Some ten thousand people took part in the annual New Year's dive into the North Sea. The chilly event takes place every New Year's Day at the beach in Scheveningen, The Hague.
This year marks the 61st edition of the event, the biggest of its kind in the Netherlands. Between the 127 other diving events held around the country and another 22 Dutch events held abroad, the total number of participants topped 60 thousand, according to Unox, the organizer of the annual event.
A power outage affected the entire island of Curacao on Monday. The power went out at around 9:15 a.m. local time. Nine hours later, some parts of the island were getting power again, including the hospital in Otrobanda and hotels along the coast, NOS reports.
According to electricity supplier Aqualectra, the outage was caused by a fire in the power plant on the site of the Isla oil refinery. The fire caused a short circuit, which affected the island's entire electricity network.
Action group Kick Out Zwarte Piet is planning to protest in twelve different cities in November against the use of blackface makeup and costuming often adorned by white actors portraying Sinterklaas's helper. The activists consider Zwarte Piet in his traditional form a racist stereotype. On Thursday there were protests in Apeldoorn and Deventer calling for Zwarte Piet to remain in the blackface costume seen mainly over the last hundred years, and which some say is adhering to Dutch tradition.
The police in Suriname are looking for two Dutch men of Surinamese descent who disappeared in the country ten days ago. The missing men are Bisnoepersad 'Roy' Hari and Romeo Donk. The local police think that the men's disappearances are connected, and fear that they have been murdered, police spokesperson Humphrey Naarden said to the Telegraaf.
Hari's burnt out car was found outside the Surinamese capital of Paramaribo shortly after his disappearance on September 17th.
A man from Amsterdam was shot and killed in Willemstad on Curacao on Monday. Het Parool identifies the victim as Amsterdam criminal Genciel 'Genna' Feller. The 23-year-old man was in hiding on Curacao after another attempt on his life in Almere last month, according to the newspaper.
Feller was sitting in a white Hyundai parked in Willemtad when two persons opened fire on him, according to surveillance camera footage shared by local media. The shooting happened at around 10:00 a.m. local time, across the street from a supermarket and restaurant.
A 53-year-old Dutch man was shot dead in an armed robbery on Curacao on Tuesday. Four masked and armed men robbed an apartment complex in the neighborhood of Schelpwijk, a few kilometers away from Willemstad, during the early hours of Tuesday morning, ANP reports.
The robbers first forced their way into one apartment, and injured an Asian man. They then broke open the door of another apartment, where they shot the Dutch man. According to the police, the Dutch man was killed with an aimed shot.
The robbers fled.
The police are investigating.
The Netherlands remembered the victims of the Second World War with commemorations across the country on Saturday. King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte attended the National Commemoration in Amsterdam on Saturday evening. Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema stressed that the the lack of freedom during the war must be passed on so that it can be remembered "as if the war were yesterday. Even if no one remembers what it is like to live in an occupied country", Het Parool reports.
American companies can again do business with the Isla refinery in Curacao, despite United States sanctions against the Venezuelan state oil company PdVSA. The Curacao government owns the refinery and leases it to PdVSA, NOS reports
The parliament of Curacao is angry at Dutch Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs for announcing that the island will become a hub for humanitarian aid to Venezuela. The parliamentarians believe that the Minister put the island in a difficult position by making the announcement before Curacao's Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath could explain his plan to the population.
Venezuela closed the sea border between the province of Falcon and the islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, which form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This means that no shipping traffic is possible between Venezuela and the three islands. No reason was given for the closure, NOS reports.
Aruba is struggling to shelter thousands of asylum seekers from Venezuela, fleeing their country to escape poverty and political chaos. The island, which forms part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, already received more asylum applications than it can handle, ANP reports.
The Dutch government plans to make Curacao the "logistic hub" for humanitarian aid to neighbor Venezuela, Ministers Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs and Sigrid Kaag of Foreign Aid said in a letter to parliament. Representatives of the Dutch government, in consultation with the government of Curacao, will agree with the request from interim Venezuelan president Juan Guaidó and the United States to do so, the Ministers wrote, NOS reports.
A Dutch soldier was arrested at a night club on Curacao on Saturday night. He was caught with cocaine in his possession. The 24-year-old man was transferred to the Koninklijke Marechaussee, a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military, ANP reports.
The soldier in question worked as a sailor on the ship Zr. MS. Zeeland. The ship arrived in Curacao last week to combat drug trafficking at sea.
The Ministry of Defense has a zero tolerance policy on hard drugs. Soldiers caught with hard drugs face immediate dismissal.
The Public Prosecutor is prosecuting three soldiers for their involvement in a fatal diving accident on Curacao in 2015, in which a 23-year-old woman was killed. They are accused of violating service regulations and thereby creating a "life-threatening situation", the Prosecutor announced on Monday.
The soldiers facing prosecution are two men, aged 44 and 51 years, and a 49-year-old woman. They are all members of the Royal Netherlands Navy.
Someone stole a large amount of cocaine from a police lockup in Curacao. The drugs had previously been confiscated by the police. The theft from the police terrain was discovered on Sunday morning at around 9:00 a.m., NOS reports.
The perpetrators forced two large metal doors to get to the drugs. Exactly how much cocaine was stolen, the Public Prosecutor on Curacao would not to say to NOS.
Later on Sunday a burning truck was found on the island. The police believe it may have been used in the robbery.
The government of Curacao is denying fleeing Venezuelans their international right to asylum, according to a report Amnesty International published on Monday. The human rights organization calls on the Netherlands to intervene, ANP reports.
The government of Curacao released a statement distancing itself from statements Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs made about multicultural societies. The island's government "deeply regrets" the statements, because as foreign minister Blok also speaks on behalf of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. The Surinamese government would like Blok to apologize for his statements.
A legislative proposal by PVV parliamentarians Sietse Fritsma and Machiel de Graaf to send criminal Antilleans back to Aruba, Curacao or Sint Maarten got no support from other parties in parliament. "This is not possible and we should also not want this", CDA parliamentarian Madeleine van Toorenburg said in a debate in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, NOS reports.
Navy corporal Iris Homan from Hengelo was found dead in a swimming pool on the island of Curacao on May 21st. Her husband Bart D., also a corporal in the Dutch navy, was arrested. D. is not suspected off murder or manslaughter, "but of a certain negligence that led to her death", a spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor on the island said to De Stentor.
Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire are dealing with many asylum seekers from Venezuela due to a humanitarian and political crisis in the country. The three islands, which form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, are getting too little support from the Netherlands in sheltering these asylum seekers, Aruban Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes said to NRC.
She called the Netherlands' attitude "too indifferent and irritating". Aruba is located less than 40 kilometers fro the Venezuelan coast. Around 5 thousand Venezuelans have already fled to the island.
A crew member of TUIfly was arrested at Schiphol Airport on Saturday on suspicion of drug trafficking from Curacao. The Koninklijke Marechaussee confirmed that someone was arrested, but would give no further details, the Telegraaf reports.
The Koninklijke Marechaussee is a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military and is responsible for border control and airport security. "The investigation is ongoing", is all that a spokesperson would say to the Telegraaf.
Four dead bodies were found on the north-east shore of Curaçao on Wednesday. The coast guard identified the bodies as two men and two women from Venezuela who tried to emmigrate without permission and reach Curaçao by boat. A family relative of the victims told the news agency Reuters that the boat they were traveling on was carrying too many people, and a big wave broke the boat in two.
The population of Curaçao was forced to begin stockpiling food since neighboring country Venezuela announced a trade boycott with the Dutch Caribbean island on Friday. The trade ban also covered Aruba and Bonaire, all three of which rely heavily on the South American country's fruits and vegetables.
The European Union published its black list of tax havens. It consists of 17 countries the EU believes help multinationals and rich people avoid the tax authorities. The Netherlands does not appear on the list - no EU countries do. But Aruba and Curacao, which form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, were placed on a "gray list" - they have two years to implement promised improvements, or they'll be blacklisted, the Volkskrant reports.
