Amsterdam  - Shares in Dutch bank and insurance giant ING Group shot up over 27.7 per cent on Monday as investors reacted positively to the bank's announcement of plans to slash 7,000 jobs in order to cut costs by 1 billion euros (1.287 billion dollars).

Investors were also pleased with new Dutch government support for ING Group.

A so-called Illiquid Assets Back-up Facility would cover the risks of the ING's Alt-A division, which deals with mortgages in the US subprime market. Due to the financial crisis, the mortgages can no longer be traded.

Amsterdam - The alleged victims of former a Congolese militia leader being tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday became the first victims of war crimes to be represented as equal parties in the case, alongside the prosecution and the defence.

A total of 93 victims have been accepted as party to the trial in which Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is charged with recruiting child soldiers in the bloody civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1998 and 2003.

Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Jan. 22 : A far-right Dutch politician who gained global notoriety with a film claiming links between the Koran and terrorism is to be put on trial for his public statements against Islam.

According to the Independent, Geert Wilders, the leader of the extremist Freedom Party (PVV), said he was surprised that the Amsterdam Appeals Court has allowed his criminal prosecution for inciting hatred and of discriminating against Muslims by comparing their religion to Nazism.

Amsterdam - Dutch fans of US president-elect Barack Obama were making the final preparations on Monday for Obama-parties taking place in several Dutch cities.

The biggest party, organized by the Dutch Obama Fanclub founded several months ago, was due to take place in The Hague.

Hundreds of Obama fans will be watching the inauguration ceremony live on seven huge video screens in restaurant Raar in Scheveningen, near The Hague.

Among the guests is Henk Jan Ormel, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Dutch parliament.

Amsterdam - Former Bosnian-Serb president Radovan Karadzic was due to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague Monday afternoon in a new preliminary hearing.

The extra preliminary hearing was necessary to approve a revised indictment against Karadzic.

Last Thursday, the prosecution of the UN court finally transferred the translation of all documents to the former Bosnian-Serb leader.

The prosecution had completed the new indictment already in September, but the translation of all underlying evidence was not finished until last week.

Amsterdam  - Despite an economic slowdown and a credit crisis, Dutch sex shops and businesses offering erotic services appear to be doing just fine.

A phone inquiry by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa among several leading sex shops and erotic business owners in Amsterdam indicates the erotic sector is relatively stable.

"Sales are going well," says Madeleine Vreekamp of Mail&Female, located in Amsterdam.