Week in review: December 7-13

The round-up of some of this week’s most noteworthy events and news stories features a major newspaper and a politician apologizing for racial blunders after Mandela's death, the wife of a sailor who is devastated after her husband goes missing, the raid on former Curaçao Prime Minister Schotte's house, Amsterdam's canal water being bottled up, human trafficking and prostitution in the Dutch Caribbean, and Minister Timmermans who doesn't feel like doing the dirty work for other European countries.A major newspaper and a GroenLinks official made racially insensitive comments about Mandela's passing and find themselves apologizing. A week later it still resulted in the GroenLinks official resigning from his post. Harlan and Jacqueline Layosa, with their son, Zach (photo courtesy: Jacqueline Layosa) The wife of a missing sailor is left "devastated" when her husband goes missing just before the big storm on December 5, "pakjesavond." The house of the former Prime Minister of Curaçao, Gerrit Schotte, was raided on Monday. Local media initially linked the raid to the ongoing investigation into the murder of politician Hermin Wiels. Collector’s edition bottles contain water and tales from one of four Amsterdam canals, in honor of the 400-year anniversary of the canals. The Dutch Caribbean were mentioned as destinations and departure points for human trafficking in the “Trafficking of Persons” report of the United States Department of State, warranting an investigation. Minister Timmermans does not want to prematurely take a stand in the matter of Albania joining the European Commission, for fear of being put in a position where he has to do "the dirty work." Check out NL Times for the rest of the news and stories this week.