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One quarter of newborns in Antwerp is born into a family where Dutch is not the mother tongue, according to family organisation Kind en Gezin. Antwerp is already home to one in three of all children from economically disadvantaged families in Flanders, who account for one in ten of all children under the age of 12. Children born into families where Dutch is not spoken, Kind en Gezin said, face major challenges at school and later in the workplace.

More students have signed up for university courses at Flemish institutions in the coming academic year than last year. Numbers at the Free University Brussels (VUB) are up 10%, with Antwerp up 15% and Ghent up 19% -- all with more to come. Favourite courses include science, mathematics and law.

Flanders scores badly on the popularity of breastfeeding, according to CD&V senator Sabine de Bethune, in a speech marking the start of International Breastfeeding Week on 1 August. While countries like Norway and Denmark see 99% and 98% of babies being breastfed at birth, Flanders scores only 63.4%. By comparison, Wallonia scores 77% and the Netherlands 83%.

The provincial governing body for Flemish Brabant has again refused permission for tobacco giant Philip Morris to extend its accommodation for lab animals in its research department in Haasrode. The company had applied to extend the lab from 1,600 to 6,850 places. A previous application was rejected by the provincial deputation, whose ruling was later overturned by the Council of State. Philip Morris is expected to appeal.

An Antwerp archive made up of the documents of businesses and individuals who went bankrupt has been declared part of the Memory of the World register of Unesco, the United Nations education and cultural organisation. The Insolvente Boedelkamer was set up in 1518 and is housed in the city's FelixArchief (see Flanders Today, 18 August 2008), and is a unique and internationally important record of a trading city. Also added to the register in the latest round of nominations were the diary of Anne Frank, and the Magna Carta.

Doctors in Belgium continue to prescribe too many antibiotics, according to an investigation by the consumer magazine Test-Aankoop. The magazine found four out of ten doctors spontaneously offered a prescription for antibiotics when faced with a complaint of sore throat. Almost half were ready to prescribe at the patient's request. Over-prescription of antibiotics leads to disease-resistant strains of microbes.

Almost three-quarters of the money taken in from fines comes from Flanders, finance minister Didier Reynders announced last week. In 2008 a total of €57.5 million in fines was handed out by the courts, mainly police courts who deal with minor and traffic offences. Of that total, €43 million came from Flanders, €8.6 million from Wallonia and only €6.6 million from Brussels - less than Hasselt, Mechelen, Antwerp and Bruges.

For the first time in Flemish television history, a news broadcast was last week blacked out. Thursday's bulletin at 18.00 on the VRT's main channel failed to materialise, for technical reasons which the broadcaster was unable to explain. The 18.00 news has come in recent weeks from a special new studio known within the VRT as the Black Box. The news at 19.00, coming from the main studio as always, went out as planned.

(August 4, 2009)