Rents in the Netherlands continue to rise. In July, the average rents were 2.5 percent higher than in the same month last year. The highest increases happened in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Statistics Netherlands reported on Wednesday.
The rents of social housing owned by housing corporations increased by 2 percent. Rents for social housing owned by other landlords and rents in free-sector housing both increased by 3.3 percent. In all three categories, the rents increased more than last year.
The partial collapse of the AFAS Stadion roof earlier this month was caused by the downward force of heavy winds. The stadium, home of Alkmaar-based football club AZ, will now undergo a renovation in which roughly 75 percent of the roof will be renovated or replaced.
An investigation into the death of a 32-year-old deaf man in Assen determined that a sex crime took place on the playground where the man died, authorities said on Tuesday. Five men were arrested after reports surfaced that the hearing-impaired gardener named Martin was accused of sexually abusing a four-year-old girl just after 1 p.m. on Saturday.
An irrigation ban is in effect in the Achterhoek, Twente and parts of Drenthe from noon on Thursday. From then farmers in these areas are not allowed to use surface water for watering their fields, waterboards Rijn en Ijssel and Vechtstroom announced on Wednesday, NU.nl reports.
There is a very real concern in the Netherlands regarding potential terror attacks, particularly from ISIS recruits and jihadists, right-wing extremists, and radical activists, according to Dutch counter-terror office NCTV. Because of this, the terror threat level in the country remains high, with holding at 4 out of a maximum of 5 in the terrorism threat assessment published by the NCTV on Monday.
The Public Prosecutor demanded institutionalized psychiatric treatment against a 34-year-old man from Zwolle who is accused of stalking an underage girl from Drenthe for eight years. This is the fourth time that the man is on trial for stalking the now 17-year-old girl from Drenthe the village of Zuidlaren, RTV Drenthe reports.
A 59-year-old woman was found dead in her home on Driehoekskamp in the Drenthe town of De Groeve on Monday night. She was killed in a crime, according to the police. A 56-year-old man was arrested, Dagblad van het Noorden reports.
Police officers responded to the home at around 7:00 p.m. after a report. They found the victim dead inside.
The suspect was arrested shortly after the woman's body was found, a police spokesperson said to the newspaper. He is still in custody. "The victim and the suspect knew each other", the police spokesperson said.
A holiday park in Erica in Drenthe was evacuated on Sunday evening after an Easter bonfire got out of control and threatened to spread to the bungalows. The fire has since been extinguished and the holiday makers were allowed to return to their homes. No one was injured, NU.nl reports.
Burning parts were blown from the bonfire, and started fires in the forest in which the bungalow park is located. The fires were quickly extinguished.
Entrepreneur Ben Timmermans of company Avitec infra & milieu is withdrawing from Drenthe wind farm project De Monden due to a threatening letter he received. Groningen Provincial Deputy Fleur Gräper-van Koolwijk (D66) also received a threatening letter regarding a wind farm project in the province. The police are investigating, Dagblad van het Noorden reports.
A car with four people inside crashed into a tree in the Drenthe town of Hooghalen during the early hours of Sunday morning. A 20-year-old man from Westerbork and a 25-year-old man from Smilde were killed. Two others, a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy both from Westerbork, were seriously injured, the Drenthe police said on Twitter.
The accident happened on Laaghalerveen. The cause of the accident is not yet clear, the police are investigating.
The victims' families were informed.
Strong winds had a major impact on air traffic at Schiphol Airport on Monday. Over a hundred flights were canceled, and hundreds more were delayed.
Asbestos was dumped at a construction site at Delfzijl station for two consecutive days. A specialized company was called in to clean up the first batch of the carcinogenic substance on Friday. This same company is also cleaning up the second batch, found on Saturday, RTV Noord reports.
On Friday a pamphlet was attached to the fence of the construction site. It read: "This pollution, asbestos, was blown here by the contractor Hoonstra. Wind-concentration camp builder in Drenthe. Those who hire this company, will harvest asbestos."
A 4-year-old girl witnessed three robbers assault her father in their home in Drouwenerveen, Drenthe late on Sunday evening. The robbers were dressed as a police SWAT team, the police said on Opsporing Verzocht on Tuesday.
The father, a 38-year-old man, was seriously injured and is still in hospital. He was in the living room with his daughter when the robbers forced the front door and came into their home. Care was arranged for the girl. The robbery made a big impression on her, the police said.
Dutch national railway NS will run a reduced schedule on Wednesday morning with forecasted snow expected to fall across much of the country. Up to 3 centimeters of snow is expected across much of the Netherlands.
The limited train schedule is in place so the NS can quickly respond to problems, and provide more accurate travel information, the railway said. Passengers can expect longer travel times and more crowded trains.
There were over 1,635 kilometers of traffic jams across the Netherlands at 5:05 p.m. on Tuesday, just as the evening rush hour got underway, according to travel association ANWB. A snow storm that started on the west coast in the morning was slowly making its way east, and was still expected to hover over the provinces of Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel, Gelderland, Limburg, and parts of Flevoland and Noord-Brabant past 6 p.m.
Ten different wolves visited the Netherlands in 2018, Wageningen Environmental Research (WENR) concludes after genetic testing on feces and DNA samples taken from bite wounds in attacked sheep. One she-wolf has been hanging around in the Netherlands for months and may be settling here, NU.nl reports.
Up to August traces of eight wolves were found in the Netherlands. Between August and October, two new females were observed, as well as one she-wolf also spotted multiple times earlier in the year. Wolves were spotted in Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel and on the Veluwe.
The first snow of the season fell in Drenthe, Overijssel and Groningen on Tuesday evening. According to Weerplaza, it mostly involved wet snow, and not enough to blanket the landscape.
The winter showers moved across the country during the course of the evening, but stopped by midnight in most places.
Wednesday will see mainly dry weather, with sunshine every now and then, according to the weather services. Afternoon temperatures will climb to between 3 and 7 degrees.
Nothing was found in the search for Willeke Dost, a then 15-year-old girl who disappeared from her foster parents' farm in Koekange in 1992. On Monday the police searched and dug in two places in the vicinity of the farm, but found nothing.
Alderman Jan Zwiers of the municipality of Coevorden in Drenthe was assaulted by a resident of a caravan camp in the village of Steenwijksmoer on Wednesday. The alderman walked away with a black eye, broken glasses and torn pants, RTL Nieuws reports.
Zwiers visited Steenwijksmoer to talk to residents of the village about the caravan camp. The residents complained that residents of the camp create a lot of waste. The alderman also wanted to talk to the people living in the camp. Once there, he was attacked by the man.
The government and the provinces of Groningen, Drenthe, Friesland and Gelderland will sign a covenant this week that will make Nedersaksisch an official, independent and full part of the Dutch language. In the covenant the government promises to protect and promote Nedersaksisch, known as Low Saxon in English, NOS reports.
Low Saxon is spoken in Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel, the northeast Veluwe, the Achterhoek and in Oost- and Weststellingwerf. The official recognition comes with money for language projects, and for schools that want to promote a dialect in Lower Saxon.
An increasing number of cranes are nesting and breeding in the Netherlands, according to bird protection organization Vogelbescherming. This year a record number of 32 breeding pairs were counted, 10 more than last year and four times as many as in 2014.
Most cranes were spotted in Drenthe and Friesland as in previous years. But this year cranes were also found breeding in Noord-Brabant and Limburg for the first time. Twelve of the 32 breeding pairs actually hatched chicks.
Ten years after the outbreak of the credit crisis, the average selling prices of existing owner-occupied homes in the Netherlands are back on the level of 2008. Though the recovery can mainly be seen in the Randstad area. Prices in the big cities are now far above the 2008 level. But in many places outside the Randstad, house prices are still lower than before the crisis, Statistics Netherlands reported on Wednesday.
Golden retriever Biko has been missing from Geesteren, Overijssel since February. Despite extensive searches, he hasn't been found. Missing animals organization Zoekteam Dogs Lovers now offered a reward of 4 thousand euros for the tip that leads to the missing doggo, RTL Nieuws reports.
The organization is contributing 3 thousand euros to the reward, 500 eruos comes form Biko's owner and the rest was donated by an anonymous dog lover.
Four campsites were evacuated due to a large forest fire in the Drenthe town of Wateren on Tuesday afternoon. Around 75 hectares of heathland burned down. The fire department got the fire under control around 9:00 p.m., but some 150 firefighters worked throughout the night to extinguish it completely, RTL Nieuws reports
