A man in Helkijn in West Flanders has been sentenced to a night-time curfew until 2012 by a court in Kortrijk. The man is forbidden to go out between 22.00 and 6.00 and must be treated for alcohol abuse in his home. He has already been sentenced to prison and had a café and alcohol ban imposed, none of which stopped his drunken, violent tendencies, the court said.

A man lay for more than an hour after being pronounced dead by paramedics before starting to breathe again. Diamond dealer Peter Jordaens, 42, had a heart attack in his sleep, and the family claims emergency personnel failed to notice he was still breathing. The family has since received two bills: one for pronouncing him dead and one for treating him and taking him to hospital an hour later.

Ghent-based Netlog just squeaked into the top 10 of blog Techcrunch's list of social networking sites, ranked by value. Netlog is estimated to have a market value of about €396 million, compared to Facebook, at number one worth an estimated €10 billion.

Olympic gold medallist high jumper Tia Hellebaut has given birth to a baby girl, weighing in at 3.1 kilograms and going by the name of Lotte. Hellebaut announced her retirement in December, when she was already three months pregnant.

De Standaard newspaper has won an Effie award for its advertising campaign Onverantwoord Interessant (Irresponsibly Interesting). The awards are given for advertising and marketing. Other nominees in the category included Rabobank, Valorfrit and Electrabel.

A pharmacist who was arrested and charged in April with slipping sleeping pills to her husband and children in their food has committed suicide. Ingrid Devriendt was home for the weekend from a psychiatric hospital and couldn't bear the idea of going back, her husband said.

A 20-year-old footballer who collapsed in cardiac arrest last weekend was ready to go back out on the pitch only days later, thanks to the defibrillator with which he was fitted as a precautionary measure, his cardiologist said. Anthony Van Loo has a hereditary heart disorder that can lead to heart-rate disturbances. When his attack happened last week, his defibrillator sent a shock of 700 volts to his heart, restoring its proper rhythm. He was back in the stadium to help his team, Roeselare, to celebrate a victory.

The port of Antwerp has lifted a ban on solar panels installed on the premises of companies established in the port area. There are thought to be immediate plans to install panels on the roofs of warehouses covering five of the 530 hectares in the port area. The port authorities had opposed solar panels because they feared widespread use would push up electricity prices for other users.

One in 40 hospital patients becomes ill as a result of mistakes made with medication, according to a doctoral study carried out by Johan Hellings, director of the East Limburg Hospital (ZOL). But that figure could be halved if clear arrangements were agreed between doctors, hospital pharmacists and nursing staff, says Hellings. Some 2,000 patients in Belgium are estimated to die every year because of medical errors.