String[] days = {
 "Mon","Tue","Wed","Thu","Fri","Sat","Sun"
};
String[] months = {
 "Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"
};
String[] years = {
 "2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011"
};


// ORDER IS VERRY IMPORTANT!! ( MEST must be before EST for example)
String[] timesZones = {
 "BST","CET","CEST","CST","CDT","EDT","GMT+00:00","GMT","IST","MEST","EST","MET","MDT","PST","PDT","SAST","UTC","UT","W. Europe Standard Time","West-Europa (zomertijd)"
};

DateTime handleDate(String date) {

  String origDate = date;

  String timeZone ="";
  String year ="";
  String month ="";
  String day ="";
  int hours = 0;
  int minutes = 0;
  int seconds = 0;

  // is it valid?
  date = trim(date);
  if (date.equals("")) {
    return null;
  }

  // first delete the comma that comes mostly after the day
  date = date.replaceAll(",","");

  // remove the day
  for (int i = 0; i < days.length; i++) {
    if (date.contains(days[i])) {
      date = date.replace(days[i],"");
      break;
    }
  }


  // if(date.contains("23:27:17")) println(date);

  for (int i = 0; i < timesZones.length; i++) {
    // first check with '(' and ')'
    String target ="("+timesZones[i]+")";

    if (date.contains(target)) {      
      timeZone = timesZones[i];
      date = date.replace(target,"");
      break;
    }

    // if not found check without '(' and ')'
    if (date.contains(timesZones[i])) {      
      timeZone = timesZones[i];
      date = date.replace(timesZones[i],"");
      break;
    }
  }

  // get the month
  for (int i = 0; i < months.length; i++) {
    if (date.contains(months[i])) {
      month = months[i].toLowerCase(); // !must be lowercase
      // must be dutch on my pc
      if(month.equals("oct")) month ="okt";
      if(month.equals("may")) month ="mei";
      if(month.equals("mar")) month ="mrt";

      date = date.replace(months[i],"");
      break;
    }
  }

  // get the year
  for (int i = 0; i < years.length; i++) {
    if (date.contains(years[i])) {
      year = years[i];
      date = date.replace(years[i],"");
      break;
    }
  }

  // get the time
  Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(\\d\\d):(\\d\\d):(\\d\\d)");
  Matcher m = p.matcher(date);
  if (m.find()) {
     // also fix the time, 00 is not allowed
    hours = int(m.group(1));
    minutes = int(m.group(2));
    seconds = int(m.group(3));

    date = date.replaceAll("(\\d\\d:\\d\\d:\\d\\d)","");
  }

  // get the time difference
  date = date.replace("+-","+0"); // bug fix where data is incorrect ( 16 Sep 2007 23:27:17 +-200)

  p = Pattern.compile("[+|-]*(\\d\\d)\\d\\d");
  m = p.matcher(date);
  if (m.find()) {
    int timeDifferenceH = int(m.group(1));

    date = date.replaceAll("([+|-]*\\d\\d\\d\\d)","");
  }

  date =""+date; // bug fix

  // get the day
  for (int i = 31; i >= 1; i--) {
    // first check for the ones that contains 2 digits (like 07)
    String d = nf(i, 2);
    if (date.contains(d)) {
      day = nf(i, 2);
      date = date.replace(d,"");
      break;
    }

    // check for 1 digit
    d =""+i;
    if (date.contains(d)) {
      day = nf(i, 2);
      date = date.replace(d,"");
      break;
    }
  }


  // there should be nothing left except white space
  date = date.replace("","");
  if (date.equals("") == false) {
    println("handleDate: problem with input
"+date);
    println(origDate+"
");
    println(year);
    println(month);
    println(day);
  }


  String cleanDate = day+"/"+month+"/"+year+""+nf(hours, 2)+":"+nf(minutes, 2)+":"+nf(seconds, 2);

  DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormat.forPattern("dd/MMM/yyyy HH:mm:ss");

  try {
      DateTime dt = formatter.parseDateTime(cleanDate);
      return dt;
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
      println("handleDate: Problem with formatting:"+cleanDate);
    }

  return null;  
}