Newsline 16 July 2010: Geert Wilders launches an international anti-Islam alliance, Syria’s human rights record is still poor ten years after Bashir al-Assad took over, and Dutch border town Maastricht is likely to get the go-ahead to stop tourists buying soft drugs in its coffeeshops.

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Geert Wilders goes international with anti-Islam campaign
Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders has upped his campaign against what he sees as the "Islamification" of the West with a plan to set up an international anti-Islam alliance, to be known as the Geert Wilders International Freedom Alliance. One of its aims will be to ban immigration from Muslim countries.
Susi Denison from the European Council on Foreign Relations sees it as a worrying development.

Syria still has little time for human rights
Saturday marks ten years since Syria's President Bashir al-Assad took the reins from his hard-line father. But country is struggling to shake off its past as an oppressive dictatorship.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide’s Damascus correspondent reports.

“Maastricht can turn away drug tourists”
The Netherlands has taken one step closer to banning foreigners from buying cannabis in Dutch coffee shops. The European Court of Justice's advocate general has advised that the city of Maastricht is within its rights to ban drug tourists.
Derick Bergman of the Association against the Prohibition of Cannabis is concerned.