Tuesday February 9 2010 05:57
-5°C / 0°C
On the evening of Thursday, 29 October, a prisoner at Leuven Central ran amok with a pair of scissors, stabbing a prison officer 12 times and wounding another member of staff and three prisoners. The man, Iran-born Hussein Mamiani, was joined by another prisoner who started attacking others with a stick. The two then shut themselves up in a cell while holding a fellow prisoner hostage. Mamiani was later shot dead by the special intervention unit of the federal police, and 22-year-old Jimmy Hemeleers was taken into custody.
Families in difficulties with commercial power utilities can turn to the distribution network manager for social provision or to install pre-paid metres. The number of those metres in service rose from about 35,800 last year to more than 38,200 now. Last year, 70,000 people appeared in front of the Local Advice Committee for a decision on whether to cut off their power supply, and 60,000 applied for help in arranging debt payment schedules.
Other budget measures include:
▶The price of diesel will go up in 2010 by four cents, and a further eight cents in 2011, a measure expected to bring in €140 million next year and €285 million in 2011.
▶Tank cards, given by employers for fuel, will in the future be only 75% tax deductible, something the road haulage industry said threatened to price them out of the international market.
The flooding of the Hertogin Hedwigepolder is the result of a plan to protect wildlife in the Scheldt estuary – an important location providing feeding and breeding grounds for waterfowl. But it has struck a sensitive chord with the Dutch – especially Zeelanders – since the reclaiming of polder land from the sea is a centuries-old tradition. Moreover, many people still remember the terrible storms in 1953 in which more than 1,800 people died after the dikes broke.
“This shows that our policy is having an effect, and that the effort is paying off,” said environment minister Joke Schauvliege. The latest news is indicative of a trend, she said, in which emissions of greenhouse gases have been falling since 2004.
Bogaert went to Qatar in October of last year to work for the local subsidiary of a Belgian company, Dialogic, to develop media coverage of the Qatar Marine Festival. Although employed as a media specialist, he took over as CEO of the subsidiary when the existing CEO was sacked.
“People are coming in the first instance for information before they submit a dossier,” said Antwerp’s alderwoman for social policy, Monica De Coninck. “In any case they have three months to do so.” In Antwerp, only six applications had been handed by noon on the first day, but 300 or so people had come by to pick up a form to be filled in later, and others had called in with questions. In Ghent, 40 applications were submitted, and 100 people came in for information.
It was not just her second grand slam title, coming four years after a triumph in the same arena. She was the first unseeded and unranked female grand slam champion. And Clijsters became the first mother to win a major since 1980.
Clijsters was a wild card: since coming out of a two-year retirement in March, she had only competed in two tournaments, and had yet to secure a ranking.
“The financial irregularities covered in the media are not the basis for the sacking,” Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters told Flanders Today. “I have no problem with whistle-blowers, but a number of the allegations contained in the media coverage are not correct.”
Overheating caused by concert spotlights appears to have been the cause of the fire, which broke out in two places at around 6.45 on Sunday morning. The fire service was immediately alerted, and the fire was under control by 8.30. For a brief period, damage to roof beams in one gallery led to fears of a collapse, and the evacuation of artwork was stopped.
Flanders Today is an independent weekly newsmagazine about Flanders
