• Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne

    Fiat has “no intention” of closing Opel

    12 May 2024 by
    Italian car manufacturer Fiat has no intention of closing Opel Antwerp, should it succeed in its bid to take over the European activities of Opel’s parent company, General Motors (GM). Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne last week spoke by telephone with Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters to deny reports in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that Antwerp might be under threat of closure in 2011.
  • The online community brought neighbours closer together

    Caught up in the web

    12 May 2024 by
    It’s impossible to blow your nose these days without the news showing up on some online social networking site or other. Facebook, the most popular among adults, had one million members in Belgium last October and topped the two million mark last March, or 20% of the population.
  • 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.
  • Tom Boonen (Reuters)

    “A very foolish guy”

    12 May 2024 by
    Flemish pro cyclist Tom Boonen faces the possibility of missing another Tour de France after it was revealed at the weekend that he tested positive for cocaine at the end of last month. Police carried out a search of the cyclist’s home in Turnhout last Friday, with his cooperation. Magistrates at the Turnhout prosecutor’s office refused to say what if anything had been found.
  • Milow

    “Baby this a new age”

    12 May 2024 by
    “Milow” is a household name in Belgium. It’s the stage name of Leuven singer-songwriter Jonathan Vandenbroeck, and it’s also the title of his new compilation album – his first to be released outside the Benelux.
  • Geroge Washington's face was the first to be carved on Mount Rushmore in 1930s S

    Letter from America

    5 May 2024 by
    Although probably unaware of the fact, the first president of the United States, George Washington, was born with Flemish DNA. His earliest Flemish ancestor was Baldwin “Iron Arm”, the first count of Flanders, who was not only father of the Flemings but father of the father of the American people.
  • Director and lead actress

    Sister Act

    5 May 2024 by
    In 1961, a nun in a Wallonia cloister wrote a hit pop song, became world famous and made millions for the Catholic Church. It sounds too good to be a true story, but it is, and Stijn Coninx has made a film about it.
  • A people’s story

    5 May 2024 by
    “The story of 100 years of Ahlers is pretty much a people’s story,” says Christian Leysen, executive chairman of Ahlers, the Antwerp-based international logistic and maritime service company that is celebrating a century this year. “But it’s also a story of technology, politics and economics,” he adds. “And a lesson in entrepreneurship based on the need for a long-term vision.”
  • Calimero

    5 May 2024 by
    The cartoon character Calimero is a hapless chick, fresh out of the egg, whose famous line is: “This is not fair; they are big and I am small.” When other parties claim that Jean-Marie Dedecker has a Calimero-complex, this is exactly what they mean. Man-of-the-moment Dedecker likes to present things as if the whole world is against him.
  • Kunstenfestival

    Artquake

    5 May 2024 by
    It’s Kunstenfestivaldesarts season – the über-contemporary arts festival with the quintessentially Brussels name. Now in its 14th incarnation, Brussels inhabitants are already confronted with an abundance of advertising, and they will soon be tripping over arts installations, not to mention passing at least one of the 315 resident artists in the street.

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