Coffee shop closed
The mayor of Terneuzen in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, the coastal province in the southern Netherlands that borders Flanders, has closed the country’s biggest coffee shop, which attracted up to 2,500 drugs tourists a day, many of them bringing their purchases back to Flanders. Police found more than the legal limit of 500 grams during a raid in 2007, which led to a six-month closure. A repeat offence in 2008 has now led to the definitive closure.

Assisted death
All animal shelters in Antwerp should set up a euthanasia committee to oversee putting animals to sleep, according to the city’s animal welfare alderman Luc Bungeneers. The proposal is contained in a charter for shelters passed last week by the city council. “Why should we do less for our animals than for humans?” Bungeneers asked.

First aid scam
The Flemish Ambulance Association (VAV) has issued a warning about companies that sell first-aid kits to small businesses and claim the proceeds go to the association. The VAV has no connection with the sales and receives nothing. The sellers were first reported in Antwerp and the Kempen area; last week a similar scam was reported to police in Bruges. The sellers, usually cold-calling on the phone, offer a car first-aid kit for €150.


Biggest gift ever goes to cervical cancer

A former leading businessman has made the largest private donation ever to help research at Leuven University. Luc Verelst, formerly the owner of the Verelst construction company, gave €1.25 million for research into cervical cancer after his sister was recently diagnosed with the disease.

The money will be spent on basic research, as well as the organisation of an international conference in Leuven where researchers can exchange the latest information. “Cervical cancer is treated as a poor relation by the pharmaceutical industry, and I wanted to do something to change that,” Verelst said. “The number of victims may be lower [than for other cancers], but the damage is just as great.”

Every year in Belgium 1,350 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, with survival rates of up to 92% if diagnosis is made early. It is the fifth most deadly cancer in women worldwide and the fourth most common among women in Belgium. But its relative numbers compared to breast and lung cancer means financing for research is hard to obtain. “Government investment is ridiculous,” Verelst said. “It’s not my style to sit and wait for things to change.”

One encouraging research area concerns the so-called anti-PIGF molecule, which shuts down blood vessels to stop tumours growing, and which was discovered at Leuven.

Verelst is also the founder of the Solid International private foundation, which supports development projects in the third world.