The weekend confrontation between Turkey, Holland, and Germany may seem a remote, Mitteleuropa sideshow but it is not at all.

Fionnuala McCormack will have to overcome her Turkish nemesis at the European Cross Country Championships in Chia, Italy, tomorrow.

‘At this stage, we can’t remember how many times we’ve played, and we have to go home tomorrow… if we make our flight!”

Day Seven of the Olympic Games produced even more history from an Irish point of view, with the medals table reached finally at the end of the opening week.

One can only hope that xenophobic Trumpism will be rejected by the American electorate, writes Pankaj Mishra

The ECB is asking the larger banks it oversees to analyse the risks they would face if the UK left the EU.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges often says Europe needs fewer, bigger telecommunications carriers that can invest in faster networks and better compete with Google and Facebook. Deutsche Telekom has a 12% stake in BT.

Prefabricated homes must become part of the solution to the homeless crisis before winter sets in, the Peter McVerry Trust has urged.

Irish cyclist Ryan Mullen has finished eighth in the individual men’s time trial at the European Games in Baku.

The European Parliament’s Green Party has cleared the first legal hurdle for the creation of a committee to look into tax evasion in the wake of revelations about hundreds of secret deals for companies in Luxembourg.

Britain’s Stephen Dillane and the Netherlands’ Bianca Krijgsman received the top acting prizes at the 42nd International Emmy Awards.

Dutch authorities have identified 127 victims from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster in Ukraine.

A body has been found in the wheel well of an airliner that landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

In the end, Wurst was voted the best.

UCD’s Mark English underlined his world-class potential at the Woodie’s DIY AAI Games in Athlone yesterday with a national 800m indoor record (1:46.82) which qualifies him for the world indoors.

Prisoners in the Netherlands may soon have to pay for their cell accommodation, if a bill becomes law.

A Russian opposition group says its activists threw tomatoes at Dutch King Willem-Alexander and his wife, Queen Maxima, as they arrived for a concert in Moscow.

Ireland’s youth unemployment rate is one of the worst in Europe.

“This means everything to me. This bronze medal is worth much more than the gold I won in Athens,” said Cian O’Connor last night after his stunning performance in London yesterday with Blue Loyd.

The absence of yachts from Dublin Bay on a bank holiday Monday in August was the first sign that it was no ordinary day for Ireland’s sailing community.

A 68-year-old woman has died of injuries she sustained when two trains collided head-on in Amsterdam, injuring scores of passengers.

COST-CONSCIOUS motorists who opted for diesel cars to save money are finding the fuel costs as much — if not more — than petrol on the garage forecourts.

The Dutch government is to reclassify high-strength marijuana alongside hard drugs such as cocaine and Ecstasy.

HATE trial Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ attacks on Islam are his opinions, not facts, the hearing was told yesterday.

Muslims in the Netherlands say that remarks by politician Geert Wilders have poisoned attitudes toward them, according to complaints disclosed at his hate speech trial today.

A VICAR saying God ‘doesn’t exist’ is allowed to preach while a farmer has been told to remove a “Jesus saves” sign from his barn.

A speeding car smashed into a crowd of royal watchers today near a open-top bus carrying the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix today, killing two of them.

Amsterdam will close almost a fifth of its marijuana cafes to comply with a national ban on having them near schools, the city’s mayor said today.

GERMAN-BASED Tipperary show jumper Denis Lynch continues to strengthen his team, acquiring the ride on two new horses.

Switzerland claimed pole position for Sunday’s Sprint and Feature races at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Malaysia courtesy of a sensational performance from Neel Jani in Saturday’s qualifying at the Sepang International Circuit.

SOME executives within Citigroup are pushing for the US banking giant to make a bid for ABN AMRO, which is in discussions about a possible merger with Barclays.

The city of Amsterdam said today it has revoked licenses for 37 businesses, representing nearly a third of the 350 prostitution “windows” in the city’s famed red-light district.

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

For centuries, Dutch windmills have pumped water out of the low-lying country, and old-fashioned wooden mills are as closely linked with the Netherlands’ international image as its dikes and bikes.

SOME NATO members shifted away from a confrontation with the US yesterday, welcoming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s explanation of Washington’s views on secret prisons and the treatment of terrorist suspects.

The Justice Ministry began reviewing safety at Dutch prisons today, a day after the Netherlands’ most deadly fire in a decade killed 11 immigrants awaiting deportation at a detention centre outside Schiphol Airport.

Armed men have kidnapped a woman whose family owns a multi-million-euro company, Dutch police said today.

TWO polls released yesterday showed strong support in the Netherlands for legalising marijuana outright after several decades of a tolerance policy.

THE Dutch government, the first to legalise euthanasia for some terminally-ill people, will tackle an even thornier ethical dilemma: what to do when doctors say it is best to end the lives of infants, the mentally handicapped or the demented.

Apparently inspired by the film Free Willy, a group of activists has stolen a young seal that earlier escaped from a German zoo to set it free.

The Netherlands’ Royal Museum has has bought the 17th-century painting The Mayor of Delft and his Daughter by Dutch master Jan Steen for £8m (€11.9m).

Supermarket giant Tesco could be poised to make a €14.5bn swoop on the assets of troubled Dutch counterpart Ahold, it was reported today.