Tiësto will play the 26,000-capacity Home Depot Stadium in L.A. on October 8th. The show will be the largest DJ set ever in the U.S. according the American music magazine Billboard.

It’s the final show of his Club Life College Invasion Tour, which will take him to places like Madison, Wisconsin, and Ypsilanti, Michigan over the course of its 21 dates.

Tiësto is one of the biggest electronic acts in the world. He’s sold over 1.3 million tracks in the U.S., according to Soundscan, and has had 15 albums on Billboard’s Top Electronic Albums chart, including the No. 1 “Elements of Life” in 2007.

His roster of active brand partners includes Heineken, Armani Exchange, and SanDisk. Sony PlayStation and Axe have come on to sponsor the College Invasion tour.

Tiësto is very popular in the U.S.. He sold, more than 1.3 million downloads.

IFC Midnight announced that the company has acquired U.S. distribution rights from sales and production outfit Xyz Films for director Dick Maas’ evil Santa film Saint. The deal includes a theatrical component and was made prior to the movie’s North American premiere in the Cinemania section at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Maas wrote the screenplay for the picture and produced with Tom de Mol. Starring Huub Stapel, Egbert-Jan Weeber, Caro Lenssen, Bert Luppes and Escha Tanihatu.

The movie deal was closed at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York, where Saint runs this week in the Cinemania program, a selection of films ”pushing the boundaries”. According to film Distributor IFC, the Dutch movie will come to US cinemas in fall this year.

Both Tom de Mol and director Dick Maas will be present at the screenings during the festival.

Dutch film “Saint,” is taking the honors at the Tribeca Film Festival 2011. The New York Times likened director Dick Maas with his U.S. counterpart Joe Dante.

Saint features a ghostly St. Nicholas as a horse-riding, lance-wielding mass murderer of naughty children.

Mr. Maas, who also wrote the screenplay, keeps the story moving fast and under tight control; like Joe Dante’s horror films, “Saint” is more clever and funny than it is scary, while still being a recognizable member of the genre.

The director, Dick Maas, made a small splash in the United States in 1988 with “Amsterdamned,” about a canal-dwelling serial killer. In “Saint” he plays off of Dutch traditions — the homicidal St. Nick arrives in the Netherlands by boat from his home in Spain on Dec. 5, St. Nicholas Eve, as he should — but throws in infanticide, SWAT teams, Ugly-American tourists and a long-term government-church cover-up of the saint’s true nature.

The horror comedy Saint attracted nearly 400,000 visitors in the Dutch cinemas.

See the trailer of the Dutch version below.

Under the contract, ARCADIS with its partners (Schnabel Dam Engineering, Inc., Draper Aden Associates and Kerr Environmental Services Corporation) will provide permit compliance, engineering, design services and construction support for an intake and pumping station on the James River, and an accompanying dam and reservoir on nearby Cobbs Creek in Cumberland County. Malcolm Pirnie was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Cobbs Creek Regional Reservoir project, assisting the counties in establishing the regional partnership, negotiating river withdrawal conditions and obtaining all necessary permits. Malcolm Pirnie’s identification of this particular reservoir site minimizes the project’s impact on wetlands and cultural resources.

“This project meets the water demands of multiple stakeholders – an accomplishment that speaks to the shared vision of several counties, as well as Malcolm Pirnie’s water expertise and regulatory knowledge,” said Sandy Robinson, Senior Vice President of Malcolm Pirnie. “The Cobbs Creek Regional Reservoir project will ensure that a growing region in central Virginia will have access to drinking water and that the rural nature of the reservoir host community is preserved.”

An innovative model for sustainable water supply solutions, the Cobbs Creek Reservoir project aims to alleviate potential drinking water shortages to 2055, while providing environmental benefits to the James River as water is released from the reservoir during low-flow conditions.

This is evident from the U.S. budget which was presented by President Barack Obama on Monday.

The United States is working to gradually withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

For Afghanistan that saves almost nothing but Iraq will save the U.S. significantly.

The budget for the war in both countries decreased by 41.5 billion U.S. dollars (almost 28 billion euros) to 117 billion U.S. dollars (almost 80 billion euros) in the next financial year.

President Obama had promised to start in July with the withdrawal of nearly one hundred thousand U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates declined to say how many of them will return to the U.S. in the short-term.

Once a month he will perform in the gambling city, in between, he will also play in other places.

Tiësto has already done his first gig in Las Vegas, when he played at The Joint with New years eve.

World’s Greatest DJ will now perform monthly at Hard Rock Hotel Casino with the Tiesto – Las Vegas Residency 2011 show.

Arguably one the coolest joints in town, the Hard Rock Hotel houses some Vegas’ best entertainment, restaurants and nightlife.

DJ Tiesto, who was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007 and has sold millions of records worldwide, has collaborated with Nelly Furtado, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Goldfrapp and more.

DJ Magazine has crowned him the world’s top DJ three consecutive years, and Mixmag Magazine bestowed him the same honor in 2008.

Beginning a week from today, March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

According to sources the slight shipping delay for the Wi-Fi iPad is due not to hardware production issues but to Apple putting the final touches on the software for the device.

“iPad is something completely new,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a Friday post on the company’s Web site. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Apple’s iPad is a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, playing games, reading e-books, and much more. Its high-resolution Multi-Touch display lets you interact with content — including 12 innovative new apps designed especially for iPad and almost all of the 140,000 apps available on the App Store. At just 0.5 inches thick and 1.5 pounds, iPad is thinner and lighter than any laptop or notebook. iPad will be available at the breakthrough price of just $499.

Apple’s new iPad has generated lively debate even before it hits the market. No device could have matched the hype and buzz generated before Jobs’ demo. Apple stock has shot up to a new all-time high of 219.70, besting a previous high of 215.59, which it hit on January 5, 2010.

Although Dutch Apple fans needs to wait a little longer. Soon you’ll finally be able to get your hands on the tablet.

Will you get your iPad at lauch?, let us know in the comments.

Rather than an annual road tax for their cars, drivers will soon pay a few cents for every kilometer (mile) on the road, in a plan aimed at breaking chronic traffic jams and cutting carbon emissions, the Cabinet decided Friday.

Beginning in 2012, drivers of an average passenger car will pay euro0.03 per 1 kilometer (7 US cents per mile). But annual road taxes and purchase tax for new cars will be abolished, reducing the cost of a new car by 25 percent.

The Netherlands has one of the most burdened road networks in Europe, with traffic jams likely at dozens of places virtually throughout the day. Hourly broadcasts report where the traffic is snarled, but often few alternatives exist to escape the highways.

The government says nearly six out of 10 drivers will benefit under the system, which shifts the tax burden to people who drive the most and at peak hours. Congestion is expected to be halved and carbon emissions cut 10 percent.

Friday’s decision said the tax will increase every year until 2018, and drivers of larger cars will pay more.

The road tax imposed by Minister Camiel Eurlings (CDA) is not to reduce traffic jams, but let the Dutch working class pay more and citizens in outlying areas will also be more affected. The plan to equip all cars with a “spy box” that transmits every kilometer, has led to a storm of criticism.

The ministry said, however, the information collected by GPS would be “legally and technically protected,” and the data would not be accessible to the government for other purposes. “The privacy of road users is protected,” it said.

The kilometer tax has been debated for 20 years, raising other concerns that it would intrude on privacy. The GPS monitoring system could be a test case for other countries weighing options for easing crowded roads.

photo by: arderwiek

In the first ever detailed ranking of 60 of the world’s financial hubs, published today by the international research agency Tax Justice Network (TJN), The Netherlands ranks 15th of the 60 financial “tax havens” in the world.

Delaware in the US is officially the world’s most secret financial location. Delaware was found wanting in 11 out of 12 secrecy indicators. London was also ranked in the top five most secretive jurisdictions.

The researchers looked in particular to banking secrecy, the transparency of financial legislation and the degree of financial activities abroad. The Dutch Antilles are ranked at the 38th place in the “Financial Secrecy Index”. The most important tax haven is the U.S. state of Delaware, followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, the city of London, Ireland, Bermuda, Singapore, Belgium and Hong Kong.

In the fight against tax evasion Tax Justice Network calls for international regulation including the automatic exchange of financial information.

The figures emerge from a study by Utrecht University commissioned by the television documentary programme Zembla. The team behind the study was headed by tax law professor Geerten Michielse, who also works for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He told RNW that the United States was right to describe the Netherlands as a tax haven in May this year – an assertion which the White House subsequently withdrew following Dutch finance ministry protests.

Multinationals such as Boeing, US Steel and Walt Disney all have Dutch letter-box companies to avoid paying tax in the United States. On paper, US companies make 13 percent of their profits in the Netherlands. The study found that while multinationals are officially liable to pay 25.5 percent in corporate tax, in reality loopholes in the tax law allow them to get away with paying no more than six or seven percent.

Tax officials have discussed the problem several times, but up to now have not intervened. The fear that Dutch multinationals with higher tax burden shift to other countries is unjustified. As long as profits are taxed, companies will come up with new constructions for profit tax evasion.

source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Photo by: Andrew

The Dutch prince and princess were in New York last week to celebrate the 400 year anniversary of Dutch captain Henry Hudson’s discovery of New York. They brought a visit to the White House in Washington where the Royal couple was received by Michelle and Barack Obama. “The atmosphere was very relaxed and cordial,” according to the crown prince. The president, who last week announced plans for a new care system in the U.S., said Willem-Alexander to give an outline of health care in the Netherlands.

First Lady Michelle Obama met with the Prince and Princess first to have tea and exchange gifts. President Barack Obama joined later for a conversation with the Dutch royal couple.

Healthcare was an important theme of the meeting, which lasted around half an hour.

The President uses the Dutch healthcare system as an example in several occasions, said Willem-Alexander in a report on nu.nl.

He finds it “a good system, and there are certain elements he would like to take on.”

Healthcare has been a contentious issue for the US President, as opposition to an overhaul of the current system became louder over the summer. Tens of thousands of protesters marched on the U.S. Capitol against proposed his reforms Saturday.

President Obama thanked the couple for the Dutch cooperation in Afghanistan and asked Willem-Alexander as IOC member would support the candidacy of Chicago for the Olympic Games in 2016.

The Dutch prince and princess were impressed with the “Job Swap” program, an exchange between workers from New York and the Netherlands. A Dutch teacher and a Dutch fireman from the Netherlands worked along with their counterparts in the Big Apple.

The royal couple experienced “an incredible visit” in New York. “We had good relations emphasize four hundred years”, said Willem-Alexander. “All the energy we have invested in the celebration is definitely worth it.” Shared values of freedom and tolerance were key, but according to Princess Máxima of the Netherlands.