Dutch news in brief – 29 March - Expatica Netherlands

Haarlem bomb scare a false alarm

Police sealed off part of the Haarlem city centre for three hours on Saturday afternoon after a bomb scare. A suspicious suitcase was found in the Smedestraat, but bomb experts from EOD found no trace of explosives. The all-clear was given at about 5pm and people were allowed to return to evacuated shops and department stores. A 35-year-old artist reported to police on Sunday admitting he had left the suitcase on the street because he no longer wanted what it contained. Police said the suitcase was full of junk. Bomb scares were also reported in Amsterdam, Roosendaal and Leiden last week.

Boy dies buried under hay

A seven-year-old boy was killed after he was buried under hay in a farm stable on Saturday. The child was playing when he became trapped under fallen hay and his father — who was working on the Brandwijk farm in South Holland at the time of the accident — found the body later that day. Reanimation attempts by ambulance and trauma helicopter staff were to no avail. The boy probably died of suffocation, police said.

Stalker used death notices to pick victims

A 44-year-old man from Markelo in Twente Province has been arrested for allegedly stalking dozens of people after picking their names from death and condolence notices in various newspapers. A couple from Hof van Twente lodged a complaint against him in February, claiming he had harassed them for years since they had placed a notice in a newspaper years before to announce the death of their son, news agency Novum reported.

Summer births top national average

Dutch children are primarily born in the middle of the week, statistics bureau CBS said. A relatively large number of births occur on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but the number drastically reduces on the weekend. The summer months and October also have a higher number of births than the rest of the year. The average in those four months is about 580 births per day, compared with about 540 per day for the other months of the year. There wee 202,000 births in the Netherlands in 2002, an average of 554 per day, the CBS said.

Ahold blackmailer faces 12 year demand

The prosecution asked an appeals court in Arnhem to impose a 12 year sentence on Edwin W., 33, who is accused of conspiring with another man to blackmail Dutch retail giant Ahold of EUR 5 million. A court ion Zwolle had sentenced him last year to seven years for the blackmail attempt. Hi co-defendant, Jochem Z. was jailed for four years by the court in Zwolle. The pair admitted shooting at houses and an Albert Heijn supermarket in Deventer in a bid to persuade Ahold to meet their demands. They were convicted of blackmail and attempted murder.

Arrests end occupation of deportation centre

The Marechausse military police arrested 26 people on Monday and ended a sit in at the new asylum seeker deportation centre at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The occupation was organised by a group campaigning for the closure of the centre.

What’s the price of an extra hour?

Anyone who left their car overnight in a paid parking garage on Saturday were charged an extra hour when the clocks went forward to mark the start of summer time. The parking meters jumped forward an hour from 2am to 3am on Sunday and motorists were required to pay for an extra hour that never existed. Some motorists felt “swindled”, while most of them didn’t even notice the difference in price.

Subject: Dutch news