers should have protected the victims of Europe's worst massacre since the second world war. "They did not prevent the murder of thousands of civilians," the...
Netherlands also signs separate deal as countries public sectors seek more time to migrate from 12-year-old operating system The UK and Dutch governments have paid Microsoft multiple millions to extend support for Windows XP past the 8 April cutoff date. The UK extension cost £5.5m but is only valid for a year, after which public-sector users will have to be moved to newer software. Continue...