• 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.
  • Photo: Lily Leys

    Good fences make good neighbours

    19 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    Nicole Boonen and Lief Van Der Veken, who live next door to each other in Retie, near Turnhout, keep in touch despite an enormous hedge separating their two gardens.
  • Twittering toddlers keep in touch

    19 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    Online message application Twitter may have convinced the likes of Oprah and Stephen Fry of its worth, but until now a whole demographic was immovably sceptical: the under-threes. Thanks to an idea developed at the University of Hasselt, toddlers will now be able to keep in touch with their working parents using Twitter.
  • Polling takes place on 7 June

    To the polls, people

    19 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    The country goes to the polls on 7 June to decide who will sit in the regional and European parliaments. Over the next four weeks, Flanders Today looks in depth at the politicians, the parties and the issues that could lead to dramatic changes in the political map of the region. This week: the Flemish parties
  • 50,000 signed up for news of Kai-Mook's long-awaited birth

    It’s an 80 kilo girl!

    19 May 2024 by Alan Hope
    A beautiful bouncing baby girl, slightly hairy and weighing in at 80 kilograms, was born at 8.45 last Sunday to mother Phyo Phyo in the Antwerp Zoo. The country’s first elephant birth was followed closely by tens of thousands worldwide via the internet. Kai-Mook’s name was chosen from more than 8,000 submissions from members of the public.
  • A perfect plan

    12 May 2024 by
    Last week, this column talked about the near escape of Jean-Marie Dedecker, the former judo coach who started his own party after he was kicked out of Open VLD. When federal member of parliament Dirk Vijnck turned his back on Dedecker’s LDD, the party risked losing a good number of staff and financing worth €250,000. It was quite a blow.
  • Previous murder attempt by crèche killer

    12 May 2024 by
    Kim De Gelder, the young man who attacked a crèche full of children in Dendermonde last January, killing a nurse and a baby, may have tried to kill a few days before and failed only because of the vigilance of a family dog.
  • Driver who killed two children to sue bereaved parents

    12 May 2024 by
    A 77-year-old man who ran through a give-way sign and caused a road accident in which two children were killed plans to sue the parents of the victims because they were not belted in properly.
  • Peter Verhelst

    Verhelst and Cneut win Golden Owl prize

    12 May 2024 by
    This year’s Gouden Uil, or Golden Owl, prize for the best Children’s Literature has been awarded to writer Peter Verhelst and illustrator Carll Cneut for Het geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal (The Secret of the Nightengale’s throat), their new version of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1844 fairy tale The Nightingale. The prestigious Golden Owl is awarded every year to the best new Dutch-language book and children’s book.
  • News in Brief

    12 May 2024 by
    Belgian money might be made abroad from next year, if finance minister Didier Reynders decides to follow a recommendation from the board of the National Mint to send production overseas to a low-wage country. According to the opinion given by the board a year ago, the government has failed to invest in the mint, and both machinery and management are no longer up to date enough for the job. Staff last week held a silent protest during a visit by the king and queen calling for an end to the uncertainty.

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