Brussels - Belgian-Dutch banking giant Fortis was forced to deny rumours that it was experiencing liquidity problems as its shares took a battering for a fifth day in a row Friday.

"We underline the solid position of the bank," Fortis said in a statement released in Brussels and Utrecht.

"Fortis solvency is solid and well above the regulatory minimum," the bank said, adding that its core capital stood at the end of June at an above-target level of 4 billion euros (5.86 billion dollars).

London, September 25 : The bizarre Dutch policy of allowing smokers to puff away on pure cannabis but not tobacco has apparently perplexed police in the Netherlands, who have fined a man for mixing the two substances.

Zero tolerance to tobacco smoking in Dutch cafes and restaurants is being exercised since a ban came into force last July.

A spokesman for the Amsterdam Police has accepted that it is very difficult to understand the rule that allows cannabis smoking while fining tobacco users.

"For logic it is sometimes impossible to explain, even to the Dutch," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

Amsterdam - Once high and mighty, Dutch banks chastened by the credit crisis are now entangled in fierce competition for the savings of ordinary thrifty Dutch citizens.

According to statistics from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), the Dutch had a combined 259 billion euros on private savings accounts in July 2008, a number that had been growing consistently despite the meltdown in other parts of the financial industry.

The trend marks a complete shift from the 1990s, when the Dutch stock exchange increased substantially at the expense of traditional saving, suddenly considered old-fashioned.

Amsterdam - Representatives of cities from around the world and environmental experts met in Amsterdam Tuesday to discuss sustainability of municipalities.

Amsterdam - Short selling on the Dutch stock exchange will be prohibited for the next three months, Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos announced early Monday on Dutch television.

Short selling is when investors sell stock they borrowed from its owners, speculating the stock will lose value. If indeed it does, they can repurchase the same stock cheaper, increasing their profits.

Short selling by investors is believed to have played an important role in the ongoing global credit crisis. The US, Britain and several other countries have also imposed a temporary ban on the practice.

It marks the first time since the global credit crisis began in the summer of 2007 that the Dutch government has actively intervened in Dutch markets.

Amsterdam - Men, not women, are to blame that young adults remain bachelors against their will. Women aren't perfect, but men have no idea how to treat women.

Men are all too often rude and selfish - yet that only hides the fact that they are actually very insecure and have no idea what love and sex are really about.

This was the message from most dating coaches at the Real Man Conference at a two-day international convention in Amsterdam on the art of seducing women.

Many of the 430 participants agreed with the coaches: not women but men have a problem, and it's time they improved themselves.