It has now emerged that the victim was secretly taping the meeting. One copy of the tape was sent to investigating magistrate Wim De Troy in Brussels and another to De Standaard newspaper, which published transcripts last weekend.
At the weekend, Danneels' spokesman, Toon Osaer, said that the Cardinal "regrets" that what was supposed to be a pri- vate discussion was taped and then made public. In previous statements, Danneels maintained that he attended the meeting to listen and denied any desire to "cover it with the mantle of confidentiality".
It means that Flemish government ministers will be chairing key EU Council of Ministers formations, leading the debates amongst the 27 EU member states. Indeed, with the presidency already seven weeks old, some already have: Flemish environment minister Joke Schauvliege chaired July's informal Environment Council in Ghent.
It was not immediately clear what may have led to the incident. Newspapers made a link to an incident earlier in the day when, during his band's set on the festival's second day, Haddon threw himself into the audience to crowd surf and injured a teenage girl, who had to be taken to hospital. Haddon immediately provided contact details in case the girl's family made a damages claim. She was later released from hospital and her condition was said to be not serious.
he study showed a reduction of 19% in mortality from breast cancer overall between 1989 and 2006. For individual countries, the trend ranged from a 45% fall in Iceland to a 17% increase in Romania. In 15 countries, the fall was over 20%, but these tended to be countries where the initial rate was higher.
That all changed on the evening of 4 August, when a squad of about 40 police officers from the Fugitive Assets Search Team (FAST) and the drugs squad of the federal police descended on the modest four-storey house where he lived in a third-floor apartment. Romano was led away in handcuffs with a bag over his head, and it was revealed that he was one of Italy’s 100 most dangerous fugitives.
In October 2008, it is alleged that Schouppe sold a packet of Dexia shares. According to leaks from the investigation, the sale took place shortly after the minister had taken part in a meeting of some of the bank’s largest – and most disgruntled – shareholders. Schouppe was close to the centre of the government’s handling of the banking crisis as a result of his understanding of complex financial dossiers.
In May 2009, Schouppe sold KBC shares just before it was announced the bank would be the subject of a rescue operation by the government.
De Preter’s predecessor, Dirk Wauters, left the job in December last year, and his place has been filled since then by Piet De Roe – the second time De Roe has taken over the reins ad interim. Lieten explained, “We were looking for someone with media and management experience to lead such a large and complex business as the VRT. It is also above all a high visibility business which requires great courage to lead. Those factors made the search more difficult.”
“Despite the constant lip-service paid to the importance of research and innovation, it is our conclusion that science risks being gradually crippled as a result of shrinking budgets,” the article says. “We, the five rectors of the Flemish universities, find ourselves forced into sounding the alarm.”
De Kesel replaces the disgraced Roger Vangheluwe, who resigned after admitting he had sexually abused a family member over a period of years. That blow is still felt among the faithful in Bruges, but their shock has since spread to the rest of the Catholic congregation in Belgium, thanks to growing concern that the Cardinal himself may have knowingly covered up cases of sex abuse by clergy.
Last year, agency inspectors visited 12,128 businesses, including restaurants, cafes and snack bars. For hygiene overall, and the state of freezers and refrigerators in particular, only 57% obtained a passing grade. That’s slightly better than 2008, when only 47% were considered satisfactory. Worse still, only 31% were found to be adequately prepared for unexpected situations like a power outage. The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain employs 1,328 people, including 556 inspectors in 11 provincial units across the country.
Flanders Today is a 
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