While most of today's front pages sport photos of world leaders in Berlin celebrating yesterday's anniversary of the fall of the wall, swine flu remains number one on the domestic front.

 
Health Minister Ab Klink is urging parents to vaccinate children from six months to five years old. De Volkskrant says vaccination is also being advised for the families of babies younger than six months to protect them from infection. The babies themselves will not be inoculated for the flu (known as Mexican flu here in the Netherlands) because the vaccine has not been thoroughly tested on people so young.

One of the reasons for widening the vaccination programme is to attempt to limit the number of hospital admissions. The worry is that the hospitals' capacity will become overstretched. Admissions are relatively high among the under-twos, the paper tells us, compared to other population groups.

De Telegraaf quotes Mr Klink attempting to put an end to negative publicity about flu vaccination circulating on the internet and elsewhere. "Any risks of vaccination side-effects pale into insignificance when compared to the health benefits," he says. The paper says the logistics of the inoculation campaign will prove an enormous challenge for the authorities, with sports halls and other public buildings being used for the mass vaccination of youngsters.

Health care savings debate kicks off
Still on health care, AD says the Labour Party wants to scrap the present system whereby everyone pays the full basic health care premium. Labour MP Eelke van der Veen explains: "The present system is unnecessarily expensive and complex. First everyone pays in full; then, more than half of the people get something back from the taxman. It would be simpler if everyone immediately just paid what they should."

The paper says the government is looking for health care savings and that the reform would yield 59 million euros a year. Critics say this is too little to warrant the chaos reorganising the system would cause.

Undeterred, Mr Van der Veen also wants to do away with the present mandatory own risk, which means people pay the first 150 euros' worth of certain treatments. "The chronically sick and disabled are reimbursed via a complicated and expensive system. If this own-risk charge costs more than it brings in, it should be scrapped," he argues.

Controversial Labour figure causes local crisis
Staying with Labour, nrc.next says there's a crisis in the party's leadership in Amsterdam's New West district. A committee unanimously put forward well-known Amsterdam politician Ahmed Marcouch to lead the Labour group into local elections due in March. However, some on the local executive are refusing to endorse Mr Marcouch, preferring a less controversial candidate. 

De Volkskrant explains that they believe he is considered too outspoken by people including many from his own Moroccan-Dutch community. Many Muslims find his position on gay rights and his tough words on problem Moroccan youths hard to take. 

nrc.next says rumours that Labour chair Lilianne Ploumen is threatening to sack the local executive if they fail to put Mr Marcouch forward have been denied. A Labour spokesman explains that this wouldn't be necessary: " Four of the seven executive members back Mr Marcouch. The rules are that if the executive can't agree it will fall." 

Minister gets tough with students on the fiddle
Education Minister Ronald Plasterk is getting tough on students fiddling living expenses. Trouw says many students get an extra 200 euros added to their grant every month by pretending to live in digs while actually remaining at home with their parents. At the moment, if they are found out, the money they owe is just added to the money they have to repay after finishing their studies and getting a job. 

Mr Plasterk thinks this is too relaxed an approach and is introducing legislation which will require them to pay the money back immediately plus a 25-percent fine. He also wants more serious cases of student-grant fraud to be dealt with by the courts in the way that benefits fraud is.

Big news in little town
Finally, a couple of today's papers pick up on what could just be described as big news. De Volkskrant runs a picture of Sultan Kösen from Turkey, at 2.465 metres, the world's tallest man, towering over the tiny buildings of the miniature Dutch town, Madurodam. Next to him stands the tallest Dutch man, Rob Bruintjes, a mere 2.21 metres.

The paper says the drawbacks of being so tall include obvious jokes like "Is it cold up there?". Mr Bruintjes also lists the many other inconveniences including "having to get everything tailor-made, from shoes and clothes to furniture."

The paper says Mr Kösen doesn't mind putting up with the tedious jokes and inconvenience. Since officially being named the world's tallest man, he has earned a good living from his guest appearances.