Villa Augustus, Dordrecht

A Dutch scientist has made 'meat' from stem cells – and wants Heston Blumenthal to cook the first batch. By Steve Connor

A Dutch scientist has created 'meat' from stem cells – and wants Heston Blumenthal to cook the first batch. Steve Connor reports on the ultimate in culinary experimentation

What is a right-minded liberal to make of Britain's sudden isolation in Europe? First, a confession. Along with pro-European political leaders, and along with other pro-European newspapers, we may have been too forgiving of the naive and idealistic, and not forgiving enough of those who questioned the way in which the European elite pursued the goal of ever closer union.

And that stands for?

Drivers scrambled for banknotes on a busy road in the Netherlands yesterday after a package containing euro bills fell from a bank's lorry and broke open.

Female non-smokers who eat a Mediterranean diet, exercise and keep a healthy weight could live up to 15 years longer, researchers say. Meanwhile, men who follow a similarly healthy regime could add eight years to their lifespans, according to academics at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

It is very much a case of "as you were" after the access regulator finished ruling on university applications to charge fees of more than £6,000 a year from next September.

The number of British teenagers applying to one of Europe's leading universities has risen dramatically this year. Maastricht University in the Netherlands has seen a tenfold increase with more than 400 applications from UK students compared with just 35 at the same time last year.

There are only a few easy hurdles to overcome to apply for a place on a course at a Dutch higher education institution.

Students planning to study for a Bachelors degree in the Netherlands have plenty of options. Despite the country’s diminutive size, it packs in 14 research universities, 39 universities of applied science and five university colleges, all of which combined to offer 1,095 degree programmes taught in English in the 2009-10 academic year, according to the Netherlands Organisation for International Co-operation in Higher Education (Nuffic).

Chancellor George Osborne has won an opt-out from tough new rules designed to step up economic controls across Europe.