Dutch news in brief – 6 May 2004 - Expatica Netherlands

Ahold CEO earned EUR 3 million

Swede Anders Moberg, who was brought in to head Ahold last year when the Dutch retail giant was facing an accounting scandal, has earned about EUR 3 million over the past 12 months, newspaper De Volkskrant has reported. He received his basic salary of EUR 981,000, plus relocation and travel costs. He was also given EUR 1 million in share options and 250,000 ordinary shares, the paper said.

Father to investigate daughter’s murder

Bauke Vaatstra vowed on Thursday he would continue the investigation single-handedly into his 16-year-old daughter’s murder five years ago. He used a local newspaper to ask potential witnesses to come to him with information. His daughter Marianne was raped and murdered after leaving a disco in Kollum on the night after Queen’s Day in 1999. The official investigation into the case was shut down in July 2003. “For us the case is not closed and we won’t have any peace as long as the killer is walking around, free,” her father said.

Maastricht skeletons ‘only 80 years old’

The seven skeletons found in a garden in Maastricht earlier this week are probably only 50 to 80 years old, the city archaeologist Erik Wetzels has claimed. There had been speculation the skeletons were the remains of French musketeers killed during a 17 century siege led by the famous D’Artagnan – who was immortalised by Alexandre Dumas in his novel The Three Musketeers.

Rush to sign up with tax office

Dutch tax offices have been flooded with requests from East Europeans for registration numbers. In The Hague, police even had to erect barriers round the tax office to control the crowds, Radio Netherlands reported Thursday. Many people from Eastern Europe think a tax registration number gives them the right to work following the EU’s enlargement. But the tax authorities say it only gives the right to pay taxes, the radio station noted.

Dutch afraid of bicycle thieves

Almost half of the Dutch public leave their bicycle at home occasionally for fear it will be stolen, research by the Dutch cycling association has revealed. Some 28 percent of the 4,300 people who took part in the survey said they don’t risk leaving their bike at train stations or in the centre of towns and cities in the Netherlands. And 21 percent said they leave the two-wheeler at home if going into town or when going to specific locations such as a shopping centre or a swimming pool.

Subject: Dutch news