News

One giant leap

Antwerp University’s Brainleap project is helping decipher secret communications of the mind

The Brainleap project is an initiative of professor Michele Giugliano, who leads the Laboratory of Theoretical Neurobiology and Neuroengineering at the University of Antwerp (UA). Giugliano also co-ordinates the activity of participating researchers from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Israel. Together, they want to find out how brain cells – also known as nerve cells or neurons – interact to determine the behaviour of animals and humans.

(April 24, 2013)

Action sought on jihad fighters

Muslim youth from Flanders and Brussels are feeling the pressure to go and fight in Syria

Last week, Dimitri Bontinck from Antwerp was in Syria looking for his 16-year-old son, Jejoen, while another father from Vilvoorde was reported to have departed on the same mission. As Flanders Today went to press, neither had made contact with his son.

(April 17, 2013)

Peeters visits Malawi and Botswana

Flemish government provides €25 million for agricultural development

Peeters signed a memorandum of understanding between the governments of Flanders and Malawi, including a pledge for funding worth €25 million in support of Malawi’s agriculture over the next five years. “We believe that president Joyce Banda is making the right decisions, and we have agreed that this money should be used in agriculture, which is the top priority area in our agreement,” Peeters told the country’s Daily Times.

(April 10, 2013)

Smet announces school reforms

Government considers incentives for schools that group together

School groupings will begin to take shape in 2017. Each group will be made up of several schools, with a total student body of at least 2,000 and an average of 6,000. The creation of co-operative groups will not be obligatory, but Flemish education minister Pascal Smet held out the possibility of offering financial incentives to move to a group system. Management staff might be eligible for more pay if they work at a group level, while teachers would move towards being employed by a group rather than a single school.

(April 3, 2013)

De Gelder found guilty and responsible for his actions

The 24-year-old has been sentenced by a jury to life in prison
© POOL/Reuters/Corbis

During the month-long trial, De Gelder never denied that he entered the crèche armed with a knife and an axe, striking out at anyone within reach. One week earlier, De Gelder had murdered an elderly woman in her home in Vrasene in order, he said, to still the voices in his head urging him to kill.

(March 27, 2013)

Cultural blueprint for Flanders

Joke Schauvliege announces changes to cultural policy for the coming years
© Wikimedia Commons

Schauvliege’s “concept note” is a sort of white paper on the evolution of cultural policy in the coming years and will eventually be translated into a new Culture Decree. One of the main goals of the paper is to increase the pool of members of the various committees that advise the minister on the subsidies to be granted to groups and organisations, in order to make it easier to avoid conflicts of interest.

(March 20, 2013)

News in brief (20/03/2013)

Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte will no longer make a joint trade mission to South Africa in July, after their hosts were unable to organise dates which suited all parties. Instead the two leaders will travel to Austin and Houston in the US state of Texas, on a visit to oil, gas, petrochemical and logistics industries.

(March 20, 2013)

Steven Vanackere steps down

The federal minister of finance quits over ACW accusations
© Laurie Dieffembacq / BELGA

“Because of my political inspiration, rooted in the Christian-democracy and the Christian workers’ movement, some people find it unimaginable that I can function impartially as a minister for finance, even though there is nothing to prove this allegation. ... This atmosphere of distrust keeps me from my work, which is not in this country’s interest. It is not in my party’s interest either. I admit that it is more than what I can take as a person. Any doubt about my integrity, I find very unjust.”

(March 13, 2013)

Prosecutor-general reviews Jonathan Jacob case

Antwerp prosecutor Herman Dams steps down, then retracts admission
© Herwig Vergult / BELGA

Recent reports revealed that some documents in the case were possibly tampered with in order to conceal the role of the prosecutor’s office. Dams was under intense pressure from his superior, prosecutor-general Yves Liégeois, who announced at a press conference that Ingrid Pira, former mayor of Mortsel, had reviewed her own notes, which mentioned a contact with the prosecutor on the fatal night in question.

(March 6, 2013)

Death of man in police cell raises questions

Local special support squads are inadequately trained, says Comité P
© VRT

Jacob was refused admittance to a psychiatric clinic because of aggressive behaviour and eventually turned up in a police station in Mortsel. A doctor was called to administer a sedative, as were the members of Antwerp’s BBT, one of whom struck Jacob several times, before the team held him down while the injection was given. He died soon after.

(February 27, 2013)