Dutch news in brief, 6 January 2005

Newspaper sells front page for appeal

Regional newspaper Het Dagblad van het Noorden has raised EUR 60,000 for the tsunami disaster relief fund by selling its front page to advertisers. The front page of Thursday’s edition of the paper featured a large picture of a child and the names of the companies that paid for the advert. The money will go to SOS-Kinderdorpen, an organisation that is caring for some of the children who lost their parents in the disaster.

18 hurt in tram collision

Eighteen people were injured when two trams collided in central Amsterdam on Thursday morning. Nine of the injured had to be taken to hospital and two were said to be the most seriously injured. The drivers were also taken to hospital. The rest of the injured passengers were treated at the scene. A number 16 tram was stationary at Muntplein when it was struck from behind by a number 4.

Police arrest Chinese for extortion

Police in Rotterdam arrested 14 Chinese people suspected of extorting money from local Chinese businesses. A court has remanded 11 of the suspects in custody. One of the them is accused of involvement in an armed robbery, while others are illegally in the country. Detectives believe Chinese businesses were forced to pay hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of euros to extortionists.

half of jailed teens re-offend

More than half of the young people sentenced to youth detention in the Netherlands re-offend within a year, according to doctoral research by educationalist Coleta van Dam at Radboud University in Nijmegen. She found 65 to 70 percent of former youth detainees get into trouble with the law again, with 25 percent getting involved in serious crime.

Subject: Dutch news