Amsterdam - Dutch electrical giant Philips announced a first quarter loss of 57 million euros (76 million dollars) on Tuesday, admitting a "further significant deterioration in our markets."The first quarter profit for 2008, by comparison, was 294 million euros.

Chief Executive Officer Gerard Kleisterlee said "our medical- division sales are also now affected. In our first quarter, like-on- like sales from last year fell from 5.97 to 5.08 billion euros."

Amsterdam  - Shares of the Dutch ING Group rose substantially on Thursday following reports that the worlds' second largest retail bank would focus more on its core business and divest 10 to 15 companies in the following years.

"We are taking ING back to basics on all levels," said Jan Hommen, whose appointment as chairman of the managing board is to be formalized at ING's general shareholders meeting scheduled for April 27.

"The crisis has reinforced the need for us to be even more in touch with our customers. We will be focusing on fewer but more transparent products," Hommen said just before the annual investor's day was due to start.

Amsterdam - Dutch home prices dropped for the third consecutive quarter, the umbrella association of Dutch home realtors NVM said in a report released on Thursday.

Amsterdam - Theatres should not be permitted to reserve seats exclusively for women, Dutch integration minister Eberhard van der Laan said on Tuesday.

Van der Laan was commenting on a Rotterdam theatre's new policy of reserving 50 seats on its first rows exclusively for women during certain performances.

The theatre said the new policy should bring religious Muslim women to the Dutch theatre who would otherwise not to do so to avoid sitting next to a man.

Amsterdam - The controversial Dutch Freedom Party PVV formally announced Monday it would participate in the European Parliament elections scheduled for June 4.

The Freedom Party PVV said one of its current legislators, Barry Madlener, would lead the party list.

The liberal-rightist Freedom Party, established by Geert Wilders after he was ejected from the Liberal VVD party in September 2004, is known for its strong criticism on Islam, Dutch migrant policy and Euro-skepticism.

Amsterdam - The Dutch division of Fortis Bank NV has suffered a net loss of 18.5 billion euros (24.96 billion dollars) in 2008, according to the bank's annual report released on Thursday.

Fortis said 17.7 billion euros of the loss results from one-time write-offs on its share in RFS Holdings.

RFS is the holding that took over ABN Amro. Fortis Bank Netherlands had an 33.8 per cent ownership in RFS.

Some 922 million euros of the loss were caused by exposure to the Madoff fraud affair.