Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende tendered his Cabinet’s resignation to Queen Beatrix today, a move that will ultimately lead to new elections.

THE Dutch government resigned yesterday amid infighting over a failed attempt to strip a prominent Somali-born critic of Islam of her Dutch citizenship — setting the stage for elections likely to be dominated by immigration issues.

The trial was to open today of 14 men accused of belonging to an alleged network of young Muslim men plotting acts of terrorism, including the murder of Dutch politicians.

A DUTCH court sentenced the killer of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh to life in prison yesterday, the harshest sentence for a murder that stunned the country, heightened ethnic tensions and raised concerns about homegrown Islamic terrorism.

The man who confessed to killing film-maker Theo van Gogh in a murder that stunned the Netherlands will be sentenced today.

Ronan Mullen YOU might have thought the ability to drink alcohol and shake hands was essential for the smooth running of the EU, but you’d be wrong.

Nicola Boden, Amsterdam

The accused killer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh ignored his victim’s pleas for mercy and calmly shot him at close range before slitting his throat, prosecutors said today at the first public hearing in the murder case.

She inspires both admiration and rage, and has become one of the most familiar faces on the backbench of Holland’s parliament.

HOLLAND is internationally famous for its tolerance.

THE killers of an outspoken Dutch filmmaker threatened his scriptwriter — a politician who renounced Islam and criticised its customs — in a letter that was pinned to the victim’s body with a knife.

An Islamic radical accused of killing Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, then slitting his throat, will be tried as a terrorist.

A letter left on the body of a Dutch film-maker murdered in Amsterdam contained death threats against a politician, apparently written by an unknown organisation.

A letter left on the body of a Dutch film-maker murdered in Amsterdam contained death threats against a Dutch politician and was signed by an unknown group, the justice minister said tonight.

A DUTCH film-maker who received death threats after making a movie criticising the treatment of women under Islam was murdered in an Amsterdam street yesterday.

THE Netherlands is set for a cliff-hanging general election today. A year ago, a dapper gay populist who railed against immigrants in general and Muslims in particular and then was shot to death in a car-park nine days before elections.