Police in Brecht in Antwerp province have arrested a member of a gang suspected of having committed at least three thefts of valuable pigeons in recent weeks. A Romanian driving a Germanregistered car, the suspect was attempting, with an accomplice, to break into the loft of a man who had already been robbed some days previously. In another incident near Mol, 14 pigeons were stolen and later recovered with their feet chopped off and their rings – which will later be used to increase the value of inferior birds – stolen. Belgian racing pigeons are highly prized on the international market, fetching prices as high as €30,000.

Belgian employees are happy with their jobs, but not so happy with their pay, according to a poll carried out by services group HDP-Arista and Trends magazine. Workers surveyed gave a 7.5 score (out of a possible 10) for “job content”, 6.9 for company culture and environment, 6.6 for pay and 6.5 for work/private balance. Pay increases received only a 5.1 score.

The family of a young Ghent woman killed in the street when a concrete block fell from a Brussels building has demanded a complete investigation into the incident. Nathalie Beauval, 27, worked for Pag-Asa, the organisation for the victims of human trafficking. She was brain-dead when she arrived in hospital, but was maintained on life support until organ donation could be arranged. The socialist union BBTK, which owns the building, promised a full inspection and a judicial investigation if necessary.

Diabetics and other chronically sick people are overpaying for insurance premiums, sometimes as high as three times as much as other clients, according to the consumer organisation Test-Aankoop. The insurance industry organisation Assuralia said the higher premiums were justified by the higher risk, but the Flemish Diabetes Association (VDV) called for compensatory “solidarity” measures to make health insurance affordable for all.

The Dutch government has no firm plan to get itself out of the legal problem that is holding up the dredging of the Westerschelde approaches to Antwerp harbour and make good a promise to complete the work by next year’s deadline, it was reported. Two nature-protection organisations in the Netherlands brought a case to the Council of State which suspended the dredging, despite the existence of a treaty signed by Belgium and the Netherlands.

An envelope containing €37,000 in €500 notes found in the street in Kalmthout and handed in to police has become the property of the municipality, after lying unclaimed for six months. The finder is not entitled to a reward but, according to the town’s mayor, is delighted at the decision to spend the money on a new minibus for the handicapped.