The latest episode in the coalition formation talks is spiralling into a real life soap; a radical Australian Muslim wants Geert Wilders' head on a platter; workers at Dutch pharmaceutical company Organon can breathe a four-month sigh of relief over a proposed closure; and a neurologist with a drugs addiction was allowed to rule over his department. 

Coalition formation talks turn into political soap opera
Time-out: that is apparently what conservative VVD and Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) need after Christian Democrats leader Maxime Verhagen came limping back to the negotiating table yesterday. Following a couple of days of political therapy bringing dissident members of his party back into the fold, Mr Verhagen had assumed it would be back to business as usual at talks over forming a new coalition. 
 
But, reports broadsheet NRC Handelsblad, VVD leader Mark Rutte and PVV leader Geert Wilders had a different agenda in mind: "questions for Verhagen".  Like a typical blowing hot and cold scene in any triangular relationship, "the VVD and the PVV now have to process" Mr Verhagen's answers, reports the left-leaning de Volkskrant.
 
"Do the VVD and the PVV want to continue negotiating with the CDA?" asks Protestant daily Trouw on its front page. Usually given to voicing clear opinions, Mr Wilders says, "I have to think about it."
 
That these right-wing coalition formation talks have gotten so much coverage in all of the Dutch dailies this week reflects the high level of public interest in this unusually colourful political drama. Trouw reports that no less than seven of the top ten rating TV programmes during the previous week were current affairs programmes or the news.
 
Wilders' life threatened by Jihad preacher
All this publicity isn't necessarily doing Mr Wilders any good. De Telegraaf runs a front-page story on the latest death threat to the anti-Islam leader. Australian Jihad ideologist and preacher Feiz Muhammad has made a video announcement in which he says Mr Wilders should be beheaded. "We see the satanic filth of people like that filthy Dutch politician. Anyone who mocks our teaching...has to be killed, behead him."
 
And if all the drama in the political corridors of The Hague - the Dutch centre of government - hadn't already left Mr Wilders reeling, it seems this threat has "shocked" him; he has consulted with the national anti-terrorism department.
 
The Muslim extremist's call to kill was voiced during a series of lectures in a special chat room for Muslim extremists. More than half of those virtually present were Dutch, De Telegraaf points out. You can listen to the Jihad preacher's speech on the Telegraaf website.
 
Middle East leaders like lambs, slaughter goes on
So, with Dutch political leaders taking time out for reflection, all the dailies report on another piece of political theatre - the resumption in Washington of the first direct talks on the Middle East in nearly two years. "No-one expects a successful outcome" headlines NRC. 
 
The paper goes on to comment that, "Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas won't be collecting the Nobel prize for peace, but one for physics", citing former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben Ami's comment that 'If they manage to reach one another, then it'll be a physical miracle'.
 
AD headlines with "Palestine and Israel mild with each other" and reports that the first encounter was "strikingly friendly". 
 
De Volkskrant takes a different spin on this show of meek diplomacy, describing the escalating violence in the Middle East itself, while the leaders talk peace in Washington. There is, of course, a key player missing in the White House. The radical Hamas movement, which won a majority in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. Hamas made its own bloody contribution on the West Bank, killing four Jewish settlers.
 
"On one side of the fence, the muezzin calls the people to prayer, on this side an elderly Israeli, armed with a pistol on his belt, enters a snack bar," writes de Volkskrant. It goes on to describe a group of soldiers with their automatic machine guns drinking coke from a litre bottle, talking about Israel's football match against Malta as they offer protection against further attacks. "'Every time peace talks are held, the violence breaks out and escalates. We're used to it,'" an Israeli student says.
 
A neurologist that patients will never forget
Life isn't always a bed of roses in Dutch hospitals either. Trouw gives front-page coverage to the sufferings of patients at the hands of a neurologist working in a teaching hospital in the eastern city of Enschede.
 
Medical horror stories are nothing new, but the alarming thing about this case is that the neurologist was a drug addict and his inability to function was known to other colleagues in his department. Trouw describes a scathing report published by an investigative commission into the case, which clearly points an accusing finger at the hospital for their total lack of support for the victims once the doctor's bad practices were revealed five years ago.
 
For years, Jansen Steur gave wrong diagnoses, for years he was addicted and for years "everyone in the hospital knew of his serious inability to function, but no-one felt responsible for the consequences for the patients," writes de Volkskrant.
 
Trouw describes the case of one patient who was suffering from lack of concentration. Mr Steur told her that she had Alzheimer's disease. "'My husband was suffering from cancer at the time and I thought, a wife with Alzheimer's - that's all he needs.'" 
 
She made enquiries about euthanasia but was advised to get a second opinion and was told "there was absolutely nothing wrong with her at all." When she approached the Enschede hospital, they "turned the other way and brushed it under the carpet."
 
The Pill plant gets an extended term
"Wanted: buyers for Organon divisions," headlines Trouw. The pharmaceutical plant that produces "The Pill" is back in the news. In July, the announcement of the closure of Organon's prestigious Research & Development department caused furore in the southern town of Oss. The proposed lay-off of 2175 employees  - with more than 1000 of them in R&D - was seen as a huge blow to the country's knowledge economy, something the Dutch government's keen to promote as a cornerstone of the country's economic future. 
 
But the employees didn't take the decision made by the US-owned mother-company MSD lying down. The employees' council took the case to court. The judge has now ruled in their favour and ordered that alternatives be explored before a final decision is taken next January. De Volkskrant headlines with "Organon employees celebrate success". AD quotes FNV union representative Aranka Ouwehand who thinks that "the 'time-out' which Organon has been given affords the plant a serious chance to reflect on its future.'"
 
Buying time: Time-out seems to be the current Dutch answer to crisis.