Groningen

Twelve crew members of a cargo ship belonging to Groningen shipping company ForestWave were kidnapped by pirates on Saturday. At the time of the attack, the ship was at sea between Ghana and the Nigerian Port Harcourt, NU.nl reports.

The pirates took 12 of the 14 crew members with them, ForestWave announced on Monday. Nothing is known about their condition or fate. The company has been unable to make contact with the pirates. 

Grid managers Tennet and Enexis want no new solar parks to be built in Groningen and northern Drenthe for the time being. The electricity grid there does not have sufficient capacity to process the energy from any new solar parks, according to the companies, NOS reports.

"We can handle the current situation, but if the many requests for solar parks keep coming, there is simply not enough space to transport all the electricity", spokesperson Loek de Lange of Enexis said to the broadcaster.

Shell "should have been more assertive" in its warnings about climate change, Ben van Beurden, CEO of the Dutch oil and gas giant said in a podcast by Studio Energie. Environmental group Milieudefensie recently filed a lawsuit against Shell for the role it played in the climate problems the world currently faces. 

Pieter Smit, mayor of the Groningen municipality of Oldambt and member of the D66, died after going into cardiac arrest on Tuesday. He was 54 years old.

"This afternoon we heard the terrible news that our mayor Pieter Smit died of cardiac arrest. We lost our mayor, a beloved man. But his family lost their husband and father", the municipality of Oldambt said on Twitter.

Gas extraction in Groningen will gradually be reduced to zero, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced in his weekly press conference on Thursday. He called it an "important decision". Shortly after the press conference, the government released a statement saying that gas extraction in the province will be reduced to less than 12 billion cubic meters per year by 2022, and then to 7.5 million cubic meters per year. "In the years after that gas extraction will be reduced to zero."

On Monday the claims desk specifically for handling damages caused by gas extraction in Groningen opened. The 30 employees of the claims desk is facing a major workload - around 12 thousand damage cases are waiting to be examined, because almost nothing has been done with them since March 31st last year, RTL Nieuws reports.

An independent committee will start by making an inventory and assessing the damage claims. The claims desk is part of a new damage protocol that Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate presented on January 31st.

Emergency services responded to Paddepoelsterweg in Groningen en masse on Sunday after a passerby reported a body in the water. Closer inspection revealed that it was not a person at all, but a realistic sex doll, the police said on Twitter.

A passerby reported the 'body' around 3:45 p.m. on Sunday. Emergency services responded with a large number of personnel, because clothes were also found on the side of the water, according to ANP. Boating traffic in the area was halted for a time. 

Snowfall resulted in icy, slippery roads in the north and east of the Netherlands on Thursday morning. Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning for the provinces of Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, and Overijssel. Other weather services warn motorists in Flevoland and Gelderland to also be careful of slippery roads.

The iciness on the roads will melt away during the course of the morning. 

The majority of primary schools in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe are closed today as around 6 thousand teachers go on strike for higher salaries and lower workloads. This is the first of a relay strike, starting today in the North. On March 14th primary school teachers in Flevoland, Utrecht, and Noord-Holland will strike, combined with a demonstration in Amsterdam, NOS reports.

The strikes are supported by the PO-Front, a joint action group consisting of trade unions, school leaders and managers.

A 46-year-old woman was found dead in her home on  Baron van Asbeckweg in Warfhuizen, Groningen on Sunday afternoon. She was killed in a crime, the police confirmed on Monday. Her 32-year-old boyfriend was arrested in the home, RTV Noord reports.

A spokesperson for the police told the broadcaster that the arrested man is known to the police, which usually means that the suspect has some kind of criminal record.

The police are doing forensic investigations in and around the home. So far nothing was revealed about how the woman died.

An earthquake was felt in Groningen on Thursday afternoon. According to meteorological institute KNMI, the quake had a magnitude of 2.0 and it's epicenter was near Loppersum at a depth of 3 kilometers. 

The quake happened around 4:30 p.m., according to broadcaster NOS. Dozens of people from Loppersum, Zeerijp and Garrelsweer reported feeling it. The KNMI called it an 'induced' earthquake, which means that it was caused by gas extraction.