Femke Halsema

Several hundred people gathered on Dam Square in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon for a peace event in commemoration of the victims of attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday. The event was organized by 13 organizations who want to "send a powerful signal for peace and against terror", NU.nl reports.

On Friday a right-wing extremist man opened fire on two mosques in the New Zealand city. 50 people were killed and dozens were injured.

A group of Islamic organizations issued a joint call on the board of Cornelius Haga Lyceum to resign. The want the administrators to take responsibility for the controversy that arose around the Amsterdam secondary school last week, AD reports.

Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security, intelligence service AIVD and national coordinator for counterterrorism and security NCTV have major concerns about Islamic school Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam. In a letter to parliament and Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema, they wrote that there are indications that the board of the school has been in contact with a terrorist group for years, RTL Nieus reports.

A new neighborhood in IJburg in Amsterdam is very nearly done, but Mayor Femke Halsema and the committee that advises the mayor on names for new streets and squares in the Dutch capital can still not settle on what to call the new neighborhood's streets, the Volkskrant reports.

Amsterdam aims to do justice to the diversity of the city in its street names. Mayor Halsema repeatedly rejected suggestions from the committee for naming public spaces CNOR, she said to the city council on Thursday. 

The Amsterdam municipality, police and prosecutor are expanding the city's Top 600 list - used to curb young criminals - to include drug criminals and perpetrators of excessive violence. The impact of drug trafficking on public life is increasing in Amsterdam neighborhoods, said Mayor Femke Halsema, NOS reports.

The municipality of Amsterdam will place a memorial stone at the Wittenburg community center to commemorate Mohammed Bouchikhi. The 17-year-old boy was gunned down at the community center, where he worked as an intern, in January last year, AT5 reports.

Mayor Femke Halsema invited a group of Amsterdam retailers to the city hall on Friday to discuss how they can reduce cash transactions. The Public Prosecutor and the Tax Authority will also take part in the meeting, the Telegraaf reports.

In her invitation, sent on Monday, Halsema points to the criminal use of cash. "Because cash leaves no traces, it is misused by non-honest consumers to launder illegally obtained funds", she wrote. She believes that fewer cash transactions could lead to a safer city.

Amsterday mayor Femke Halsema must enforce the ban on face-covering clothing, commonly referred to as the burka ban, in the Dutch capital, State Secretary Barbara Visser of Defense said on WNL on Sunday. "No one is above the law", Visser said. "Including the mayor of Amsterdam."

The city of Amsterdam closed Surinamese eatery P&G on Bijlmerplein indefinitely after a second hand grenade was found left at the business on Thursday morning. Clothing store Organza further up the square was also closed because gunshots were fired at the building that same morning, Het Parool reports.

The public order and security department (OOV) of the municipality of Amsterdam doesn't have its own security in order. It is the only department in the municipality that scores a 1 on a scale from 1(very bad) to 5 (good) in an internal report, the Telegraaf reports based on documents received after appealing to the Open Government Act.

Amsterdam has to participate in the national experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation. If the Dutch capital, with the largest coffeeshop market in the Netherlands, does not participate, the experiment will fail, mayor Femke Halsem said in a city council debate on the issue on Thursday, Het Parool reports.