Surgeons at the Salvator hospital in Hasselt carried out two jawbone implants with grafts grown from the patients’ own stem cells, the hospital announced last week. The implants are grown from bone marrow extracted from the patient’s hip, which is then mixed with artificial bone to form new jawbone material. In old-style transplants, parts of the hip-bone itself was used, which led to pain and long recovery times. The new transplants can be done in a day clinic, the hospital said, and the patients suffer “no significant pain”.

The new DVD release of top VRT series Van vlees en bloed (Flesh and Blood), which is set in a butcher’s shop, goes on sale this week – in 270 butchers. The series, starring Lucas Van den Eynde and Koen De Graeve, reached audiences of more than 1.6 million when it was broadcast earlier this year. The three-disc set will also be available at conventional DVD outlets.

Voting in this Sunday’s (18 October) Oosterweel referendum is not compulsory under Belgium’s electoral laws – and the Flemish government has made it clear that the results will not be legally binding. The referendum is intended to break the deadlock between supporters and opponents of a viaduct that would run above parts of Antwerp’s inner city in order to close the ring road. But polls show that most voters favour a tunnel instead of a viaduct, which runs contrary to the government’s position. All Antwerp residents over the age of 16 are eligible to vote, bringing the total electorate to 390,000 – 70,000 more than in a normal election, where the voting age is 18.

Flemish cinema owners have protested at a promotion by Humo magazine in which readers receive free tickets to the hit Flemish film De helaasheid der dingen (The Misfortunates). The tickets are only valid in the Kinepolis cinema chain, leading to what the industry federation called “abuse of power” and a breach of fair competition rules.

A committee of architecture and urban planning experts has given a negative opinion on a futuristic design for the new headquarters of the Antwerp port authority, designed by Zaha Hadid. The British architect won a competition with her proposal – a 46-metre high diamond-shaped building resembling a hovering spacecraft. The building will cost €31 million and take until 2013 to complete. City alderman for port affairs Marc Van Peel said the committee’s opinion would not prevent the project from going ahead.

The oeuvre of James Ensor consists of 850 paintings, according to a new catalogue published by Mercatorfonds. The latest inventory includes a number of discoveries made since the Ostend artist’s work was last catalogued in 1992. This year is the 60th anniversary of Ensor’s death, and next year the 150th anniversary of his birth. The largest exhibition ever devoted to the artist outside of Belgium closed last month in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and opens in Paris’ Musée d’Orsay next week.