Get ready for some waiting getting out of town for the holiday season. The following road works are planned for the summer months in Flanders: Full story
Only one new priest was ordained this year in Flanders, the Catholic magazine Tertio reported last week. The single ordination took place in the see of Bruges. On the other side of the language frontier, however, there were nine new priests ordained and one canon. Full story
Dutch and Belgian police last week broke up a massive international drug ring led by a 48-year-old Dutch man living in Lommel in Limburg province. More than 400 officers executed search warrants in Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as in Dubai. The ring traded in cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines.
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Unacceptable overcrowding and inhumane detention conditions in prisons; poor living conditions and access to health care for migrants; a lack of effective measures to ensure gender equality; and poorly defined anti-terrorism measures and special investigation techniques: just part of the list of complaints contained in a report on human rights in Belgium published last week by the Council of Europe (CoE). Full story
There are few enough pleasures associated with Belgian elections, let's
face it, so it was a rare treat to see among the results of 7 June a
fine case of Virtue Rewarded and privilege thrown down.Full story
52,047Kids IDs will have been issued to children under 12 by the start of the school holidays on July 1. The cards are needed for any child who is going abroad. 18,650 cards have been issued, 9,759 await collection, and 23,638 applications have still to be processed. Full story
New radio station MNM is faring less well than Donna, the station it replaced on the dial, according to figures from the VRT, the Flemish public broadcasting authority. At its launch, listening figures for the new station were said to be up 40% compared with its predecessor but, only months later, the shine appears to have worn off.
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The prosecutor's office in Dendermonde has taken the rare decision to re-open the case of the murder of police officer Peter De Vleeschauwer, who was kidnapped from the barracks in Sint-Niklaas in November of 1996 and found dead a month later, the victim of an execution-style shooting. Full story
A judge in Ghent has placed an injunction on the construction of a GSM mast in Drongen, just west of Ghent. The judge agreed with the plaintiffs, a group of local residents, that the uncertainty surrounding the health effects of GSM transmitters meant that the construction was not in their interest. The mast would have been sited in proximity to a residential area, a primary school and a youth centre.
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Holidaymakers setting off at the busiest time of the summer face chaos on the roads this year, according to motoring organisation Touring. Resurfacing works on the Brussels Ring at Drogenbos, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Beersel and Halle is expected to reduce traffic to one lane in each direction, severely affecting southbound travellers on the weekend of 3-5 July. Full story
