Former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok dies at 80
(WorldNews Europe)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, a trade unionist-turned-politician who inspired a new breed of pragmatic Social Democratic leaders who swept to power in Europe in the 1990s, has died at 80. Current Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Kok, who died Saturday, “was a man to look up to - if only for his long service and great importance for our country.” Labor Party leader Lodewijk Asscher called Kok a “model of integrity.” Kok hitched his Dutch Labor Party to the right-wing Liberal Party and to the centrist Democrats 66 to form two ruling coalitions that steered the Netherlands to unprecedented economic success from 1994 to 2002....