City News

Dutch coffee shops owners went to court Wednesday in a last ditch bid to block a government plan to stop foreigners from buying marijuana in the Netherlands.

Lawyers representing the coffee shops oppose what would be the most significant change in decades to the country’s famed soft drug tolerance: turning marijuana cafes into “members only” clubs open solely to Dutch residents.

Anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders holds in his hands the fate of the Dutch government and of austerity measures meant to save the country from economic crisis. Immigrant groups fear, however, they could pay the price he demands for his support.

“It is threatening,” said Ahmet Azdural, director of Turkish lobby group IOT which was set up to promote minority issues. “In the last 10 years, the climate has really changed for immigrants and people who are different.”

Starbucks might be getting bored with its cookie-cutter cafes. The Seattle-based company is opening up one bizarre concept store after another — most recently, this one in Amsterdam.

The store is located in the vault of the historic Amsterdamsche Bank, and it’s aptly dubbed “The Bank.”

Starbucks describes the store as a “laboratory” for new coffee concepts and the slow-food movement. It features a stage for performing arts, an open layout meant to facilitate interaction between customers, and a design intended to celebrate “local history and tradition” while “looking to the future.”

A man who locked himself in a toilet at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and phoned police to say he had a bomb was arrested on Monday after forcing the evacuation of hundreds of passengers and delaying dozens of flights, officials said. Bomb squads and sniffer dogs found no explosives.

The man, who has not been identified, was detained for questioning after making the threat early Monday, a military police spokesman said.

A Kohl’s employee in Amsterdam is ok, but not before quite an ordeal. Police say Thursday afternoon, 26-year-old Melissa Gifford robbed the store and then punched the employee several times.

After that, police say the employee started struggling with her and it continued outside. Gifford is accused of hitting the employee with her car as she drove off. The clerk was not hurt. Police found Gifford a short time later. She faces multiple charges.

The Orthodox Jewish community of Amsterdam reinstated its chief rabbi, Aryeh Ralbag, on Thursday after briefly suspending him last month for having co-signed a statement in which homosexuality was described as an inclination from which one can be “healed.” More >

The Orthodox Jewish community of Amsterdam suspended its US-born chief rabbi on Tuesday for cosigning a declaration which said homosexuality was a “treatable” inclination.

Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that he found it “scandalous that a chief rabbi cannot state the Torah viewpoint for his community without being penalized.”

Dutch financial services group ING (ING.AS) cut a target for its bank unit and said another would take longer to achieve than expected due to bank taxes and higher capital requirements, which could also delay the repayment of remaining state aid it owes. More >

Amsterdam police say they arrested 14 protestors during an operation to remove some of the tents belonging to the Occupy Beursplein movement.

On Tuesday, the Amsterdam authorities told the Occupy activists that they had until Thursday morning to give 75 percent of the Beursplein back to ‘ordinary Amsterdammers’ and improve the fire safety, sanitary and hygiene measures throughout the rest of the protest camp.

Experts have reclassified a painting as a Rembrandt after years of attributing it to one of the Dutch master’s students.

Ernst van de Wetering of the Rembrandt Research Project said Friday that X-ray analysis of “Bearded Old Man” has revealed outlines of a self-portrait of Rembrandt as a young man underneath. More >