Dutch news in brief – 10 May 2004

Annan honoured with Four Freedoms Award

The Four Freedoms Award was presented in the Zeeland city Middleburg on Saturday. In the presence of Queen Beatrix, Prince Constantijn and his wife Princess Laurentien, the wife of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted the award on his behalf. Nane Annan was presented with the prize by former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers and Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who attended on behalf of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. The award is presented every year to someone who has shown a life-long commitment to fulfilling the four freedoms that President Roosevelt said in 1941 were essential to a flourishing democracy: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Emergency vehicle access system changes

Emergency services vehicles such as police, ambulance or fire brigade will no longer use emergency lanes starting from 1 January 2005. Under plans from Department of Public Works, vehicles will in future be required to merge to the left or right to give an emergency service vehicle a clear path. Good results with the method have been reported in Germany. The plan is necessary because the service lane is increasingly being used during peak-hour traffic as a normal lane.

Police end long-term hostage drama

Amsterdam police rescued a 42-year-old kidnapped Columbian on Friday and arrested six suspects, aged 30 to 43 years old. The man was taken hostage on 26 March as shots were fired in the Vondelpark and after various ransom negotiations and the issuing of an ultimatum, police raided a home in Amstelveen and one in the German city Aachen.

Record cannabis seizure in South Holland

Police raided a greenhouse complex in the South Holland town of Puttershoek on Saturday and seized between 130,000 and 135,000 cannabis plants. The seizure was considered a record. All plants and equipment were to be destroyed and energy company Eneco investigated whether the premises illegally used electricity.

Rebecca Loos to present show on Dutch television

Rebecca Loos — who became famous on claims she had sex with British soccer star David Beckham — will give her first Dutch television interview on Monday night. The interview will be aired on commercial broadcaster SBS 6. Loos, whose father is a Dutch diplomat, will talk about her youth, the alleged affair and her future. She will then appear as a guest presenter of Shownieuws with Viktor Brand at 7.30pm on Tuesdays after signing a temporary contract with the station.

Fancy a Boa or Python pet snake?

Boa and Python snakes, which kill by strangulation, and the poisonous Cobra may be kept as pets, an animal wellbeing council has advised Agriculture Minister Cees Veerman. The council, Raad voor de Dierenaangelegenheden, bases it advice on the wellbeing of the animal and not the human owner. Certain types of crocodiles, sharks and turtles do not prosper very well in an aquarium or terrarium and are thus not suitable as pets. The council examined the case of mammals and birds last year.

Subject: Dutch news