The Soyuz rocket, which will launch Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne into his six-month space sojourn tomorrow, is ready for the countdown. Of the 49-meter rocket, only the very tip, a capsule 7.5 meters long and 2.72 meters in diameter, will carry Dewinne and his Russian and Canadian companions Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk to the international space station, the ISS. They have been in quarantine in the cosmonaut hotel at the entrance to the launch pad since their arrival in Baikonur. On Monday evening De Winne had the chance to bid farewell to two of his three children and his new Russian wife at the hotel. The cosmonauts also planted a tree, as has become tradition since the days of Yuri Gagarin, who planted a tree when he returned to earth. All cosmonauts or astronauts have followed his lead, but now before the launch. There was some panic when a cameraman who filmed the tree-planting ceremony for commercial broadcaster VTM seemed to be ill, with immediate fears that the three starmen could also be infected. The entire media contingent was quarantined and subjected to medical checks. Henceforth any contact whatsoever with the astronauts will be avoided to prevent possible contamination. The pre-launch press conference will be held behind a glass wall and all journalists will have to wear surgical masks.

At the start of March the Flemish media company De Persgroep, publisher of De Morgen, De Tijd and Het Laatste Nieuws newspapers, reached an agreement in principle with regard to the takeover of 51 percent of the stock in the Dutch PCM, publisher of the Algemeen Dagblad, NRC Handelsblad, De Volkskrant and Trouw newspapers. De Persgroep was to initially invest 100 million Euros, but this amount now seems to have increased to 130 million Euros, giving the Belgian group a 58-percent share. PCM is fighting bank debts of close to 190 million Euros, and the refinancing of that amount must be finalised this week. Should the Central Works Council give the thumbs up and the Netherlands Competition Authority have no objections, the takeover should be finalised by the beginning of June. This will turn De Persgroep into a Belgian-Dutch entity with a turnover of one billion Euros. This does not include the turnover generated by the NRC Handelsblad (120 million Euros), as the newspaper is to be sold, so that it will no longer be a stable-mate of its biggest rival, De Volkskrant. The yield of the sale will help to further reduce PCM's debt. PCM also has a book division containing well-known publishing houses such as Meulenhoff, Spectrum and Bruna, and realising a turnover of hundred million Euros. Even CEO Christian Van Thillo does not yet know what will happen to this division. He acknowledged that the debt-laden PCM will leave its mark on the balance sheet of the debt-free Persgroep, but the intention is to keep the extent of debt within reasonable proportions. Van Thillo himself will become the CEO of PCM following the takeover. In 2008 the turnover of De Persgroep increased to 555.3 million Euros while profits were up nine percent to 37.1 million Euros.

Fortis Insurance Belgium, currently a division of Fortis Holding, has had to look for a new name after the rights to the Fortis brand has changed hands and are now owned by BNP Paribas, the company that took over Fortis Bank. The choice went to AG Insurance. AG, an abbreviation of Assurances Générales, is the insurance company that was part of the foundation for the creation of Fortis, with a history dating back to 1824. The AG name has always been associated with its former boss Maurice Lippens, who merged AG with the Dutch Amev-VSB to form Fortis, which he subsequently became chairman of. "With this new name we want to create a bridge between the past and the future," CEO Bart De Smet told De Morgen newspaper. The name-change will become legally official on 22 June, and then it will be a part of all documents and other communication by the insurance company. The new name will become the brand name of the insurance sold by the brokers. The insurance contracts that are to be sold via the offices of Fortis Bank will use the BNP Paribas Fortis brand name.

The solar panel's sunny success story continues. Over the past five months the Flemish regulatory body VREG received nearly 8,000 new applications for the installation of solar panels, nearly as much as for the whole of 2008. Last year more than 8,500 households applied for permission to install solar panels, which was in turn three times the number for the previous year, a record that will once again be broken this year. That will bring the total number of approved solar panel installations for the whole of Flanders to about 20,000 this year. The Flemish regulatory body does not see any sign whatsoever of the spectacular growth clouding over any time soon, and believe they will easily hit a crest of 30,000 installations by this year's end.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel De Gucht (Open VLD) yesterday introduced his 38-member Business Council, which he formed to tackle the many complaints emanating from the business world about Belgium's poor image. Thanks to the ongoing political crisis, that image has hit rock-bottom. Moreover, Belgium has lost 25 percent of its market share on the export market over the past ten years. The council of 38 members is made up of leaders of both major and minor Belgian companies. They accept that a lack of coordination between the three regional administrations (Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia) is a handicap to foreign trade, while Belgium does not make sufficient use of its position as host-country to the EU and NATO either. Brussels could be a massive conference centre but not enough is invested to attract large international conferences, says Didier Malherbe of the pharmaceutical company, UCB. Jan De Nul, owner of the eponymous international dredging group, believes that Belgium is only still regarded as a quality location for its medical and health services. According to the advertising executive Guillaume Vander Stighelen, Belgium is like a reverse Italian restaurant, with everything going well behind the scenes in the kitchen, but the moment the doors are opened the fights and crockery-breaking start.

19/05/09 - Kai-Mook is the name of the baby elephant born on Sunday at Antwerp zoo. Kai-Mook means 'pearl' in Thai. Kai-Mook took her first baby steps in the wider world on Tuesday. "Every animal born this year in Antwerp Zoo and Planckendael Animal Park are given names that begin with a 'K'," explains the director of the zoo Rudy Van Eysendeyk.

Combined, the Belgian insurers booked losses of over €2 billion in 2008.