Netherlands

Listen to this BosNewsLife News report via Vatican Radio click: KINGWILLEMVATICAN By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent reporting from Terschelling, Netherlands TERSCHELLING, NETHERLANDS (BosNewsLife)-- Tens of thousands of people crammed shoulder-to-shoulder outside crammed shoulder-to-shoulder outside the royal palace in Amsterdam where  Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated on Tuesday after a 33-year sometimes turbulent reign, handing over to her eldest son.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife ISLAMABAD/STRASBOURG (BosNewsLife)-- The European Parliament (EP) on Thursday, November 26, urged Pakistan to withdraw blasphemy laws after a Christian mother of five lost her appeal against the death penalty

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent KYIV, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- Ukraine has released what it says are intercepted phone calls in which pro-Russian separatists admit to shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane, killing all 298 people on board. The Boeing 777 went down in eastern Ukraine while on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Most of the victims, 293 according to Dutch officials, came from the Netherlands.

By BosNewsLife Europe Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos STRASBOURG,FRANCE (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian Europarliamentarian has urged Ireland to use its European Union presidency to tackle the world's "growing persecution of Christians."

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife

AMSTERDAM/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Dutch media evangelist Leo Habets who published The Netherlands' leading evangelical newspaper Uitdaging (Challenge), has died after a long illness. Habets was 70 years old.

>Said Musa outside Afghanistan >Christian convert Shoib Assadullah remains jailed >Dutch government lobbied for release By BosNewsLife News Center KABUL/AMSTERDAM (BosNewsLife)-- An Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has been released, a well-informed Christian aid and advocacy group confirmed Thursday, February 24.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife reporting from The Netherlands URK, NETHERLANDS (BosNewsLife)-- A replica of Noah's Ark was drifting away in a severe storm Wednesday, January 3, at the port of  Dutch town Urk, smashing several boats and prompting the rescue of seven people on board the massive vessel, eyewitnesses told BosNewsLife. There were no reports of injuries, but rescue teams struggled to regain control of the wood-and-steel ark, which has no engine and measures 70 meters (230 feet) long and some 13 meters (43 feet) high.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife with reporting from the Netherlands AMSTERDAM/CAIRO (BosNewsLife)-- A visit to Egypt by the Dutch parliament's foreign affairs committee has been canceled because lawmaker Raymond de Roon from anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) was refused a visa after accusing Cairo of "the ethnic cleansing" of minority Christians.

Listen to this BosNewsLife News report's shorter version via Vatican Radio:   By BosNewsLife News Center THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (BosNewsLife) Prince Johan Friso of the Netherlands, the younger brother of the new Dutch king, has died, 18 months after a skiing accident left him in a coma from which he never regained consciousness. He was 44

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (BosNewsLife)-- A Dutch group says it will continue "old-fashioned" evangelism campaigns throughout the Netherlands amid massive church closures and an influx of mainly Muslim refugees. The Dutch Biblestudy Center (NBC) told BosNewsLife it is touring this crowded small nation of 17-million with its circus-like red and blue colored tent.