The fire brigade was called to the Royal Conservatory in Brussels’ Rue de la Régence yesterday in response to a call from a spokesperson for the CD&V party, who happened to be in a building across the street. The building was evacuated and the street closed to traffic. The emergency services...

The Royal Observatory of Belgium measured 79 earthquakes in Belgium in 2014, according to its website. Last year was a quiet year in terms of earthquakes both in Belgium and worldwide, says seismologist Koen Verbeeck of the Observatory. The figure takes into account only naturally occurring...

Last year in Belgium there were a total of 436,549 bicycles sold, about 30,000 more than in 2013 (+7.5%), according to a study of Belgian bicycle dealers conducted by the organisers of the annual bicycle fair Velofollies. Velofollies surveyed 1,552 Belgian bicycle dealers and found that 45.5% of...

The use of surveillance cameras in Belgium is on the rise, report the Sudpresse newspapers based on figures from the Commission for the Protection of Personal Privacy. Last year there were a total of 287,236 surveillance cameras operational throughout Belgium, a new record. An additional 27,386...

When Mons is crowned European Capital of Culture on January 24, celebratory fireworks will light up the winter sky. In launching a cultural programme of 1,000 events, it represents the largest arts celebration in Wallonia. Mons 2015 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the former industrial...

An estimated 20,000 people joined a silent march in Brussels yesterday afternoon in protest at the two terrorist attacks in Paris last week that claimed 17 lives. “We citizens condemn strongly and unambiguously all forms and expressions of fanaticism and extremism,” the organisers said. “Our...

Last year in Belgium, more people died in house fires than in neighbouring countries, report Het Nieuwsblad and De Standaard on Monday. House fires were linked to 69 deaths in Belgium in 2014, according to a count of fatal fires in Belgium, the first of its kind in nine years. The number is higher...

Belgian police officers were the target of threats of a terrorist attack over the weekend, writes Het Laatste Nieuws . The police intercepted messages from terror group IS on social media channels such as Twitter, calling for the killing of Belgian officers and their families. According to reports...

Footballer Bernard “Junior” Malanda-Adje, the Belgian under-21 international playing for Wolfsburg in the German Bundesliga, died at the weekend after the vehicle in which he was a passenger left the road in Germany. Twenty-year-old Malanda-Adje, known as Junior Malanda, started playing in Sint-...

One chicken can process about 50kg of household garbage annually. An increasing number of municipalities across Belgium are therefore offering free chickens to their residents in order to shrink the amount of organic waste that ends up in the garbage bin. And now Etterbeek is to become the first...