The European Union's second-longest-serving leader after Hungary's Viktor Orban was widely expected to seek a fifth term in the elections this autumn.

The Netherlands now faces one of its most stormy and divisive election campaigns in years.

While the Dutch are planning to curb certain equipment from ASML, and other companies, the US is expected to go a step further and use its long reach to withhold even more Dutch equipment from specific Chinese fabs.

Local police say an explosives team have investigated a package at the building in downtown The Hague and had subsequently allowed people to re-enter, about an hour after they had been ordered to leave.

At least 19 have been taken to hospital.

The Russian foreign ministry accuses the joint investigation team set up to establish who was responsible of being 'politicised'.

Atypical cases of mad cow disease have occasionally been detected and can lead to temporary trade restrictions.

Oleg Pulatov was found not guilty by a Dutch court on Nov 17 while Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were convicted and sentenced to life in absentia.

China's foreign ministry says that offices set up in the Netherlands were not police stations but rather centres to help Chinese citizens renew documents.

The whirlwind left a trail of destruction through the seaside city of Zierikzee, ripping the roofs off homes and toppling trees onto cars.

The court has said a verdict is not expected until November 2022 at the earliest.

Australia says the incident was a clear breach of a convention to protect civilian aircraft from weapons fire.