A Dutch finance minister took over Monday as head of the eurogroup, the group of the 17 eurozone finance ministers, giving him one of the top jobs in Europe's battle to end its financial crisis.
We say that we're not at war with Islam. Yet it's been abundantly clear since Sept. 11, 2001, that a contingent of Islam is at war with us ("5 Questions with Geert Wilders," Web, Sept. 14).
Geert Wilders has been a member of the Dutch Parliament for 14 years and is the founder and head of Holland's Party for Freedom (PVV). He is known across Europe for his staunch defense of individual liberties in the face of increasingly strict speech codes and other politically correct legislation.
With slogans such as "Don't let your vote go up in smoke!" owners of the free-wheeling cafes where bags of hashish are sold alongside cups of coffee are mounting a get-out-the-stoner-vote campaign ahead of next week's Dutch election.
As I write these lines, there are police bodyguards at the door. No visitor can enter my office without passing through several security checks and metal detectors. I have been marked for death. I am forced to live in a heavily protected safe house.
The Netherlands' caretaker prime minister appealed to a polarized Dutch Parliament on Tuesday to help him get the economy back on track rather than let the country drift in political limbo until new elections.
It's getting surprisingly easy to light up in the Netherlands these days _ cigarettes, that is.
It's getting surprisingly easy to light up in the Netherlands these days _ cigarettes, that is.
Just about the last thing the world economy needs right now is a trumped-up digital trade war over electronic data stored and processed on servers located virtually anywhere. However, unless the governments of the United States and Europe and multinational tech companies start talking soon about reconciling and simplifying international data-protection rules, some ominous storm clouds could threaten trans-Atlantic e-commerce.
