Expatica news

Dutch news in brief – 2 June 2004

 Dutch woman ‘not the world’s oldest’

The 113-year-old Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper is not the world’s oldest person. Instead, that honour belongs to Hanna Barysevich of Belarus, a Russian journalist has told Dutch news agency Novum. Barysevich lives in a hut in Kuravsovshina, near the capital Minsk. Dutch woman Van Andel-Schipper was hailed over the weekend as the newest oldest person of the world following the death of the 114-year-old Puerto Rican Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan, who died on Saturday. She was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest person. Despite the fact that Barysevich was three years older than the Puerto Rican, she was not listed in the official records. But a Russian journalist claims that Barysevich was born on 5 May 1888 in Buda, a village near Minsk. The journalist has studied her passport and said the woman never applied to the Guinness Book of Records because she had never heard of it. A spokeswoman for the records book said Van Andel-Schipper is currently officially the world’s oldest person, but active investigations will be conducted into the Barysevich’s title claims.

Free bus travel proving popular

Offering free bus travel between The Hague and Leiden has led to 3,000 commuters using the services every day, compared with 1,000 before the trial started.  Surveys indicate that from 1,750 respondents, 40 percent of commuters are now opting for the bus instead of the car. The experiment with free bus travel is being conducted from 5 January to 31 December. The South Holland province — which has allocated EUR 700,000, to the project — said the results meet the success criteria placed on the experiment. A decision in regards various options — such as expanding free bus travel across the entire province or abandoning the project — must be taken before 1 January 2005. It is hoped the project will result in fewer traffic delays.

Women biggest users of medicinal cannabis

Two thirds of people who use cannabis for medicinal purposes are female and 60 percent of users have smoked marijuana before, new research indicates. Most users of medicinal cannabis have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. It has been possible since Autumn 2003 for seriously ill patients to obtain cannabis with a doctor’s prescription at a pharmacy. Research bureau Pharmo also said the introduction of medicinal cannabis has not led to non-patients seeking cannabis at pharmacists.

Tyre noise placed on EU environment agenda

Environment State Secretary Minister Pieter van Geel intends to reduce the amount of noise generated by car tyres by between three to seven decibels, Radio Netherlands has reported. During the opening of the Green Week environmental conference in Brussels, Van Geel also said he hopes to reach agreement with other EU states by the end of this year. The environment minister wants to confront tyre-generated noise instead of continually building expensive motorway noise barriers.

Man arrested for filming inside women’s skirts

A 56-year-old man of Rucphen in Brabant has been arrested for secretly walking through a market on the Binnenrotte and pointing a recording video camera up women’s skirts. The man was spotted by market officials who saw that he had a small camera in his hand hidden underneath a plastic bag. The man was trying to get as close as possible to women to film inside their skirts. Women in mini skirts were the man’s main targets, but the victims did not suspect anything due to the large number of people on the town square. Market officials alerted police who arrested the man and confiscated the camera. He was released that night.

Loos fails to win SBS presenter contract

Rebecca Loos will not return as a guest presenter of Shownieuws on SBS. A company spokesman said “she was not good enough” and her affect on ratings was hardly noticeable. Furthermore, her thick British accent made her difficult to understand. Loos — the 26-year-old daughter of a Dutch diplomat — sprang to fame earlier this year after claiming she had sex with British soccer star David Beckham. She was hired at the start of May as a guest presenter for the SBS showbiz programme. SBS is now negotiating to employ her as a “special reporter” for Shownieuws.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news