Rio Tinto reporte à une date indéterminée la vente de sa division talc Luzenac au groupe belge Sibelco. "Nous attendons que les conditions du marché s'améliorent", a expliqué le groupe minier anglo-australien au personnel de Luzenac (France). Sibelco, l'entreprise de la famille Emsens (principaux actionnaires d'Etex), avait initialement émis une offre sur Rio Tinto Minerals conjointement avec une entreprise de chimie; cette offre incluait Luzenac, mais aussi le producteur américain de borate raffiné Borax. Borax et Luzenac seraient respectivement entrés en possession du groupe chimique et de Sibelco mais Rio Tinto, qui avait déjà annulé la vente de Borax fin 2008, fait à présent de même pour Luzenac. La vente aurait pratiquement été conclue, mais Sibelco n'était pas disposée à accepter certaines exigences de Rio Tinto. Luzenac est le plus grand producteur de talc du monde, et possède notamment une filiale à Gand. Avec environ 2 milliards d'euros de CA, Sibelco est le premier groupe minéralier du monde.

Arabel, l'association d'arachnologie belge, signale la présence de veuves noires en Flandre. Cette araignée extrêmement venimeuse arrive en grand nombre dans des conteneurs américains passant par le port d'Anvers. Actuellement, elles seraient déjà plusieurs centaines, principalement à Anvers. Une enquête a permis de déterminer que les araignées arrivent au port dans d'anciennes voitures de collections venues de Californie, confirme Het Laatste Nieuws. Arabel conseille aux entreprises de la contacter immédiatement si elles en découvrent une. Bien que les veuves noires ne soient pas d'une nature agressive, leur morsure venimeuse dans 20% des cas se traduit par des problèmes respiratoires et des troubles du rythme cardiaque. Les veuves noires mesurent environ 4,5 cm, ont un corps noir lisse globuleux et une tache rouge en forme de sablier sur l'abdomen. Arabel recommande notamment que les hôpitaux stockent des provisions du contrepoison adéquat.

Charleroi landed the first victory of the season against Germinal Beerschot, Kortrijk and Mouscron drew 2-2.

Flandersnews.be brings you this and all the rest of Saturday’s First Division action.

The Belgian Arachnology Society warns that the poisonous spider is becoming more common here.

The two-tonne block fell thirty metres onto Ostend seafront

16/08 - The Brussels-born jazz legend Toots Thielemans talks about his passion for music in an exclusive interview with VRT television.

Consumer confidence has reached its highest levels this month since September last year, when problems at Fortis and Dexia banks marked the start of the recession. The consumer confidence indicator has accelerated its upward swing of the past few months, the National Bank has indicated. In general, consumers are more upbeat about the general economic future and seem less concerned about a further increase in unemployment. Moreover they are positive about an improvement of their own financial situation, believing they will be able to save more in future. According to ING bank economist Carsten Brzeski, financial recovery in neighbouring countries is having a positive influence on Belgium. Investors also believe the worst is over. Yesterday the Bel20 on the Brussels stock market reached its highest level since 13 October 2024 at 2,309 points. An increasing number of analysts have upped their growth forecasts in recent weeks, believing the Belgian economy will once again grow in the third quarter. Brzeski does however warn against inflated optimism, saying: "2010 will still be a tough year. The question remains whether the economy can continue to grow once the stimulating measures introduced by the government are phased out. We will only start seeing 2007 levels of prosperity again by the year 2011." The government plans to tighten its budgetary policy next year with a view to reducing the budget deficit, which took a greater knock than expected when tax revenues dropped as a result of the financial crisis. So far unemployment has not decreased either, as the labour market lags behind economic fluctuations such as the current upswing.

Figures released by the National Institute of Sickness and Invalidity Insurance (RIZIV) indicate that 166 of the 589 municipal districts have a shortage of general practitioners. The list was compiled to encourage doctors to set up a practice in these districts by offering a start-up grant of 20,000 Euros and an interest-free loan from the Impulseo fund. The more recent Impulseo 2 supports group practices that employ an administrative assistant to take care of the paperwork. These were attempts by the government in recent years to relieve the serious shortage of GPs. The Flemish provinces of Limburg and Antwerp are dealing with a shortage of 50 and 40 percent respectively, while in the provinces of East and West Flanders, the shortage of GPs is eight and nine percent only respectively. In the province of Luxembourg on the other hand only four of the 44 municipalities have enough general practitioners. According to the Flemish medical journal, the Artsenkrant, the shortage in Antwerp and Limburg can be partially blamed on the attractive working conditions offered in the Netherlands, causing many doctors to cross the border. In the Netherlands a GP works a nine to five day; in Belgium they also work evenings and nights. This is one of the reasons why medical students choose to specialise once they qualify as they are not keen on the long working hours and relatively low pay a general practitioner is faced with. SVH, the Flemish General Practitioners' union, says the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the government overestimates the number of general practitioners. The union is pressing for more urgent government measures to make the profession more attractive and avail subsidies for all general practitioners from the Impulseo fund.

The total outstanding credit owed by companies increased to a record high of 110 billion Euros by the end of the second quarter, with the major Belgian banks BNP Paribas Fortis, Dexia, KBC and ING upping company loans to 1.7 billion Euros during that quarter, says the National Bank. The newspaper De Morgen sees this as good news for the economy, as company loans and economic activity go hand in hand. Following two successive quarters with stricter loan conditions, such as an insistence on guarantees, the second quarter saw a relaxing of these measures and a drop in interests for all types of loans and instalments. That drop was initiated by a series of interest rate cuts introduced by the European Central Bank in November 2008. Discontent however still exists amongst business leaders concerning the required guarantees and additional costs that come on top of the interest charged, as demonstrated in surveys conducted by the National Bank. Since the start of the financial turmoil, these companies have also employed an ever-increasing amount of their allotted credit lines. But the second quarter has seen a stabilisation in loans taken out by medium and large businesses, while amongst small enterprises it is still on the rise. The National Bank attributes that difference to the recovery on the share and bond markets, which are only accessible to medium and large businesses.

Over 50 percent, or about 38,000 Flemish university students take exams during the second examination period. This holds true for the universities of Antwerp (57 percent), Ghent (57 percent) and the Vrije Universiteit van Brussel (56 percent). Since the introduction of the Bachelor's-Master's system in the 2003-2004 academic year, students enjoy more freedom to spread their exams out, with an increasing number opting to take them in the second examination period. Students are no longer bound by a strictly-structured academic year, a Ghent University course advisor explains in the newspaper De Morgen. They now receive a `credit certificate' for every subject passed. This means students can follow second-year courses without having passed all first-year courses, as long as they have the required credit certificates. Consequently students determine which subjects it is essential to pass and for which subjects they require a credit certificate so they can start a required subject in the following year. A less-important subject which is difficult to fit into a student's exam timetable can thus be postponed to the second examination period. Moreover, lecturers no longer hold examination board meetings at the end of the academic year, as was the case in the past, to deliberate on whether to pass a student. Students who passed the allover package after deliberation didn't have to resit exams for failed subjects. Since deliberation no longer exists, they have to resit the exam for every failed subject.

The Brussels Court of Appeal will not take any immediate disciplinary action against Francine De Tandt, the scandal-hit first president of the Brussels Commercial Court. Politicians across the spectrum had called for action to be taken against De Tandt in recent days, saying that she could not reasonably continue to undertake her duties in light of the scandal, but the Court of Appeal says that her 'presumption of innocence' is too important in this matter. The 2007 disciplinary inquiry failed to implicate her in any corruption, but now the newspaper De Standaard has learnt from off-the-record sources that the substitute president of the Court of Appeal intends to reopen the case. This time it will be handled by a different magistrate, with due consideration of the allegations levelled against the judge by the Brussels judicial police. Meanwhile Luc Vergaelen denies the allegations against him that were reported in the newspaper De Morgen. He insists that he offered a loan of half-a-million Euros to De Tandt's brother, and not to her, and used the homes of the judge's brother, De Tandt herself and their mother as surety. Vergaelen spent eighteen years as consular judge at the Brussels Commercial Court. At the time De Tandt was deputy president, but he denies any involvement in cases handled by her.

Forty-five officials in the Department of Finance were recently promoted to regional directors, the most senior position outside of Brussels. One of those charged with overseeing a number of Antwerp municipalities received an administrative fine for failing to declare a Luxembourg bank account in 1997 and 1998. The judge in the case deemed the act of fraud to be proved. Opposition MP Dirk Van der Maelen (SP.A) says that a person like that cannot credibly run a tax office: 'It is surely preposterous to think that someone who concealed his foreign bank account will now decide on whether somebody else's right to banking secrecy is to be abolished.' Van der Maelen says the appointment is illustrative of the laxity with which Minister of Finance Didier Reynders (MR) controls his department, insisting that he should annul the nomination. But according to Reynders' spokesman David Maréchal, it is not in a minister's power to do so as the appointments are proposed by the administration itself.

The meteorological station at Kleine-Brogel in Limburg yesterday recorded a temperature of 38.2 degrees between 15.00 and 16.00, the highest temperature ever at the station, which has been in operation since 1954. Ukkel in Brussels recorded "only 33 degrees". The tropical heat wave was followed by heavy thunderstorms and the Brussels fire department received numerous calls for assistance due to water damage and short-circuits. Meanwhile on the coast, the mercury plummeted by more than ten degrees between 14.00 and 15.00 yesterday. Despite the high temperatures of the past two days, the summer of 2009 will not go down in history as one of the hottest. That honour is still held by the summers of 1947, 1976, 2003 and 2006. The year has however been hotter than the past two years.

Participants had to complete the 100km walk in less than twenty-four hours.

Few self-employed people have applied for the payment that is designed to help tide them over.

Arson is believed to be the cause of the fire that broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The Flemish Government and the European Union are providing 1.5 million euros for the scheme.

The plane plummeted into a field near Diest in Flemish Brabant.

Fin juin, l'émoi régnait à l'athénée de la place Roosevelt, au coeur d'Anvers. La décision de proscrire le port du foulard à l'école à partir du 1er septembre a provoqué de vives protestations. L'imam Nordine Taouil a même appelé les parents à garder leurs filles à la maison jusqu'à ce que l'interdiction soit levée. L'athénée était en effet un des derniers établissements autorisant le port du foulard. Sa directrice, Karin Heremans, avait cependant l'impression que les jeunes Musulmanes qui ne le portaient pas subissaient des pressions. Entretemps, l'athénée, qui prévoit une rentrée agitée, déclare qu'il aménagera des vestiaires pour éviter aux écolières musulmanes de devoir se changer en public. Les réactions agressives et radicales n'ont fait que conforter Mme Heremans dans sa conviction qu'une interdiction est indispensable : "La liberté de culte, d'accord, mais il est hors de question qu'une religion dicte sa loi". Voici quelques semaines, trois hommes qui avaient reconnu la directrice dans la rue lui ont crié qu'elle méritait d'être fouettée et pendue. L'imam anversois Nordine Taouil, qui a contribué à lancer la campagne de protestation, souligne qu'il condamne fermement ces menaces. "De telles déclarations sont extrêmement déplacées et leurs auteurs devraient être sanctionnés; nous vivons dans un Etat de droit." Mme Heremans souligne qu'elle a également reçu de nombreuses réactions positives de la part de Musulmans progressistes, dans la rue, par téléphone ou par courriel. La "désertion" de l'école semble pour l'instant limitée, puisque seules trois étudiantes ont fait savoir qu'elles changeraient d'établissement l'an prochain.