International

The SP is seeking an immediate clarification regarding an illegal experiment alleged to have been carried out in India on a new pharmaceutical. The experiment was the subject of revelations made today on the television programme “Netwerk”. SP Member of Parliament and health spokeswoman Agnes Kant, commenting on the affair, said: "If is confirmed that under the guise of a conventional contract an experiment was carried out illegally on a pharmaceutical product, the so-called 'Axxion-stents' produced by the Dutch firm Occan, this is from an ethical point of view entirely unacceptable, as it would mean that people in developing countries would be irresponsibly exposed to enormous health risks."

Local elections in the Netherlands are usually followed in each town or district by complex negotiations between the various parties. Eventually two, three or more parties will reach an agreement and take office, forming what is known as a “college” to run the local authority. Members of these colleges are known as “wethouders” (literally 'keepers of the law'), roughly equivalent to Committee Chairs in the system used in England and Wales and many parts of the US, or to Conveners in Scotland. These colleges may be made up of parties of the left and centre-left, or of the various centre-right parties, but they often bring together elements from across the political spectrum.