Police find three bodies in a house near Rotterdam, the Chinese are censoring Dutch books (and squeezing out a Dutch multinational), a footballer goes for 3 million euros and a princess wants to be seen as a businesswoman (but is pictured in evening gown and tiara). It’s all in the Dutch dailies.

Bloody drama near Rotterdam
The papers are dominated today by the arrest of IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn today, and no one piece of domestic news challenges that story. AD plumps for the drama of “Mother and daughters murdered” in the small town of Zwijndrecht south of Rotterdam.

The mother and her adult daughters were members of a family from Azerbaijan and appear to have been gunned down in their home. The father was seriously injured but escaped to try and get help. He is in hospital.

Shocked neighbours tell the paper that the father “was a lovely man” and that the mother “was sweet” and “said she was a children’s doctor in Azerbaijan”. AD says they were possibly the victims of an honour killing.

Trouw agrees that the motive for the multiple murders is still unclear. The police cannot even say for certain that the shootings occurred in the house where the bodies were found. Neighbours, however, have told the paper that the gunman was the lover of one of the daughters.

China censoring Dutch books
In its weekend edition, left-leaning de Volkskrant told us that China was squeezing Royal Dutch Shell out of the country. One Shell insider told the paper that now China is on top of the technology which the Dutch-British multinational brought to the country, “we’re being harassed so we’ll leave”.

Now, today’s de Volkskrant is running a story on the censorship of Dutch literature published in translation in China. The example given is of Raymond van de Klundert’s 2003 bestseller, A Woman Goes to the Doctor.

Explicit sex scenes have apparently been removed from the Chinese version. Terms have been softened, with, for instance, ‘tasty bit of shirt’ becoming the Chinese for ‘nice girl’. One particularly unsavoury character has disappeared altogether.

The Netherlands is official guest country at this year’s Beijing International Book Fair, we are told. Celebrity Dutch authors invited along for the party are warned not to expect that their books will escape the prudish censorship.

Meanwhile, back at home Mr Van de Klundert isn’t worried: “No, I’m certainly not going to lodge a protest with the Chinese. I’ve never met anyone from the Chinese publisher, but the royalties are always paid nicely on time”.

Salt in football wounds
The most popular Dutch daily, de Telegraaf, has an even bigger picture of Dutch soccer star Theo Janssen than of Mr Strauss-Kahn on its front page. In something of a scoop, the mass-circulation daily reveals that the midfielder will transfer from FC Twente to Amsterdam’s Ajax in time for next season.

The news is all the more piquant after yesterday’s league championship decider, which saw Twente go down 3-1 to the Amsterdam team.

Ajax have apparently offered three million euros for Janssen. All Ajax manager Frank de Boer will say is that “we’re very interested in Theo”, but the paper assures us the transfer is only a question of time.

De Telegraaf goes on to paint a rosy picture of the Amsterdam club which, until yesterday’s league victory, had been under fire for years of poor results. The club’s value on the market was apparently up nearly four million euros yesterday.

Read more on this story 

Princess ‘wants to be businesswoman’
Crown Princess Máxima, the most popular member of the royal family is 40 today. In honour of the occasion, AD prints three small informal snaps of the princess with her family under the heading “Máxima celebrates birthday at home”.

Nrc.next, on the other hand, really goes to town, devoting a double spread to a formal portrait of the princess in an off-the-shoulder evening gown, complete with diamond and pearl tiara, matching earrings and brooch, taken for (believe it or not) AD magazine by the celebrated Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf. The princess has a dangerous twinkle in her eye.

The paper quotes from a public service television documentary on the princess, who says she wants to be seen “as a businesswoman, not as the princess who receives flowers… and walks away smiling, but as someone who is strong on content”.

See the portrait and more on the Princess Máxima documentary 

(as)