Brussels

The leaders of the European Union Member States made no progress in their negotiations regarding the new EU budget on Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said to NOS when he left the meeting just after midnight. The leaders hare heavily divided.

Representatives of five prominent European cities are looking into a night train which would stretch all the way from Amsterdam to Helsinki. The train route would conceivably stop in Hamburg, Copenhagen and Stockholm along with the Dutch and Finnish capitals. The cities' governments have reportedly put this project on their political agendas.

Six people arrested on Monday over ties to alleged crime boss Ridouan Taghi were released from custody this week. Five of them, reportedly including Taghi’s sister, were set free on Thursday.

A report by the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) has revised the country's threat level assessment down to level 3 from level 4. The threat of a terrorist attack in the Netherlands is assessed on a five-point scale, with threat level 5 being the most severe and imminent.

A 63-year-old train conductor was attacked from behind by a man traveling without a ticket in Breda late in September. The man hit her so hard on the back of the head that she immediately lost consciousness. The police are asking for the public's aid in identifying the suspect.

The conductor checked the man's ticket on the international train from Brussels to Amsterdam on September 28th. She found that he did not have a valid ticket. She took his ticket and told him to buy a new one in Breda. The man behaved aggressively towards the conductor and she left the coupe. 

Amsterdam and nine other European tourist cities want more support from the European Union in their fight against tourist rental through online platforms like Airbnb. They issued a joint statement in response to a ruling by the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice stating that Airbnb is an informal service provider and therefore needs to take little to no responsibility for complying with holiday rental rules, NOS reports.

GroenLinks wants to completely abolish flights between the airports of Amsterdam and Brussels. According to the green party, the train on this route is "effectively almost always faster and always better for the environment". The measure can also relieve some pressure on the already overcrowded Schiphol, AD reports.

There are no winners in the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union - both the UK and the EU will suffer under the Brexit, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. "It will never be as beautiful as it was", he said on Sunday after meeting with his EU colleagues and British Prime Minister Theresa May in Brussels to formally approve the Brexit agreement, the Telegraaf reports.

Advances in DNA identification techniques led to the identification of a body found in 2001 in Belgium. The body of Corrie van der Valk was buried in Philippeville, Belgium that same year. The 58-year-old woman was struck by a train near Namur, Belgium, and caused extensive damage as to make identification impossible at the time.

The Van der Valk family was notified of the discovery on Thursday. One of her relatives told the AD, "We are sad, but also relieved that there is now clarity after so many years."

Ferry Zandvliet from Rotterdam, who survived a terrorist attack during an Eagles of Death Metal concert in Bataclan in Paris two years ago, will be attending the trial against suspected terrorist Salah Abdeslam in Brussels on Monday. "I want to look that boy in the eyes", he said, according to newspaper AD.

A Belgian driver crashed into the store of a Texaco gas station on the E40 highway towards Brussels on Monday night. One person was killed and two were seriously injured. According to VRT, all three victims are Dutch.

Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad reports that the three Dutch colleagues were drinking coffee in the shop when the car crashed into them. The Dutch person who was killed was a middle aged man, according to the newspaper. His two colleagues were seriously injured, but are in a stable condition.