NedCar currently produces Colt and Outlander models designated for sales in MMC’s European market. However, in December 2010, MMC had made decisions regarding future treatment of NedCar’s production operation.

Specifically: To terminate the local production operation of Colt at the end of 2012. KD production of Outlander will be maintained until the end of 2012, but whether a replacement model to be allocated for production from 2013 and beyond or not is yet to be determined. To further examine measures which would enable production operation at NedCar to continue from 2013 and beyond.

Based on the decision, MMC, together with the stakeholders including NedCar management and its labor union, its work council, as well as the Dutch government, had proceeded until today examining measures for the continuation of production operation at NedCar.

However, due to the wildly fluctuating operating environment which automobile manufacturers currently face, MMC could not come up with a reasonable solution to utilize NedCar among MMC’s global production operation structure and thus MMC has concluded it is not viable to allocate a new production model at NedCar.

Europe is and will continue to be an important market for MMC and production and delivery of models for Europe from Japan and Thailand will continue; thus MMC’s model mix and after-service structure will not change at all.

The status of NedCar from 2013 and beyond is yet to be decided, and talks among those concerned are to commence from hereon.

Netherlands Car B. V. is located in Born, Limburg, the Netherlands and has a total of 1500 employees. NedCar Started as a three-way joint venture in 1991 through MMC, Volvo, and the Dutch government. MMC became the sole shareholder when it bought all the remaining shares from its partners in March of 2001. NedCar produced MMC’s Carisma from 1995, then afterwards the Space Star. Currently it produces the European-market Colt and Outlander. Local parts procurement is 85% for the Colt, and 20% for the Outlander. NedCar has produced a cumulative 1.1 million MMC vehicles to the present time.

The Netherlands experiences an official cold wave for the first time since 1997. The temperature did not reach above zero degrees Celsius in De Bilt since 7 o’clock in the morning of 29 January. Also, the temperature dropped last night for the third night in a row to -10 degrees.

Before there can be talk of an official cold wave, the temperature at least 5 days to get above freezing in De Bilt. In addition, the strict minimum of three nights with freezing temperatures of -10 degrees or colder, leaves a spokesman weeronline.nl know.

For an official cold wave there must be 5 days with a maximum below 0C and at least 3 nights in a row with freezing temperatures of -10 degrees or colder, according to a spokesman of weeronline.nl

According to Dutch meteorologists, the cold wave is very special: “It has been 15 years since the Netherlands had a cold wave.” The Netherlands had 32 cold waves since 1901.

Also, next week WeerOnline sees little change in the weather. “Until next weekend, we seem pretty confident that the freezing cold will continue”.

The cold wave has also offered opportunities for Ice skaters in the Netherlands who are hopeful they could stage a race that hasn’t happened in more than a decade

The Netherlands almost mythical Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Tour) ice skating marathon could be staged later this month for the first time in 15 years, organizers said Monday.

The race, held along a 125-mile network of canals connecting 11 towns and cities in Friesland province, would cause a national frenzy, drawing thousands of participants and more than a million spectators. It was last held in 1997.

A man tried to take advantage of the weather and toss a snowball with a package of drugs in it over the wall of a prison.

Many parts of Europe have been considerably worse off, with a big freeze already claiming more than 260 lives.

In Italy, weather experts said it was the coldest week for 27 years.

The first snow fell in the Northern provinces this morning. The snow is slowly moving south. The snow will last approximately 3 to 4 hours. Most snow is expected in the west. At many places can have 3 to 5 inches snow fall.

Weather Online says the Netherlands will face about 10 inches of powder snow. The ANWB expects snow will cause problems on the road Friday afternoon. The weather is also bad news for ice skating fans, the snow will prevent ice growth.

After the snow front has passed, it remains preliminary dry with moderate and severe frost.

The coming weekend promises to be the coldest in years. Both tonight, tomorrow night and in the night of Sunday until Monday the minimum calculated temperature in the Netherlands will be between minus 10 and minus 17 degrees, possible even lower.

The total number of foreign tourists visiting the Netherlands reached 11.3 million in 2011, official data said.

The Netherlands attracted 3 percent more visitors from abroad compared to last year, according to Dutch Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC).

The organization expects more tourists this year. “The Netherlands benefit from more Germans and Belgians tourists who stay closer to home in economically uncertain times” said general manager Jos Vranken of NBTC.

Also the relatively weaker euro makes the Netherlands more attractive and the growing tourist flow from emerging countries continues.

The almost 400,000 more tourists who visited the Netherlands last year, generated 160 million Euros more income to a total of 4.5 billion Euros. There were especially more Germans and Belgians, but also more Americans visited the Netherlands.

This study reveals that users from the Netherlands are the most active within top countries. 33% of accounts located in the Netherlands posted at least one public message between September 1st, 2011 and November 30th, 2011, making the Netherlands the top country with the highest rate of Twitter users posting tweets, before Japan. The global average is only 27%, as many Twitter users mostly use the service to read tweets from others.

If one also considers accounts that have been updated in some other way (e.g. the user did not post but changed its account avatar or followed another user), the Netherlands also rank first, with at least 52% of users who connected to Twitter service during the period. The global average for the same metric is 48%.

The U.S. still top at the 1st place on Twitter in terms of accounts with 107.7 million accounts. Brazil is now the second country with 33.3 million accounts, surpassing Japan now third at 29.9 million.

Semiocast has analyzed 383 million of Twitter user profiles created before January 1st 2012. Drawing from its experience with previous studies, Semiocast used its proprietary platform, databases and tools to process user profiles in order to determine the location of each user using all available information.

Tuesday the Queen will celebrate her 74th birthday. Never before the Netherlands had a reigning monarch had at this age.

The Queen reached the historic milestone on November 4 last year. On that day, Beatrix was exactly 73 years and 277 days old and broke the royal age record.

King William III was previously the oldest head of state the Netherlands has ever known. He died on November 23, 1890 as reigning monarch, and was 73 years and 277 days old.

Beatrix is still very active as head of state. Last year she made two state visits, to Germany and Qatar, and she visited the Caribbean. This year she visited Oman and United Arab Emirates in March and is scheduled to visit Luxembourg. It will be her 52nd state visit.

On April 30 it will be 32 years since Beatrix came to the throne. Her mother, Queen Juliana, was almost 32 years on the throne, when she announced to stop in 1980 on her daughter’s 42nd birthday.

Proceeds from local government taxes are estimated at 12.2 billion euro in 2012, an increase by 3.2 percent relative to 2011. According to the latest figures released by Statistics Netherlands, taxes imposed by municipal and water boards authorities increase most.

Municipal taxes are expected to yield 3.6 percent more this year. The most important tax, the tax on property (OZB), will grow by 5.7 percent relative to last year. This is partly due to tax rate increases and area expansions.

Proceeds from sewerage charges will grow by 4.7 percent in 2012 versus 3.8 percent in 2011. This is below the level of the average increase by 6.7 percent over the past decade.

Tax revenues from building permits are anticipated to drop by 3.9 percent this year. Revenues will be lower for the third year in a row, mainly due to slumping activities in the construction sector as a result of the economic crisis.

The estimated yields of water board taxes will exceed 2.4 billion euro in 2012, a 3.6 percent increase from 2011. The tax revenue increase is predominantly due to a tax on the water system earmarked for the construction and maintenance of dikes, waterways and watercourses to prevent the Dutch population from getting “wet feet”. On average, the increase was 5 percent annually over the past 3 years.

At the beginning of last year, 151 thousand households in the Netherlands owned a personal capital exceeding 1 million euro, 12 thousand fewer than in the same period in 2010.

The number of households with a personal capital ranging between 100 thousand and 1 million euro was also reduced. The number of households whose personal capital is negative or less than 5 thousand euro, on the other hand, grew.

“Through our new partnership with Libris Blz., we’re confident our expansion into the Netherlands will be a huge success,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo.  “Kobo’s focus has always been to bring eReading and eBooks to people everywhere around the world.  By launching in the Netherlands, and bringing eReading to the passionate Dutch reading community – we are one more country closer to delivering on that promise.”

“Libris Blz. and Kobo are a perfect fit, as we are driven by a strong passion for reading and books,  and both see great potential in eReading,” stated Caroline Damwijk, Managing Director of Libris Blz. B.V.

THE KOBO TOUCH – Built by booklovers, for booklovers.
The Kobo Touch offers a best-in-class reading experience, with an amazing touch experience, that uses Infrared Touch Technology, allowing readers to easily swipe or tap to turn pages.  With the intuitive touch interface, readers can highlight a phrase, lookup a word, zoom into an image, increase the font size, or quickly navigate through a book and an entire library. Plus, finding that next read is also quick and easy with Wi-Fi and a virtual keyboard.

The Kobo eReader Touch is the first eReader to be available in multiple languages and offers a completely local experience, including content, recommendations, and the Kobo store.  Readers may choose from English, French, Canadian French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.

KOBO TOUCH FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS:

• New Pearl 6″ E Ink Screen – Equipped with the newest E Ink screen featuring 16 level grey scale, the Kobo Touch is a highly responsive and intuitive experience designed to help you forget about the device and focus on reading.
• The eInk screen is glare free and easy to read in bright sunlight
• Read in Style – Kobo’s signature quilted soft-touch back and travel-friendly size offer the ultimate reading comfort and experience – choose from white and black
• Customize taps on the screen to turn pages  to bring additional comfort to left-handed readers
• A choice of 7 font styles and 25 sizes to best suit individual eyesight needs – the most of any eReader on the market today.
• Add your own fonts for full customization
• Easy note making within a book while users read, as well as browsing and editing notes with the Annotations list
• Easily highlight favourite passages within books
• Fully adjustable refresh rate for fast page turns
• A low-battery warning – icon alerts let readers know when that reach 10 percent and 5 percent of battery life
• Sleep and power off screens that show full screen book covers
• Progress indicator — Readers can easily find out how far they’ve read in each book, with percentages read displayed under each book title

With battery life of up to one month, and storage of up to 30,000 books with expandable memory, the Kobo eReader Touch Edition delivers the freedom to read anywhere, at any time.

READ FREELY – KOBO SUPPORTS THE MOST CONTENT
The Kobo eReading service is built on an open platform, allowing consumers to read eBooks from other stores that use the ePub format – plus books on a growing number of Kobo eReaders and apps.  The versatile Kobo eReader Touch Edition devices let users read ePUB, PDF and MOBI format eBooks; view JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and TIFF images; review TXT, HTML and RTF materials; and enjoy CBZ and CBR comic book formats.  Consumers can also easily borrow and read eBooks from the local public library.

GET SOCIAL WITH KOBO READING LIFE
Kobo offers the industry leading social platform, Reading Life that provides the ability to connect with friends or create book clubs and discuss favorite reads on Facebook, users can track their reading statistics, and unlock fun and exciting awards just for reading.

SHOP AND READ ON ANY DEVICE WITH KOBO
Kobo offers free eReading apps so users can read on most popular devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets, Android^TM phones, iPhones®, iPads®, Blackberry® Smartphones and Blackberry® PlayBooks – in addition they can browse and shop the Kobo store.  Plus, with Kobo Sync you can read from one device to another and pick up from the page that you last read – your library will always be kept up to date.

WHERE TO BUY
The Kobo Touch eReader is available for immediate purchase online from Libris at www.libris.nl  and Blz. at www.blz.nl, including free shipping and delivery, and in select stores starting Jan 30 – for €129.00.

Kobo will be launching a fully localized Dutch website in February.  For more information and to download the free Kobo International eReading app available in Dutch please visit kobobooks.com/welkomlibrisblz

* Named “Editor’s Pick” in Wired Magazine: eInk Reader Round-up: January 2012 Edition; Won prestigious “Jaus de L’Industrie” for innovative & lightweight design of the Kobo Touch eReader; Institut Francais du Design (IFD); Nov 2011

About Kobo, Inc.
Kobo is a global eReading service with more than 2.5 million eBooks, magazines and newspapers – one of the largest eReading catalogues in the world.  As part of its “Read Freely” mentality, Kobo believes consumers should have the freedom to read any book on any device and has attracted millions of readers from more than 170 countries across the globe.  Kobo has top-ranked eReading applications for iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows and MacOS, and is the eReading application of choice for leading tablet OEMs. Kobo eReaders, including the Kobo Touch and the newly launched Kobo Vox are available at leading retailers, including Indigo, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Future Shop, WHSmith, FNAC, Collins Booksellers and Whitcoull’s. Kobo’s innovative Reading Life is an industry-first comprehensive social eReading experience where Kobo users can earn awards simply for time spent reading and encouraging others. For more information on Kobo, and to download free eReading apps, visit www.kobo.com.

Libris Blz. B.V.
The Libris Blz. group of booksellers comprises independent, professional, highly-motivated entrepreneurs who work together to compete effectively against standard bookstore chains. Libris booksellers aim to be the authoritative bookseller within their market, offering a wide assortment of titles, whereas Blz. booksellers offer an optimal mix of books in combination with office supplies. With gross book sales of more than 100 million euros, the Libris Blz. group is the largest player in the Dutch general book market.

During his visit, Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet with Queen Beatrix, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Verhagen, Defense Minister Hans Hillen, Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, House of Representatives Chairperson Gerdi Verbeet, Senate Chairperson Fred de Graaf and members of the parliamentary foreign affairs and defense committees. The Prime Minister will also visit the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam, which was built by Spanish and Portuguese exiles in 1675 and which has been carefully preserved for 337 years. He will award a Bible as a mark of appreciation to Dutch Righteous Among the Nations Prof. Johan Van Hulst.

The goal of the visit is to strengthen bilateral ties and advance cooperation in various fields. On the agenda will be the establishment of an inter-governmental cooperation council, the first meeting of which will be held in the coming months. The goal of the council is to promote bilateral defense and foreign affairs cooperation and to increase economic cooperation, especially regarding the private sector, student exchanges, agro-technology development, the environment, research and development, and tourism.

on Thursday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague.