Sleeping sickness, a disease that kills three million cattle in Africa every year, contributing to severe poverty, could be tackled more effectively with a new drug developed by the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp. At present, the sleeping sickness parasite - related to the one transmitted by the tsetse fly to humans - has built an immunity to the three main medications used against it. The new drug disables the pumping mechanism that the parasite uses to flush the other drugs from its body, restoring their effectiveness.

The musical Ganesha: A Perfect God has swept the board at this year's Flemish Musical Awards, with five prizes, including Best Musical, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Creative Performance and Best Performance. The Sound of Music, meanwhile, took Best Supporting Actress and the Public Prize. Ganesha, a small- scale work that some said was not tecnically a musical, tells the story of two women in mourning who experience enlightenment on a trip to India.

Beggars in the Brussels metro will be "tolerated", as long as travellers are not harassed, according to a policy letter sent to the transport authority MIVB last week by Brussels transport minister Brigitte Grouwels. Beggars will be banned from the areas behind ticket barriers and onboard the trains, she ordered. "The winter is coming on slowly but surely," Grouwels said. "We can't just leave the poor out in the cold, figuratively and literally."

Members of the crew of the Belgian dredger Amerigo Vespucci, who were kidnapped last month in the port city of Douala, Cameroon, have been freed, Cameroon authorities told the BBC. The ship is operated by the Aalst-based dredging company Jan De Nul and also included a Croat and a Filipino. Four Ukrainians were also held, although it is not clear whether they were from the same ship.

Members of the Femish parliament will now be served Ordal, a spring water from Flanders, instead of their usual Chaudfontaine from Wallonia, after an agreement with VLAM, the Flemish marketing agency for agriculture and fisheries.

The Pope should resign following the revelations of sexual abuse by clergy, according to the former chairman of the Catholic Church's investigative commission. Peter Adriaenssens, whose committee looked into hundreds of cases, said the problem was not only Belgian but worldwide and that the Pontiff should set an example. "The Pope should not only show regret but also step down from his post," Adriaenssens said in an interview published last week in De Morgen. "Then the church would have an historic opportunity to set a moral standard for all other institutions."

Vittorio Pirozzi, the alleged Mafia boss arrested last summer after living in hiding for two years in an apartment in Schaarbeek, has been extradited to Italy to serve a 15-year sentence for drug dealing. Pirozzi fought the extradition because he said he feared he would be murdered if delivered to Italy.

Fashion designers from across Belgium joined forces last week to rent a showroom during Paris Fashion Week. The cooperation was the idea of the Flanders Fashion Institute and Wallonie-Bruxelles Design/Mode, under the joint title "Les Belges". "Don't look for any political message in the name," said FFI director-general Edith Vervliet. "It's simply the best solution for our communications with the outside world. We are, after all, in Paris."