The week in brief: 14 September

Car-free Sunday in Brussels, which takes place on 20 September, will begin half an hour later than usual, at 9.30, a conference of the 19 mayors agreed, to give families more time to get out of town by car. Car traffic is forbidden until 19.00 without a special licence issued by the local municipality.

Bernard Wesphael, the former Walloon MP accused of murdering his wife in an Ostend hotel room in October 2013, will be tried by a jury next February, it was announced last week. Wesphael maintains that his wife, Veronique Pirotton, committed suicide. He was released to await a trial date in August last year, after serving 10 months on remand.

The mayor of Brussels-City and the organisers of the Memorial Van Damme athletics meet have issued a call to ministers from the three communities to join in a task force to determine the future of the competition, which took place in the Koning Boudewijn stadium last Friday. The stadium is due to be demolished by 2020, and there is no athletics track planned for the new national stadium nearby. “The Memorial is the flagship of Belgian athletics,” according to Brussels sports alderman Alain Courtois. “So it’s not fair to let Brussels pick up all of the cost.”

A court in Ypres has begun hearing appeals in the case of the giant chain of collisions that took place on the A19 near Zonnebeke in December 2013. The accident was caused when vehicles on the road ran suddenly into a wall of freezing fog. A total of 131 vehicles were involved, and 74 drivers were charged. Two of those were acquitted; the others were given fines and, in some cases, suspended sentences and made to pay a share of the €80,000 cost of the case. The drivers appealing their sentences cite force majeure, an argument already rejected by the lower court.

More and more teenagers are suffering from head lice because of putting their heads close together to take selfies, according to the head lice clinic in Kieldrecht, East Flanders. Three times as many total cases have been reported so far this year compared to last year, with more teenagers than ever before.

The chances are “very high” that the raccoon is breeding in the wild in Flanders, according to the Institute for Nature and Forestry Research (Inbo). During the summer, a family of raccoons was captured in Schepdaal, part of Dilbeek, while a young raccoon was found dead in Hoeilaart, also in Flemish Brabant. Raccoons (pictured above) are more common in the south of the country, with only sporadic sightings in Flanders, and no sign they were breeding here. But the dead beast was only 14 or 15 months old, which meant it was too young to be living alone, INBO said.

After some discussion and much doubt, the government of Flanders is seeking a new official architect, following the dismissal of Peter Swinnen in February amid accusations of conflict of interest. For a time, it seemed as though the post would not be refilled, with deputy Stefan Devoldere running the office until the end of September. He is now in place until the end of the year, with Swinnen’s successor to be installed in January and to serve until 2020. Applications are open until 4 October.

Three-time murderer Ronald Janssen has been moved from Leuven Central prison to a higher-security facility in Beveren. According to reports unconfirmed by prison authorities, he may have been preparing an escape attempt. Last month Janssen was stopped from taking part in communal activities, made to exercise alone and had to see his visitors from behind a glass screen.

Marlene Mulkens, a campaigner for homeless rights who lived on the streets of Brussels herself for a time, has launched a campaign to provide Homeless Tipis for street people this coming winter. Together with the charity Corvia, she aims to give out the four-person tents to people sleeping rough, who have been increasingly moved out of railway and metro stations. “As long as they set up the tents where there is no hindrance for passers-by or other residents, I don’t expect any problems,” she told brusselnieuws.be. Corvia is selling €1 wristbands to raise funds for the project.

Collectors of Artis Historia points will soon be able to take up their hobby again after an absence of over a decade. The rights to the system – Artis Historia sold general interest books into which collectors could stick photographs they obtained in return for tokens printed on the packaging of various foodstuffs – were bought by publishers Concrea, which will now print tokens on own-brand goods of the supermarket chain Carrefour. In its heyday, up to 1.25 million Belgian households collected Artis Historia points, but the business went bust in 2004.