Only in Holland, Only the Dutch

Holloway suspect planned escape to Chile

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:06:00 -0700

From Radio Netherlands:
Dutch murder suspect Joran van der Sloot began planning his escape to Chile immediately after killing Peruvian student Stephany Flores. A TV programme in Peru quoted a police dossier on Joran, stating that the Dutchman had specifically searched for countries which lacked an extradition treaty with Peru. Mr Van der Sloot was arrested by Chilean police in June and handed over to Peru, although the two countries have no extradition treaty.

Van der Sloot is the main suspect in the case but has not been charged because of a lack of credible evidence. The Peru murder occurred exactly five years after Ms Holloway's disappearance. Sources in Peru say that Joran van der Sloot has retracted his confession of the Stephany Flores murder, and has complained that Peruvian police confiscated his laptop without being authorised to do so. Van der Sloot has been detained in the Castro Castro prison in Lima.
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Dutch teen Dekker completes Atlantic crossing

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:19:00 -0700

From the Associated Press:
A 15-year-old Dutch sailor on Sunday completed the longest leg so far of her attempted circumnavigation of the globe, saying it felt "really weird" to be back on dry land after nearly three weeks out in the ocean. Fifteen-year-old Laura Dekker, aiming to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, was in good spirits after completing the 2,200 nautical-mile (2,532 land-mile, 4,074-kilometer) trip from the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa.
The Dutch teenager started her trip from Gibraltar on Aug. 21 and spent two months in the Canary Islands waiting for the hurricane season to pass. She left the Cape Verde Islands on Dec. 2.

Dekker's venture stirred an intense debate about whether young people should be allowed to sail the world's oceans alone. A Dutch court originally blocked the voyage and only permitted her to set off after she took measures to manage the risks. She bought a bigger, sturdier boat than the one she originally planned to use, fitted it with advanced navigation and radar equipment, and took courses in first aid and coping with sleep deprivation. In the end, the Dutch court ruled that her preparations were adequate and it was up to her parents, who are divorced, to decide whether to let her make the attempt. Dekker was born on a boat off New Zealand while her parents were sailing around the world.

On Sunday, she told the AP that she wasn't sure how long she would stay in St. Maarten or precisely where her next leg would take her. "I will just stay here now for a bit and I will think about that," Dekker said. "I've not really a plan. I just want to be in the Panama Canal in May, April, so until that time I will cross the islands, I think." Overall, the solitude of the trip wasn't difficult, she said, although she did have fleeting bouts of homesickness. "There were two or three moments that I thought, 'OK, why the hell am I doing this?' But they were not for very long. If I feel really lonely I can always call my parents or something so then it's over," Dekker said.

Read the full article here (Associated Press)

Snow ruins Eredivisie

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:05:00 -0700

The cold snap wiped out three of Sunday's four scheduled games in the Eredivisie, including the clash between arch rivals Ajax and Feyenoord. The Dutch FA opted to postpone the fixture due to heavy snowfall in Amsterdam with the game rearranged for January 19. They were advised that road conditions around the stadium were dangerous while public transport was limited.
Read the full article at ESPN

Snow hits the Netherlands

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:51:00 -0700

From the Press Association: Snow disrupts European airports:
Heavy overnight snowfall has grounded about 450 flights and caused major delays at German airports. Schools were closed and roads clogged with traffic. At least two people died as the weather caused scores of accidents. Snow also hit flights in the Netherlands, where Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport saw 30 cancellations and major delays ahead of the busy Christmas holiday season. The European control agency eurocontrol said passengers at Schiphol, one of Europe's busiest airports, had to expect delays of up to four and a half hours.
Read the full article here

Amsterdam in the snow storm at AT5.nl

Court backs city ban on marijuana sales to nonresidents

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:45:00 -0700

From the New York Times:
Europe’s highest court ruled Thursday that a Dutch town had the right to refuse marijuana to foreigners, a decision that could curb drug tourism in the Netherlands. The European Court of Justice held that the mayor of Maastricht was allowed to close a coffee shop that had been selling marijuana to nonresidents. The court said the mayor’s action was “capable of substantially limiting drug tourism and, consequently, of reducing the problems it causes.”
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Some Dutch banks likely "too big to fail"

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:49:00 -0700

Dutch financial institutions, many of which were hit in the 2008 crisis, are likely be on the list of global "too-big-to-fail" banks and will need to meet new extra capital requirements, the central bank said on Wednesday. Regulators and central bankers, headed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, are still debating which global banks should be considered "systemically important" financial institutions (SIFIs) and therefore face extra regulations. "Although the Dutch financial sector in its totality has shrunk in size and connectedness since the start of the crisis, the Netherlands is still an important player," said the Dutch central bank (DNB) whose governor, Nout Wellink, is also chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
Long-term financing and deposits would become more important under new capital and liquidity rules known as Basel 3, which will be gradually implemented from 2013 until 2018, but Dutch banks faced a 500 billion euro "retail funding gap" due the mismatch between deposits and lending, the central bank said.
Read the full article at ABC News

US court indicts Dutch Farc rebel Tanja Nijmeijer

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:42:00 -0700

From BBC News:
A US court has indicted a Dutch member of the Colombian Farc rebel group on kidnapping charges. Tanja Nijmeijer joined the left-wing guerrilla group shortly after her arrival in Colombia, and is believed to be still at large. The court accuses her of hostage-taking and "conspiracy to provide support to terrorists". The federal grand jury says she was part of a group of Farc rebels who kidnapped three American contractors. The three, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howe, were taken hostage by the Farc after their plane crashed in the jungle.

US Attorney Ronald Machen says the indictment "demonstrates our firm resolve to bring to justice every last Farc commander who played any part in this brutal act of terrorism". Ms Nijmeijer, 32, joined the Farc in 2002 after having taught English in a school in Pereira, in central Colombia. In an interview for Radio Netherlands recorded in August 2010, she said she would fight until victory or death. She also warned the Colombian authorities that if they tried to rescue her she would "meet them with machine guns, mines and mortars".
Read the full article here (BBC News)

Dutch public believes Church covered up abuse-poll

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:29:00 -0700

From Reuters:
A large majority of the Dutch public believes Roman Catholic Church authorities covered up sexual abuse, a poll found Sunday, revealing the extent of the damage to the Church's reputation in the Netherlands. An independent commission said Thursday 1,975 people have declared themselves victims of sexual and physical abuse while under the care of the Church since 1945, ranking the Netherlands second worst behind Ireland in a scandal that has rocked the Church in Europe and the United States. The survey also found that 69 percent think the Church should no longer make comments about how people should behave, but that percentage falls to 55 percent among Catholics.

Victims of abuse in the Netherlands want a full parliamentary inquiry into the scandal and the poll showed 56 percent of the Dutch were in favour of such an investigation. Although the scandal has forced Pope Benedict to apologise to victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, the survey found that 88 percent, or 75 percent among Catholics, believe the pope needs to more clearly offer his apologies.
Read the full article here

Dutch release pro-WikiLeaks hacker

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:24:00 -0700

From the Herald Sun:
Dutch prosecutors released a teenager today after he admitted taking part in cyber attacks launched by supporters of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, a spokesman said. The 19-year-old, arrested on Saturday in the municipality of Hoogezand-Sappemeer, admitted taking part in cyber attacks on the websites of Mastercard, Visa, Moneybookers and the Dutch national prosecutor, said spokesman Wim de Bruin. The spokesman would not say whether the teenager faced prosecution.

Read the full article here

What does the future hold for Ajax?

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:11:00 -0700

From Radio Netherlands:
Martin Jol, a successful trainer who worked for Ajax for a year and a half, is leaving a club in crisis. He had a rough start with Ajax last season, but after the winter break the team put on an impressive spurt and ended the season just one point behind the Premier League champions, FC Twente. The record-breaking Amsterdam club (29 times league champions) also made into the UEFA Champions League - where they received an unceremonious drubbing. Whatever happened to the days of Michels, Cruijff and Van Gaal, when Ajax were the leaders in attacking football and collected endless trophies? Martin Jol turned out not to have the magic touch Ajax had hoped for. A dramatic run of eight matches with only two wins proved fatal. The supporters were relatively forgiving. They decided the players were largely to blame, although there was, of course, criticism of Jol. "He didn't improve the players' performances, failed to turn the team into a unit and recruited the wrong kinds of players" according to the fans.

Doing well at Ajax is no easy task. The supporters are spoilt and demanding. They don't just want victories, they want them achieved with dominant and attractive football. In this respect they follow the gospel according to Johan Cruijff, patron saint of Ajax and all-round fly in the ointment. Ajax's former number 14 grasps every opportunity to express his displeasure with the club. The performances on the pitch are dreadful and the directors are not fit for their task. The departure of Martin Jol has not brought the solution any closer from Cruijff's point of view: the roots of the malaise lie much deeper. Cruijff has started a lobby to recruit more former players to the members' council, the body which chooses the club's management. [...] It's anybody's guess what role Cruijff himself will play in that process. Since his period as trainer in the 1980s, he has not had any official role at Ajax.
Read the full article here (Radio Netherlands)

Iceland meets Britain, Dutch in London on Icesave

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:05:00 -0700

The Icelandic government said on Wednesday a team of officials is in London for talks with Britain and the Netherlands over money they paid to bail out depositors in Icelandic banks, and earlier reports said a deal may soon be reached. Britain and the Netherlands spent around $5 billion to repay local depositors who had invested money in the Icesave deposit scheme run by Landsbanki, which collapsed along with the rest of Iceland's main commercial banks in October 2008. Iceland and its European neighbors have since been seeking an agreement on the terms of compensation for Britain and the Netherlands that would be acceptable to all parties after an initial deal was rejected by Icelanders in a referendum.
Read the full article at Reuters

Heavy snowfall disrupted traffic in Netherlands

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 13:55:00 -0700

A blizzard blanketed the Netherlands and the rest of Western Europe on Saturday with snowfalls up to 20 cm in some places, severely disrupting traffic. Train traffic around major Dutch cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht was crippled while air traffic experienced great inconvenience. The weather caused less problems on the road as a lot of people decided to stay home. Dozens of flight cancels or delays were reported across the country as the Eindhoven aiport encountered problems and the Rotterdam airport had to close for a while for incoming and departing flights. Several outbound flights from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam faced difficulties in the morning because it is snowing a lot in other European countries as well.
The snow also caused inconvenience to other traffic. The roads were slippery, which led to dangerous situations. Because few people decided to hit the road by car there weren' t major problems and even fewer traffic jams than on a normal Saturday. In Amsterdam and The Hague the bus and tram lines were disrupted with buses and trams driving very slowly or not driving at all.
Read the full article at InFocus

Dutch cities to start crackdown on marijuana cafes

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 13:52:00 -0700

From the Associated Press:
The Netherlands' justice minister and five southern Dutch cities say they will implement new restrictions on marijuana cafes after a wave of drug-related gangland violence. They said Friday the measures include shutting down many cafes, using tax and accounting laws to seize criminal assets, and introducing a "members only" pass system for remaining cafes. The government has previously floated the idea of a nationwide pass system that would make it difficult for tourists to buy marijuana, despite the country's famed tolerance policy, which allows sale and possession of small amounts of weed.

Read the full article here

Transsexual graduate to get new Dutch diploma

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:25:00 -0700

A transsexual former student has won a battle to be granted a replacement graduation diploma with his new name and gender printed on it, the University of Amsterdam said Tuesday. Justus Eisfeld will get a new diploma after Education Minister Marja van Bijsterveldt said a law barring universities from issuing replacement diplomas was "interpreted too strictly," university spokesman Paul Helbing said, adding the university is "very happy" to be able to issue the replacement diploma. The minister's statement Tuesday came on the same day the Equal Opportunities Commission ruled the university's previous refusal to grant Eisfeld a new diploma amounted to discrimination. The commission's chairwoman, Laurien Koster, rebuked the university, saying it "should have recognized that a gender change is a reason to replace a diploma."
Read the full article at the Washington Post

WikiLeaks confirms presence of US nuclear arms in Netherlands

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:34:00 -0700

The publication by internet whistleblower Wikileaks of messages between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions abroad has indirectly confirmed the presence of US nuclear arms in the Netherlands. A message sent by the US embassy in Germany to the State Department in Washington mentions US nuclear weapons in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey. The presence of US nuclear weapons at the Volkel air base has never been officially confirmed, but has been suspected for years. Twelve years ago, former foreign minister Jozias van Aartsen implicitly acknowledged their existence during a debate in the Dutch senate.
Read the full article at Radio Netherlands