Dutch students will soon be able to study anywhere in the world and still get a student loan, the government announced today. At the moment, students can only get financial help if they study within the EU. Some 50% of Dutch students say they would like to study abroad, but only 25% actually do.

Police numbers
A majority of MPs has backed calls for Holland’s riot police to carry ID numbers on their helmets. Riot police, known as the ME (see
Alphabet Soup), are currently anonymous, meaning individual officers cannot be indentified if the police are accused of excessive violence.
Surprise visit
Pensioners lobby group Anbo is to go to court to stop social security investigators making surprise visits to pensioners homes as part of a campaign to crack down on fraud.
Pension register
MPs have called for the setting up of a national pension register which would allow everyone to check how much cash they can expect when they retire at the touch of a button. In particular, people who job hop lose track of how much they have built up in pension rights, MPs said.
Missing girl
A 27-year-old man from Geldrop has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl on Thursday afternoon. The police declined to say if the man was known to the girl, but said they were very concerned for her safety.