Willem-Alexander to become new Dutch king

Crown Prince Willem-Alexander is being inaugurated as the Netherlands' first king since 1890 as his mother, Queen Beatrix abdicates after a 33-year reign marked in recent years by unrest in Dutch society and personal tragedy.
Willem-Alexander has pledged to be a 21st century king, close to his nearly 17 million subjects, and not a "protocol fetishist" who won't insist on being addressed as Your Majesty.
Around one million of the new king's subjects are expected to flock to Amsterdam to celebrate the generational change in the royal House of Orange-Nassau as the 46-year-old father of three replaces his 75-year-old mother.

Willem-Alexander will become king shortly after 10 am (0800 GMT) today when his mother signs an "act of abdication" in the Royal Palace on the Dam in downtown Amsterdam.