Video still from the Keep Him Home advert A Dutch TV ad making use of erotic images of supposedly Ukrainian women has triggered a diplomatic row between Amsterdam and Kiev. While Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry rages with indignation, Dutch diplomats act as though nothing has happened. The advert titled Keep Him Home is based on the assumption Ukrainian women are sexy and promiscuous, therefore Dutch... 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has handed his government’s resignation to Queen Beatrix after talks on reducing the country’s budget to meet European guidelines failed. The government information service announced on Monday that the Queen accepted Rutte’s resignation and asked him to tend to urgent matters of the state until elections possibly as early as... 

Care providers and policemen walk on the site where two trains collided between train stations Amsterdam-Sloterdijk and Amsterdam-Centraal in Amsterdam, on April 21, 2012. Two trains have collided in Amsterdam, Dutch media reports. At least 125 people were injured in the accident, around 50 seriously. A spokeswoman for Dutch Railways said the injuries mainly consist of broken bones and bruises. The... 

Kuipers inside the Space Station. The Dutch astronaut is one of the most prolific photographers on the ISS An astronaut on the International Space Station has designed a ‘tripod’ for taking spectacular night-time pictures of Earth – quite a technical feat when you’re on board an orbiting craft that moves at more than four miles a second. Andre Kuipers installed ‘Nightpod’... 

The quantum circuit used in the demonstration is a 3mm x 3mm chip with a 1mm x 1mm diamond in the middle. Scientists have created a working quantum computer inside a diamond that includes protection against ‘decoherence,’ noise that prevents it from functioning properly. Researchers of the University of Southern California, Iowa State University, University of California, Santa Barbara,... 

For decades science fiction writers, and their more practical cousins, engineers, have dreamt of building a flying car. Now that one is about to arrive on the market, the real question emerges: what are flying cars actually for? ­US company Terrafugia has variously labeled its Transition model as a “roadable aircraft” and a “street-legal airplane”, perhaps in a quest to avoid the inherent... 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton The United States says it has exempted 11 nations including 10 European Union members and Japan from tough new sanctions on Iran as they have reduced oil purchase from Tehran. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement on Tuesday that the exemption covers financial institutions from 11 nations – Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France,... 

Iran says it will cut oil exports to more EU countries if they continue their hostile policies. After halting oil flow to Britain and France, Iran threatens to stop oil sales to other European Union member states if the EU continues its hostile policies. Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Ahmad Qalebani on Monday hinted at the possibility of a halt in oil exports to Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany,... 

Members of Ruch Palikota Party wear masks during a vote of no confidence for Health Minister Bartosz Arlukowicz in Poland's parliament in Warsaw January 26, 2012 More European parliaments are refusing to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, claiming it violates human rights. Now, some are asking: “why it was signed in the first place?” It looks like some of the countries who signed... 

The H5N1 virus A man-made virus that could wipe out half humanity has been deemed a terrorist threat. And while the scientists behind the Frankenstein-flu hoped their research would help find a cure, critics fear they have developed the ultimate bio-weapon. When virologist Ron Fouchier and his team of scientists first “mutated the hell out of” the H5N1 bird flu virus and presented their findings... 

Questions: ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has written to the National Transitional Council over Gaddafi’s death The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has said there are ‘serious suspicions’ that the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was a war crime. Luis Moreno Ocampo said he sent a letter to the head of the National Transitional Council asking what the... 

Reports from Mali say three Europeans have been kidnapped and a fourth killed at Timbuktu in the north of the country. The information comes from a Malian government source. The person killed is said to be German; the others’ nationalities are from the Netherlands, South Africa and Sweden, officials and witnesses said, as officials on Saturday ordered a plane to evacuate foreigners from the tourist... 

The Herschel Observatory discovered in an interesting area close to a star; a finding that may help explain the origin of water on Earth. The origin of the planet’s water has been the subject of long debate among scientists. Currently, it is believed that it came to Earth via impacts with comets and asteroids during the formation of the Solar System. An article published on Thursday (20th) in... 

The Dutch monarchy faces a vote in parliament this week which could remove its remaining political powers, stripping Queen Beatrix of her role as head of state and reducing her public functions to purely ceremonial ones. As well as being head of state, the Dutch monarch has traditionally been president of the influential council of state, and has regularly over the years become actively involved in... 

Geert Wilders and his anti-Islam Freedom Party are pushing the Dutch government to class the grandchildren of immigrants as “allochtonen” or non-native. Under current law the third generation children of immigrants in Holland are classified as Dutch, in terms of government statistics and entitlements, as long as both their parents were born there. But the anti-Muslim Freedom Party is concerned...