The game was in mid-flow when the speaker told fans to keep calm and stay in the FC Twente stadium. Now, Dutch police have announced that a mid-match raid on Thursday led to a discovery of drugs, five arrests, and now the closure of the home supporters' club area reports NOS. A stash of fake weapons has also been discovered in one house in Enschede, during an early-morning police raid of three properties. One spokeswoman told the NOS that there was evidence that the stadium was used for drug trading during matches, and also that some people were being barred from entry. She said: ‘From our investigations, it appeared that drug dealing was happening during matches, so we could only ascertain this during a home match.’ Onno van Veldhuizen, mayor of Enschede, said in a press conference on Friday morning that the supporters' club Vak-P was suspected of organised criminality, apparently involving motorcycle club Satudarah.   More >

Anglo-Dutch food and personal care products group Unilever could become a purely British company under a new strategy plan, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Friday. Unilever currently has headquarters in Rotterdam and London, but on Thursday chief executive Paul Polman and chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly proposed closing the Dutch base. The Dutch government reacted instantly, with economic affairs minister Henk Kamp scheduling a meeting with management to try to persuade the manufacturing giant to ditch London instead, reports NOS broadcaster. Polman and Pitkethly had argued a dual nationality is a hindrance, particularly when takeovers and other large transactions are involved. 'If we had a single type of share structure we would have more clarity,' Polman said. At present major decisions have to be presented to two separate shareholders’meetings. Unilever was formed in 1930 through the merger of British soap maker Lever Brothers and Nederlandse Margarine Unie. The group has a single management and supervisory board but separate Dutch and British bases. Unilever now concentrates on personal care products, an activity tied to Britain. The food operations, which are slowly being hived off, are centred in the Netherlands. The group earns more from shampoos and deodorants like Andrélon and Axe than it does from traditional food brands which include Knorr and Ola. Unilever is under increasing pressure from its shareholders after an abortive takeover attempt by Kraft Heinz of the US in February. They are demanding more shareholder value. But the Dutch minister Kamp pointed out that a move to London would entail an uncertain future under Brexit and that staying in the Netherlands would have advantages.   More >

Turkey has reacted angrily to media reports that Dutch Turks who are critical of Turkish President Erdoğan’s government have been banned from leaving that country, reports NOS on Friday. The Turkish Embassy in the Hague has said that people have been prevented from returning home to the Netherlands only if they have ties with the ‘terrorist’ Gülen movement. On Thursday night, the NOS reported that between 10 and 100 people of dual nationality have been banned from leaving Turkey. Many had been on holiday or visiting relatives, and some reportedly had German and Swiss nationality. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that ‘around 10’ Dutch Turkish people are in this situation and said they are talking with the Turkish government about letting them return home. But in a written reaction, the Turkish government said the NOS reports were biased and inaccurate, saying it was ‘absurd’ that people would have been blocked from travel for criticising Erdoğan. ‘The reports try to undermine legitimate measures that Turkey has taken against suspected members of a secret and sinister network responsible for the bloody coup against democracy [attempted in Turkey last year],’ says the statement. ‘Such suggestions run the risk of legitimising a terror organisation. But foreign minister Bert Koenders has said that he will apply maximum political and consular pressure so the stranded Dutch Turks can return to the Netherlands. Tensions between Turkey and the Netherlands flamed last month when Rotterdam refused to allow Turkish ministers to campaign for the referendum in their country, sparking a war of words in which Erdoğan accused the Dutch of “Nazism” and “behaving like a banana republic.” Last year, Dutch-Turkish columnist Ebru Umar was temporarily blocked from leaving Turkey for tweets deemed critical of the Turkish president.  More >

  Rotterdam police have arrested a man on suspicion of murdering two prostitutes in the early 1990s, reports NOS broadcaster. The 58-year-old from Schiedam, who was picked up thanks to a new analysis of DNA evidence, may also be implicated in three other murders. Two partially-undressed prostitutes were found murdered in the centre of Rotterdam in 1990 and 1991, having been stabbed to death. But the ‘cold case’ was revived as part of a national investigation of murdered prostitutes, using modern forensic techniques. A spokeswoman for the Dutch prosecutor said: ‘Twenty-seven years ago, DNA testing was not possible. But now we can do a lot more than that. And this means that we can still solve this sort of case.’ There were another three unsolved murders of prostitutes in Rotterdam in 1989 and 1999 and the police team is investigating whether the arrested man may have been involved.  More >