• Election posters (c) Belga

    Election focus

    3 Jun 2024 by Alan Hope
    The campaign for the regional elections has not inflamed great passions amongst the electorate. Even the main players seem merely to be going through the motions. What happens after the elections may prove more interesting than what went before.
  • Bill Posters (c) Belga

    Who to choose?

    26 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    Voters are just as often won over by personalities as they are by party programmes. As a result, nearly every well-known politician in the land is taking part in the upcoming regional and European elections, with the exception of prime minister Herman Van Rompuy. So who to choose?
  • Kidnapped AzG doctor praises locals

    26 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    Jorgen Stassijns, the Artsen Zonder Grenzen (AzG) doctor who was held by armed bandits in Somalia for ten days in April has paid tribute to local communities who helped ensure he and his fellow hostage, a Dutch male nurse, were freed unharmed.
  • Coffea charrieriana

    Meise coffee plant honoured

    26 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    A new species of coffee plant found in Cameroon by a French expedition and described by Dr Piet Stoffelen of the National Botanic Gardens of Belgium in Meise has been voted one of the 10 most important new species of 2009 by the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) in Arizona. The beans produced by Coffea charrieriana are naturally caffeine free.
  • News in Brief

    26 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    Public broadcaster één last week announced its 2008-2009 figures, calling it "the best season we have ever had". A loss of €6 million was no reason for long faces: that's €1 million less of a deficit than last year, and €7 million less than was earlier forecast. Merchandising and licensing, as well as income from online services and SMS voting, added up to €67.9 million, more - for the first time - than from advertising at €63.7 million.
  • Bats seek belfries

    26 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    The Flemish Nature and Woodland Agency has put out a call to churches, looking for attics that can be made bat-friendly to tackle an accommodation problem. Bats in Flanders are suffering from a general shortage of habitat, as formerly draughty attics are insulated with more and more efficiency.
  • Sint-Gillis prison, Brussels (c) Reporters

    Belgian prisoners to move to Dutch jail

    26 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    Belgium will send 500 of its prison inmates to Tilburg in the Netherlands, under an agreement reached between the two governments last week.
  • Sociologist Luc Huyse

    Face of Flanders

    26 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    On 27 May, as Flanders Today is published, the annual Ark Prize of the Free Word will be awarded in Antwerp to Luc Huyse, a sociologist and emeritus professor at the Catholic University of Leuven. The prize, which comes with no big cash handout, will be handed over by last year’s winner, archaeologist and columnist David Van Reybrouck.
  • Lowering the bar

    19 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    Aspirant police officers may in future be diabetic, short-sighted or literally flat-footed, after changes to the selection criteria introduced last week by the justice ministry. They may also be slightly tubbier than before, with the acceptable body mass index (BMI) raised to 26 for women and 30 for men. A BMI of 30 is considered the borderline for obesity, while anything above 25 is considered overweight.
  • News in Brief

    19 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    Motorists in the Flanders region can now report bad road conditions online. The regional agency for roads and traffic, together with the association of Flemish cities and municipalities, last week inaugurated a new website for complaints. The site, www.meldpuntwegen.be, has a database of 80,000 roads, each with a link to the authority responsible for its upkeep. The site handles complaints about potholes, but also obstacles on the road, signals, markings and roadside plants. Footpaths and cycle paths are also covered, although the latter can also be reported direct to www.meldpuntfietspaden.be.

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