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.
Anyone complaining about the Dutch weather this winter might have to hold their tongue, as the Netherlands is well on its way to the sunniest year in history. With 11 days left in autumn, the Netherlands has already recorded the most hours of sunshine for the season, according to meteorologists at WeerPlaza and NOS.
Getting divorced in Zeeland requires some patience. The court is dealing with a backlog in divorce cases, and actually getting divorced can take up to a year. Over the past two months the court in Middelburg has been training to reduce the waiting time for divorce cases to an acceptable level with extra sessions, Omroep Zeeland reports.
The Health Care Inspectorate closed the Arduin care institution in the Zeeland village of Aagtekerke with immediate effect. The 14 residents must be transferred to other healthcare institutions within seven days, the Inspectorate said, ANP reports.
Arduin offers residential care for people with intellectual disabilities. According to the Inspectorate, the institution's employees are unable to provide the proper care for their clients. The organization is also careless with freedom-restricting measures used on residents.
The number of millionaires in the Netherlands keeps growing. In 2016 the country counted 112 thousand millionaire households, the highest number since this annual study started in 2006, Statistics Netherlands reported on Tuesday.
A 47-year-old man from Greece was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking in the Zeeland town of Colijnsplaat on Saturday. He was caught smuggling eight people on a sailboat sailing under the Belgian flag, the Koninklijke Marechaussee said on Monday, NU.nl reports.
The eight people were found in the boat's cabin during a check in the port of Colijnsplaat. The Marechaussee - a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military - believe they come from Albania and were being smuggled to England.
The investigation is ongoing.
A German sea mine was detonated off the coast of Zeeland on Thursday morning. The mine was discovered in July, during installation of a power cable for the Borssele wind farm, RTL Nieuws reports.
The explosive weighed nearly 700 kilograms. The navy branch of Defense's Explosives Ordnance Disposal service detonated the mine some 1,500 kilometers from the coast near Vlissingnen from navy mine-hunting vessel Zr. MS. Urk.
Shipping traffic was halted while the mine was detonated.
A 7-year-old boy died on Monday after being attacked by a cow on small campsite De Koehoorn in the Zeeland village of Meliskerke, the police said on Twitter.
Emergency services responded to the campsite, which is located on a farm, en masse. But their attempts to save the boy was in vain. He died at the scene. Bystanders were offered victim assistance.
After weeks of drought, parts of Zuid- and Midden-Nederland were hit by a rain storm on Thursday evening. One person was killed and one injured in Rotterdam when a tree fell on their car. In Gelderland thousands of homes were without power for a few hours. And Roosendaal was hit by a whirlwind, NOS and AD report.
Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning for Noord-Brabant, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland and Utrecht on Thursday night. The service predicted thunderstorms, with gusts up to 70 kilometers per hour and hailstones up to 2 centimeters.
The beach in the Zuid-Holland town of Ouddorp is the cleanest beach in the Netherlands this year, according to the annual election by Strand Nederland, Green Deal Schone Stranden, Stichting NederlandSchoon, Koninklijke Horeca Nederland, Blauwe Vlag/Green Key and hospitality magazine Entree, Nu.nl reports.
According to Strand Nederland, Ouddorp managed to convince many beach goers to strive for a coastline without waste. For example, pavilion operators hand out waste bags to beach goers.
Several homes on Geertesplein in the Zeeland town of Kloetinge were evacuated on Thursday night after a man threatened one of the residents. The police searched the area for some time, but neither man nor weapon was found, Omroep Zeeland reports.
Multiple police units responded to Geertesplein at around 8:45 p.m. The homes on the top floors of an apartment complex were evacuated as a precaution, according to the broadcaster.
A spokesperson for the police could not say anything about the nature of the threat to Omroep Zeeland.
A 19-year-old from Zeeland was arrested for breaking into the iCloud accounts of girls and young women and stealing their nude photos. How many girls fell victim to this man, is not yet clear, RTL Nieuws reports.
The victims come from the suspect's environment. He followed their social media profiles, and collected information about their private lives, like their pet names. He used that information to answer security questions when he tried to log into their iCloud accounts. The man also sent fake emails to victims to get their passwords.
The police reopened the missing person case for 35-year-old Herman Ploegstra, who disappeared from IJzendijke in Zeeland in October 2010. Partly as a result of new information, the cold case team decided to restart the investigation into his disappearance. They hope that new insights and techniques will bring more clarity about what happened to the man, RTL Nieuws reports.
Two men were seriously injured in stabbings at asylum centers in Middelburg and Grave on Sunday evening. The victims were taken to hospital. A total of three suspects were arrested, NU.nl reports.
Amsterdam has the most to offer of all municipalities in the Netherlands when it comes to culture. Maastricht and Leeuwarden are in second and third place respectively, according to the new Atlas for Municipalities presented in Leeuwarden on Wednesday afternoon, Het Parool reports.
Among the provinces, Groningen has the biggest cultural offering, followed by Zeeland and Noord-Holland. Flevoland is last on the ranking.
The body of the second of two divers that went missing in the Grevelingenmeer on Saturday, was found on Monday afternoon. Like the body of the first diver, divers from the Royal Netherlands Navy found this man's body in a shipwreck, RTV Rijnmond reports.
Two divers went missing the Grevelingenmeer in Scharendijke in Zeeland on Saturday evening. The body of one of the two divers was found on Sunday evening. The search for the second diver continues on Monday, NU.nl reports.
A spokesperson for the police told the newspaper that the body of the missing diver was found late in the evening, shortly before the search was called off for the day. He could not say exactly where the body was found.
The roof of a gas station on the A58 highway in Zeeland collapsed for unknown reasons during the early hours of Monday morning, ANP reports.
The roof broke in the middle and collapsed to the ground in the shape of a V. No one was hurt. The Total gas station is located near 's-Heer Arendskerke, between Goes and Middelburg.
The gas station was closed at the time of the collapse. The fire department investigated and concluded that the roof collapse did not cause any immediate risks for the surrounding area, according to the news wire.
A man with a criminal record was shot and killed in the Noord-Brabant town of Schaijk on Thursday afternoon. Two boys on bicycles found the critically injured man in his car on Rijksweg around 3:00 p.m., he was shot shortly before that, the police said in a statement. Omroep Brabant identifies the victim as 51-year-old Henk Baum from Nistelrode. He died at the scene.
Angela Blakenburg was assaulted and left in the freezing cold while delivering newspapers in her home town of Hulst, Zeeland on Thursday morning. The perpetrator beat her hard on the head from behind and left her unconscious on the street, without even stealing anything, the 47-year-old woman said to newspaper AD.
A body was found on the beach in Zoutelande, Zeeland on Wednesday evening. The police believe they know who the victim is, but will not say anything about the victim's identity until the next of kin were informed, the Telegraaf reports.
The police does not connect the victim to any "known missing persons" cases, a spokesperson said to the newspaper. The body was found just before 7:00 p.m.
The prospect of slippery roads prompted the Dutch national weather service, KNMI, to issue another Code Yellow weather warning. The caution is in effect across the Netherlands from 4 p.m. on Tuesday through noon on Wednesday.
Snow is also possible in the center of the country, and continuing to the east and south. The eastern provinces have the highest likelihood for icy roadways overnight, but with winter showers expected everywhere in the Netherlands drivers were told to be particularly careful.
The Social Security Bank presented on Friday the list with the most popular baby names of last year. In 2017 the most popular name for boys has been Noah, for girls Emma. These names were chosen respectively 635 and 755 times.
Here are the top 5 for the girls: Emma, Tess, Sophie, Julia and Anna. And the boy's top five: Noah, Sem, Lucas, Finn and Daan. There are differences in the trends with the baby names depending on the Dutch provinces. In Friesland the top of the list is occupied by Jess and Lieke, in Zeeland Jan and Johanna and Levi and Tess in Gelderland.
After a brief 24-hour respite, very windy weather is expected to return to the Netherlands on Thursday afternoon, causing a challenging rush hour period in Rotterdam, Leiden, Den Haag, and Maastricht. The wind adds an extra problem where a regional public transportation strike is in effect through 11 p.m.
