Stories about two of the enduring Dutch passions - ice skating and fireworks - feature in most of this morning's dailies; the mercury dipped below zero for the first time last night and this morning's papers are predictably full of stories about the joys of ice skating. The other enduring passion of marking the end of the year by blasting millions of euros into the air in the form of fireworks also features in several papers, but the news is far from joyful; two boys suffered serious injuries after building a fireworks bomb.

The custom of making noise, feasting and sacrifice at the end of the old year to ensure the start of the new is ancient and the Dutch fireworks traditions on New Year's Eve are a remnant of those ancient customs. However, it is no longer necessary to propitiate the gods with blood as those two boys have now done. One wonders where the parents were and why the teens were allowed to amass such a large quantity of fireworks.

Justice Ministry declares Iraq safe
The article dominating the front page of this morning's Trouw is headlined "Iraqis have to return to their homeland". The Protestant paper reports that the justice ministry has determined that Iraq is now safe and the immigration and naturalisation service (IND) will review the case files of all Iraqi asylum seekers over the coming six months. According to the paper, Iraqi asylum seekers will be notified by post either today or tomorrow to, "prepare themselves to leave the Netherlands".

Rumours that Iraqis will be sent back have been circulating in some time; in November of last year, the government ended the automatic blanket protection for all asylum seekers from Iraq and each case will now be evaluated independently. Deputy Immigration Minister Nebahat Albayrak says the security situation in Iraq has improved and asylum seekers can now safely return. Minister Albayrak says she hopes the Iraqis asylum seekers who have been denied permits will "return voluntarily".

On Saturday, the minister announced that the Dutch government will abandon the policy of granting temporary permits to all asylum seekers from a particular conflict as "it has had the unwelcome effect of promoting fraudulent asylum claims".

Politician of the year is... Alexander Pechtold
The Dutch press have selected D66 leader Alexander Pechtold as politician of the year but surprisingly enough, just two papers carry the story. De Volkskrant carries the news in a tiny article on the inside pages and the report in AD is even smaller.

Seventy parliamentary affairs journalists chose Mr Pechtold ahead of two Labour Party politicians. Neither article makes any mention of why the D66 leader was chosen although an editorial in de Volkskrant says the journalists chose Mr Pechtold because they admire the way he makes politics "fun and interesting".

Hi-speed, low-speed, no-speed: high-speed train to Paris delayed
The new high-speed train (High Speed Line or HSL) made its maiden trip from Amsterdam to Paris on Sunday but it was not without problems; AD headlines, "super-fast to Paris, with a half-hour delay". The paper sarcastically notes, "the first real Dutch high-speed train left Amsterdam to Paris yesterday at 300 kilometres per hour, it was a premiere but there was old news too, but technical problems and there were delays on the way there and on the way back".

NRC.next reports that an oft-heard message was broadcast over the Tannoy; "due to problems with the safety system, we have been forced to reduce speed". However, the paper reports that speed was reduced to nil and the train came to a standstill.

Fireworks vandalism injures two
News that two teenagers were seriously injured when a homemade fireworks bomb exploded in their hands makes the front-page in the Sunday edition of De Telegraaf. According to the paper, "the dramatic accident" took place in the front garden of one of the boys' homes in Vlaardingen. Eyewitnesses say 14-year-old Jaap was attempting to light a homemade device when it exploded, seriously injuring him and his 13-year-old friend who was standing nearby.

Neighbourhood residents say that local boys have been playing with home-made fireworks for several weeks now and another teen tells the paper that lots of boys in the neighbourhood have bought illegal fireworks from Belgium and have been tinkering with them, "they get the fireworks from an unnamed source, there's enough gunpowder and nitrate in them to blow up a garage easily".

According to Trouw, local police suspect that the boys removed the gunpowder from the fireworks and put it in a metal pipe and attempted to light it. AD reports that both boys underwent several hours of surgery and one of the boys will be blind in one eye. Police wanted to interview the parents but according to the paper, they were too upset. A neighbour tells the paper, the boys had been playing with fireworks quite some time and, "they wanted to make a bomb".

AD also reports that unknown culprits in Borsele used fireworks to blow up a car on Saturday evening, local police say the vehicle was completely destroyed.

Skating fever breaks out as first frost arrives
Meteorologists are predicting at least a week of freezing temperatures: six degrees below zero Celsius overnight and hovering around zero during the day but this is no cause for alarm or consternation, this is the Netherlands and news of ice just makes people happy because it heralds the start of skating season.

AD’s front-page headline reads, "Just a few more days and you can take your ice skates out of storage," and continues "with a bit of luck, we'll be able to skate on natural ice this weekend." Meteorologist Hans Roozen tells the paper, " The ice should be thick enough to skate on over the weekend or just after".

A few pages in, AD prints several photos of people enjoying themselves on an artificial ice rink in the southern city of Maastricht and asks "why do we blossom and glow as soon as the mercury dips below zero"? Retired cultural historian Herman Pleij says the Dutch passion for ice-skating is connected to its egalitarian nature, as everybody on the ice is equal, " it doesn't matter how rich you are, when you fall over on the ice, you land on your arse just as fast as a beggar".