The week in brief: 22 June

Ineke van Schoor, Julie van Gelder and Kaat Dumarey claimed three gold medals for Belgium at the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, with winning performances in the women’s group all-around, balance and dynamic events in acrobatic gymnastics. Fellow gymnasts Yana Vastavel and Solano Cassamajor took the silver in the mixed-doubles competition and in the balance and dynamic events – behind the Russians on all three occasions.

European limits for fine particulates were not exceeded anywhere in Flanders last year, environment minister Joke Schauvliege said last week, in reaction to news that the European Commission is taking Belgium to the European Court of Justice for failing to do enough to cut particulates emissions. The Commission used figures from 2013, when three measuring stations in Flanders exceeded the limits.

The long-awaited Apple Store will open in Brussels on 19 September in the Guldenvlieslaan complex, according to Le Soir newspaper quoting “reliable sources”.  It will be the first Apple Store in the country. Two more are reported to be planned, in Antwerp and in Ghent.

Productions for the 2015-2016 season of Brussels opera house De Munt will move out of the venue next spring to take up residence in a tent on the Tour & Taxis site, as a result of delays in renovation works. Work was supposed to start this month, but an appeal by one of the companies that failed to win a tender is delaying the start. Works include new seating, air conditioning and a tunnel linking the house to rehearsal spaces on the other side of Leopoldstraat.

Dirk Michielsens, financial director of Antwerp logistics company Katoen Natie, has been named Chief Financial Officer of the year by Trends magazine. Michielsens has been CFO since 1999 and oversaw a number of million-euro transactions, including the acquisition last year of a controlling interest in the waste management company Indaver. The prize goes to the CFO of a top 500 company; Michielsens was one of 10 nominees.

Clothing chain ZEB has called off its competition to win €5,000 in plastic surgery, after being summoned by the Halle-Vilvoorde prosecutor’s office. The stunt – to draw attention to ZEB’s opposition to the embargo on price cuts leading up to the 1 July sales – came in for criticism from doctors, who also pointed out that promoting plastic surgery to the public is illegal in Belgium.

Flemish sailor Evi Van Acker has regained her world number one ranking after her silver medal success in the World Cup leg in Weymouth, England. Van Acker now leads the field with 987 points, ahead of Britain’s Alison Young on 958 and Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom on 949 points. Van Acker, 29, won this season at Cadiz, Mallorca and Trentino, as well as the World Cup leg at Hyères in France.

The remains of a man found in a sports bag in Wemmel last week were those of a 22-year-old Albanian law student at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), police have revealed. The torso was found by council workers.  The victim was a first-year student already known to police for drugs offences and fighting. The cause of death is not yet known.

Work began in Brussels last week on a site infamous for urban decay between Grasmarkt and Beenhouwersstraat, directly opposite the Brussels tourist office. Vacant for nearly half a century, it is being developed into 22 student rooms and 29 apartments, with retail space on the ground floor. A square in the middle of the project will be named Tweemanspleintje (Two Men Square); the street linking the site to Beenhouwersstraat is already named Eenmansstraat (One Man Street).

The Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences in Brussels has been voted the third-best dinosaur museum in the world by the American news channel CNN. Timed to coincide with the opening of the new Jurassic World film, the poll listed places “that (safely) bring humans face to face with dinosaurs – and not just their skeletons”.  “With the largest dinosaur hall in the world, this museum has an impressive collection of fossilized skeletons and casts,” CNN said about the museum. The Natural History Museum in Berlin came in first, followed by the Field Museum in Chicago.

Belgium wins far fewer sports medals than it ought to, according to research by the Free University of Brussels (VUB). In the period 2009-2012 Belgium scored 18 points in Olympics, world and European championships, where a gold medal counts for three points, silver two and bronze one. According to criteria of wealth and population, the total should have been 29 points. “The reason lies in our sports policy and our mentality: too easily pleased,” remarked researcher Veerle De Bosscher.

Photo (c) Planckendael/Jonas Verhulst