Sailor girl Laura Dekker looks like she will be spending Christmas alone on a boat, while employers and employees squabble over what is hard work and the Dutch Central Bank says it is not to blame for the fall of DSB bank. And as Christmas shoppers invade the supermarkets, Father Christmases in Rotterdam warm up for the annual Santa run.
 
A court in Utrecht decided on Wednesday, that sailor girl Laura Dekker could remain living with her father after she ran away to the Dutch Antilles island St Maarten last weekend.
 
De Telegraaf focuses on her German mother Babs Muller, who left court in tears after the judge ruled that whatever it decided Laura would not be placed in her care. The mass circulation paper reports she plans to cut off all contact with her daughter. She was too upset to give the paper an interview. In a earlier edition her current partner said Laura should be taken away from "that man".
 
AD prints the whole of Laura's farewell letter to her father on the front page. In it she says "I never want to come back." On the inside pages, Laura's father Dick Dekker tells the paper he is proud of what his daughter accomplished in just a couple of days in St Maarten. "She met the Heineken Regatta Team and was invited to come and live with them and study and sail races in the Caribbean."
 
He says he almost fell off his chair when the judge awarded him custody and ruled that the Dutch Child Protection Agency had to work towards helping Laura realise her dream to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Although he also criticises the demands made by the court. He says there is no such thing as a maritime first aid course and sleep rhythm training.
 
He also described how Laura had gone downhill as a result of the pressure on her. She had missed several schooldays because of grillings by the Child Protection Agency. Her grades had suffered and she started skipping school. When she ran away he did not alert the authorities straight away because he feared she may be placed in care.
 
Now it looks like Laura is back on track to embark on her voyage next summer. Trouw reports she will sail to Denmark in the Christmas holiday to gain more solo experience, taking a camera and a log book with her.
 
List of physically demanding jobs could be short
What is hard work? That's a question employers and employees will have to work out for themselves as the government ploughs ahead with plans to raise retirement age to 67, with the exception of people with physically demanding jobs.
 
Trouw asks Employment Minister Piet Hein Donner why the government hasn't drawn up a list of heavy duty jobs. The minister points out that it is for the cabinet to set out the main policies and the unions and employers' organisations to determine which jobs it applies to. He believes it is up to employers to facilitate the employment market to accommodate older people. The government's job is to put pressure on them to do so.
 
Employees who have worked in a physically demanding job for thirty years have to be retrained for less demanding work or be paid 140 percent of their annual salary by their employer. However, if someone has worked for several employers then it is up to him or her to take on lighter work. People working in the emergency services will continue to be allowed to retire early, but that could change in the future according to the minister. People who have worked 42 years can stop at the age of 65 - if they have worked for the final five years of their careers as well, but they will receive 13 percent less pension.
 
The FNV confederation of unions does not think many employers will be inclined to brand their jobs as physically demanding. The Socialist Party says not many people will be entitled to compensation for hard work. It hopes the rules will have a preventative effect and lead to better career policies, so that physically demanding jobs disappear.
 
The Lower House had refused to vote on raising retirement age until it was shown the details of the deal. As a result MPs were sent a preliminary draft of the bill before it was referred to the Council of State - which is highly unusual. According to Minister Donner, the coalition parties back the policy.
 
Dutch Central bank not to blame for fall of DSB
In an interview with de Volkskrant, Nout Wellink CEO of the Dutch Central Bank says his organisation was not to blame for the fall of the DSB bank. "If you ask me whether I made mistakes: we all make mistakes. But did they lead to all this...no."
 
His comments come prior to a report by the Scheltema committee on the cause of the fall of the bank owned by Dirk Scheringa, which went bankrupt in October. Nevertheless, Mr Willink says he is keeping an open mind in case the report reveals new information about the bank's fall.
 
In the future he thinks the national bank should be able to intervene when banks are unstable, without court interference. Initially the courts prevented the Dutch Central Bank from taking emergency measures, because DSB had enough money in its coffers.
 
Mr Willink also believes that the committee should take the rules and regulations that applied in 2005 into account. When the Dutch Central Bank accepted the DSB bank the law on single premium policies had not been introduced and there was no legal duty of responsibility towards clients. He says the Central Bank asked parliament to do something about top mortgages in 1999, but it refused. If the DSB had been set up in that year, it would never have received a licence. The bank tried to save the DSB for a number of years. "It is like a train, as long as it is on the rails all you can do is change the driver."
 
In another interview in the same paper, former minister and DSB CFO Frank de Grave said, Dirk Scheringa wanted get rid of the bank's shabby image, but was unable to give up his expensive hobbies, football and art. Frank de Grave spent only 8 weeks in the job.
 
Warming up for Christmas with one shopping day left
AD reports an invasion of Christmas shoppers in supermarkets and shops, spending the grand sum of 800 million euros. While in its Christmas supplement, protestant daily Trouw asks its readers what their idea of heaven is. The answer is light, love, harmony, peace and happiness.
 
De Volkskrant prefers to focus on the events of 2009, dedicating its magazine to photos of the year gone by. One of them shows Karst Tates' car on Queen's Day last April, after it has driven through a crowd of well wishers, watching the royal open top bus pass by. Not a very festive sight.
 
De Telegraaf, on the other hand is more seasonal, and prints a photo of hundreds of Father Christmases gathered in Rotterdam for the annual Santa-run. Dressed in traditional costume, they are rearing to start the Christmas warm up. A number of Dutch celebrities took part in the festive event. Similar Santa runs were also held in London, Milan and Sydney.
 
Meanwhile in the same paper the Dutch meteorological agency KNMI predicts a white Christmas for large parts of the Netherlands. It also warns anyone taking to the roads on Christmas Eve as sleet is expected. Merry Christmas.