• Floodwaters rise as Dutch watch and wait

    AP reports - Dozens of farmers were warned to evacuate land north of the Dutch capital Thursday as a dike protecting the area threatened to collapse.

    Robin Utrecht / AFP - Getty Images

    A Dutch local resident watches floodwaters through his window, in Dordrecht on Jan. 5. Gale force winds and heavy rains are expected along the Dutch coast. About a quarter of the country sits below sea level.

    Local mayor Ben Plandsoen told national broadcaster NOS that a polder — reclaimed land that is drained by pumps and mills — would likely be submerged under some 40 centimeters (16 inches) of water if the dike protecting it breaks.

    Catrinus Van Der Veen / EPA

    People walk on a bridge over the Dutch Groninger Museum as the building is threatened by high water in Groningen, northern Netherlands, on Jan. 5. Although there are fears that the high water caused by heavy rains and storms could flood the museum, it was still open for the public on Jan. 5.

    "You just don't know how the dike will hold up," he said. "It is saturated, so you don't know how much pressure it can take."

    Vincent Jannink / EPA

    A Dutch police officer watches the high water situation in Tolbert, in the north of the Netherlands, on Jan 5, where a dyke may fail and flood farmland, following heavy rains and storms hitting the coastal country.

    Continue reading in the full story...

  • New Year's swimmers brave freezing waters

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Tony Gentle / Reuters

    Marco Fois of Italy dives into the Tiber River from the Cavour bridge, as part of traditional New Year celebrations in Rome Sunday.

    Thousands of people across Europe celebrated the arrival of the New Year by jumping into chilly seas, rivers and lakes Sunday.

    In Italy, several people dived into the River Tiber in a New Year's tradition that stretches back to 1946.

    In Netherlands, thousands of people were said to have run into the icy waters of the North Sea near The Hague.

    Peter Dejong / AP

    Despite temperatures of around 52 degrees Fahrenheit, thousands of people celebrate the New Year by running into the North Sea at Scheveningen, near The Hague, Netherlands.

    Further north in Scotland, scores of people took part in the annual "Loony Dook" (which roughly translates as mad dive or "ducking" in the water) event in the Firth of Forth, an estuary leading to the North Sea.

    Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

    New Year revelers, many in fancy dress, braved freezing conditions in the River Forth in front of the Forth Rail Bridge during the annual "Loony Dook" swim Sunday.

    And in Germany, New Year's day swimmers in a Berlin lake included a group known as the "Berlin Seals."

    Maurizio Gambarini / AFP - Getty Images

    A winter bather of the "Berlin Seals" poses in near-freezing water of the Orankesee lake during a New Year's swimming event Sunday.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Dutch soccer match abandoned after goalie retaliates against pitch invader

    Stanley Gontha / AP

    AZ Alkmaar goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado, right, defends himself against an attacker who rushed from the stands during a cup match against Ajax in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Dec. 21, 2011.

    Olaf Kraak / EPA

    Goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado kicks a man who atacked him from behind during a Dutch Cup soccer match against Ajax.

    Olaf Kraak / AFP - Getty Images

    Players of AZ Alkmaar protest after referee Bas Nijhuis gave a red card to AZ goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado. The match was abandoned when the AZ players walked off the pitch.

    After a soccer fan in the Netherlands ran onto the field and tried to attack the rival team's goalie, the goalie managed to trip the unruly fan and then repeatedly kicked him while he was down. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

    The Associated Press reports:

    The fan, identified by Ajax as a 19-year-old who had been drinking, approached Alkmaar's Esteban Alvarado from behind, but the Costa Rican keeper saw the supporter in time and skillfully tripped him.

    Immediately afterward, Alvarado, enraged by the unexpected and unprovoked attack, kicked the supporter twice where he lay before security guards dragged the intruder off the pitch.

    Referee Bas Nijhuis then gave Esteban a red card for violence. Alkmaar coach Gertjan Verbeek ordered his side to walk out in protest. Read the full story.

  • Recycling Grandma's replacement parts - a grisly business, or a blessing?

    The AP reports from ZWOLLE, Netherlands:

     The recycling warehouse looks unremarkable. Workers sift through dusty containers of screws, rods and iron balls and sort them for processing.

    From the jumble it's hard to tell they were once prosthetic hips, artificial knees and metal implants of all sorts, salvaged from the ashes of crematoria.

    Peter Dejong / AP

    An employee of OrthoMetals separates parts for recycling on a conveyer belt in a warehouse in Zwolle, eastern Netherlands, on Nov. 14. Imperishable body parts are recovered from the ashes of cremated people, and precious metals are also recovered by the crematoria and offered to the family or placed in the urn.

    Peter Dejong / AP

    An employee of OrthoMetals sifts through coffin ornaments on a conveyer belt, rear, as parts of hip implants are seen in a box in the foreground.

    If recycling grandma's replacement parts seems a grisly business, it is in fact a blessing for funeral homes, for the environment and for families who know that the implants that made their loved ones more comfortable are not being discarded in the trash.

    When relatives are asked, virtually no one objects that the ashes are sifted for reusable metals, says Ruud Verberne, director of OrthoMetals, which recovers 200 tons of valuable metals a year from funeral parlors. Read the full story.

    Peter Dejong / AP

    Implants and other materials are collected in a bag for recycling at the OrthoMetals warehouse.

    Peter Dejong / AP

    Stripped gold-plated crucifix coffin ornaments are seen on a conveyer belt during the recycling process.

     

  • Deportation threat draws tears, support for teen immigrant

    By Jonathan Woods, msnbc.com

    Our coverage is so often dominated by immigration issues between the U.S. and Mexico, I was moved by these images from the Netherlands we received today.

    The central figure in this story is a boy named Mauro Manuel. According to the BBC, his mother brought him to the Netherlands as a child, hoping he would have a better life than in their war-torn home of Angola.

    Upon his arrival, he was picked up by police and eventually fostered by a family in Limburg.

    Now that he has reached adulthood, Dutch immigration law states he is to be deported, but supporters are arguing that he should be able to stay.

    Koen Van Weel / EPA

    Tears stream down the face of Mauro Manuel, a young Angolan asylum-seeker in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday, Nov. 1.

    Koen Van Weel / EPA

    Supporters stand beside Angolan asylum-seeker, Mauro Manuel as he hugs his foster mother, Anita Marijanovic, in front of his step-father, Hans Mandigers, at a rally in The Hague, Netherlands on Nov. 1. Sympathizers are appealing so Manuel can stay in The Netherlands today, as the Dutch Lower House of Parliament debates the fate of the 18-year-old's future.

    More from this compelling and polarizing story, carrying far-reaching implications on immigrants abroad, can be found at the BBC.

  • Marcel Van Hoorn / EPA

    View of the site where archaeologists found tools of Neanderthals near the village of St. Geertruid, The Netherlands, on Oct. 17.

    Neanderthal tools found at site in Netherlands

    Archaeologists in the Netherlands have found tools made by Neanderthals at a site between 70,000 and 100,000 years old. They found a flint core that the Neanderthals used to create other tools. The discovery allows the researchers to clarify the date of the Neanderthals occupation.

  • Dutch marines kill 2 pirates off Somali coast

    Dutch Defense Ministry via AP

    In this photo taken Sunday, April 3 and released by the Dutch Defense Ministry on April 4, suspected pirates stand on deck with their hands raised as Dutch marines approach a hijacked Iranian fishing boat off the coast of Somalia in an operation to free it from pirates. The Dutch Defense Ministry says its marines have killed two pirates and captured 16.

    AP reports from The Hague, Netherlands: The Dutch defense ministry says its marines have killed two pirates and captured 16 in an operation to free a hijacked Iranian fishing boat off the coast of Somalia.

    The ministry says in a statement marines from the frigate HMS Tromp opened fire on the pirates Sunday after they shot at two Dutch inflatable speed boats sent to investigate a suspicious fishing vessel.

    Ten suspected pirates were captured as they tried to flee in a high-speed skiff and six more were detained on the fishing boat. The bodies of two suspected pirates killed in the firefight also were recovered on the boat.

  • Robin Utrecht / Reuters

    Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, right, flanked by his lawyer Bram Moszkowicz, looks on in court during his trial for alleged hate speech in Amsterdam on Feb. 14. The court is ruling on whether the hate speech trial of Wilders should continue.

    Geert Wilders, Dutch anti-immigrant politician accused of hate speech, back in court

    AP reports:

    An Amsterdam court said Monday it will reconsider dismissing the hate speech trial of one of the country's most popular leaders, an anti-immigrant politician who compared Islam to fascism and called for a ban on the Quran.

    Preliminary objections to Geert Wilders' trial were heard by an another panel of judges last year, but that court stepped down when it became embroiled in allegations of potential bias against him.

    The Wilders' defense team had a right to present its preliminary objections again, and if they are granted "then the case is over and out," Judge Marcel van Oosten said.

    Click here for full coverage of Islam and Europe.

  • Robin Utrecht / AFP - Getty Images

    Four white lions come outside for the first time after 10 weeks in quarantine in Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen, the Netherlands, about 55 miles southeast of Amsterdam, on February 11, 2011. The lions are descendants of the rare white lions in the Timbavati Game Reserve in South Africa. The male, Credo, is seven months old and the females, Ilanga, Bhandura and Luna, are ten months old.

    White lions return to view in the Netherlands.

    By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

    White lions are extinct in the wild. The only place you can see them are in zoos, where they are purposely bred.

  • Peter Dejong / AP

    Dutch top cleric Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, is seen inside a car leaving the district court via the backdoor, in Middelburg, Netherlands, Tuesday Jan. 25, 2011, after testifying in an investigation into the sexual abuse of a man by a Catholic priest. Simonis has testified he had no role in the appointment or dismissal of a Catholic priest accused of drugging and raping a young man.

    Catholic church abuse case: Dutch Cardinal Adrianus Simonis testifies in court

    By Elena Grothe

    AP reports:

    MIDDELBURG, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Cardinal Adrianus Simonis has testified he had no role in the appointment or dismissal of a Catholic priest accused of drugging and raping a young man.

    The brief appearance by the 79-year-old retired archbishop of Utrecht's at Middelburg District Court marks the first time such a senior cleric has appeared in a Dutch courtroom to answer questions about abuse in the church.

    The victim, Dave ten Hoor, says he was drugged and raped twice by the priest, identified only as Father Jan N., in 1989 and 1990, Ten Hoor's lawyer Martin de Witte told The Associated Press.

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