THE ten million-strong Dutch electorate are expected to put the right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) into government as their concern shifts from immigration to the economy.

A LIBYAN plane carrying 104 people crashed yesterday on approach to Tripoli’s airport, leaving a field scattered with smouldering debris that included a large chunk of the tail painted with the airline’s brightly coloured logo. A 10-year-old Dutch boy was the only known survivor.

Dutch troops will begin leaving southern Afghanistan in August, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said today.

The Netherlands' coalition government has collapsed over the country's military mission in Afghanistan, the prime minister said today.

Tony Blair is out of the EU Presidency race.

THE chances of the Lisbon Treaty entering into force took a major step forward last night as EU leaders agreed with the Czechs on an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

THE Czech Constitutional Court has adjourned until next week its ruling on the Lisbon Treaty, taking the issues of a new Commission and the jobs of an EU president and foreign minister off the agenda for tomorrow’s summit in Brussels.

A SPEEDING car raced toward an open bus carrying the Dutch royal family during a holiday parade yesterday and ploughed into spectators, killing five people and injuring 13 others in an apparently deliberate act, authorities said.

Dutch politician Geert Wilders has released a film critical of Islam, setting verses of the Koran against a background of images from terrorist attacks.

Holland’s prime minister said he had won broad EU solidarity from the bloc’s leaders in case the expected release of an anti-Koran film by a maverick Dutch lawmaker leads to violence.

Holland’s prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende has warned a maverick politician of the risks to Dutch national interests if he presses ahead with a film criticising the Koran.

Mounted riot police charged hundreds of pupils demonstrating over plans to increase school hours today.

HAVING been reduced to tears by the Taoiseach’s famous interview with Brian Dobson on RTÉ news last year, I pity Bertie Ahern having to exist on a mere €310,000 annual salary (plus expenses, driver, jet, make-up, etc) which he has been forced to accept.

The Dutch parliament is holding crisis talks today after MPs passed a motion condemning its caretaker immigration minister for refusing to halt deportations of rejected asylum seekers until a new ruling coalition was formed.

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s centre-right Christian Democrats won the most seats in Dutch elections, but results today showed a sharply divided nation with no alliance winning a clear mandate to govern.

Polls open this morning in the Netherlands as the Dutch vote for a new parliament.

The Dutch ministers of justice and housing will resign after an investigation found they were partially to blame for a fire at a jail at Amsterdam’s airport that killed 11 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation, the state broadcaster reported today.

Netherlands’ caretaker Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende began forming a new minority Cabinet today, less than a week after his government collapsed.

The Dutch government quit today 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.

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

EUROPE'S Constitution could be back on the agenda later this year.

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.

German chancellor Angela Merkel forecast negotiations on the EU’s future budget would prove difficult and said Germany would not push for a deal at any price.

European Union leaders headed for a showdown in Brussels today at a summit where deep divisions over the EU budget have exacerbated a crisis sparked by French and Dutch voters’ rejection of the bloc’s proposed constitution.

French president Jacques Chirac and Germany’s chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have called on Europe’s leaders to press on with the beleaguered EU Constitution.

Anthony Deutsch, The Hague

Chastened by the voters, Dutch MPs today abandoned plans to ratify the EU constitution as European leaders started preparing for a summit to deal with a deepening crisis.

European leaders may have to scrap the proposed EU constitution after Dutch voters rejected it by a massive margin, voicing their concern over dwindling national identity in a rapidly expanding union and increasingly powerful bureaucrats.

Nicola Boden, Amsterdam

Dutch voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposed EU constitution today, dealing a devastating blow to hopes of salvaging a charter already decisively defeated by the French.

Dutch voters today delivered their verdict on the proposed EU constitution, and polls indicated they would deepen the crisis over the future of the European Union by following France’s lead and rejecting the document.

The Dutch began voting in their first national referendum today, choosing whether to accept – or more likely, reject – a proposed European Union constitution.

THE Dutch are expected to put the final nail in the coffin of the European Constitution today by following the French example and voting overwhelmingly against it.

As Dutch leaders made an 11th-hour plea for a “Yes” vote on the European Union constitution, polls suggested a disillusioned public will reject the charter in a referendum tomorrow by an even larger margin than the stunning “No” delivered by France.

US President George Bush paid homage today to the “terrible price” paid by World War II soldiers who never came home from their fight against tyranny.

EU leaders and Turkey have made the historic decision to start membership talks next year, but the latest candidate immediately stirred up a row.

The European Union today told China it will maintain its 15-year-old embargo on arms sales until Beijing makes significant improvements in its human rights record.

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko suffered a setback in the Ukraine’s parliament today when his foes blocked electoral amendments intended to avert fraud in a new presidential runoff later this month.

Neighbours of a house in The Hague where a police siege is on-going have said snipers were posted on nearby rooftops and Dutch special forces were also at the scene.

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 power struggle over the make-up of the new EU Commission is continuing with European governments refusing to recall their controversial commissioners as demanded by the European Parliament.

An online statement purportedly from an Islamic militant group threatened the Netherlands and Italy with “bloodbaths” if they don’t withdraw their troops from Iraq.

DUTCH authorities reacted with horror to the death of one of the country’s soldiers in Iraq but vowed that the Netherlands would not bow to terror and would maintain its troops in the country.

EU leaders defended their proposed constitution today against criticism that it will create a European superstate, and urged MEPs to do all they can to sell it to an increasingly sceptical public.