A Senegalese prostitute who is thought to have been with Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke last year on the night he died has been cleared of any involvement in his death. The woman, who has already spent five months in custody in Senegal, will be prosecuted for the theft of his mobile phone. Vandenbroucke died of a double pulmonary embolism, a local coroner ruled. However, at the family’s request, no toxicological analysis was ever done and no explanation offered for needle marks on his left arm.

Users of the public transport system in Brussels can now check bus and tram routes, as well as timetables, on Google Maps, according to a new agreement between the transport authority MIVB and Google. Simply zoom in on Map or Satellite mode, and bus, metro and tram stops appear. Click on the icon to find out when the next two services are due to arrive or for more information on routes and itineraries. The new service, called Google Transit, is only available for Brussels but talks with the Flemish authority De Lijn are expected to follow.

A British philosopher who taught at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) has left his post after a university commission found “an extremely serious problem” surrounding some 30 published journal articles. Professor Martin Stone, an authority on the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, is alleged to have committed plagiarism. The KUL has written to the editors of the journals concerned alerting them to the investigation. One of the complaints against Stone came from a member of the Finnish parliament, who recognised entire passages in one of Stone’s article from his own doctoral thesis.

Four people were injured last week when a digger breached a gas pipeline in the industrial zone next to the village of Spiere- Halkijn in West Flanders. Flames reached 20 metres high, but the fire service had the blaze rapidly under control. One man was seriously injured and transported to the military hospital at Neder- Over-Heembeek.

The national rain authority NMBS last year paid €69 million to external consultants, an increase of almost €27m on 2008. The costs of infrastructure agency Infrabel went up from nearly €14m to more than €23m. The majority of consultancy spending goes on strategic projects and information infrastructure. According to Infrabel spokesman Frédéric Petit, a large part of the agency’s spending last year went towards the project to implement the automatic braking system ECTS. It was exactly the failure to implement this system which led to the Buizingen rail crash that killed 18 people last month.