King Philippe I has become Belgium's seventh monarch following the abdication of his father. Philippe, 53, took his oath in Belgium's three official languages – Dutch, French and German – two-and-a-half weeks after King Albert, 79, announced he would abdicate after 20 years on the throne. Albert...

There was no disruption during Philippe’s investiture ceremony yesterday, the far-right Vlaams Belang party having decided to boycott the ceremony. The closest thing to an incident was independent MP Jean-Marie Dedecker’s refusal to applaud the new king. The openly republican and separatist N-VA...

Approximately 700,000 people in total attended yesterday’s July 21 festivities, interior minister Joëlle Milquet has revealed, based on information provided by the police. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all civil protection teams and all services who, for the past three weeks, have...

The bankruptcy of the city of Detroit could have important repercussions for the Dexia group, several newspapers reported on Saturday. The Belgo-French group has in its portfolio a few loans held by Detroit for an amount that could reach €100m. Dexia had invested in 2006, just before the global...

Doctors have recently started going to bars and cafes providing saliva tests to detect HIV among people from high-risk groups, De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad report. Staff from Antwerp’s Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) offer the free service in bars and cafes very frequented by homosexuals...

As Belgium prepares to welcome a new king to the throne, questions will inevitably be asked of Philippe's ability to show the same diplomatic skills as his father in the minefield that is Belgian politics. In 2010 and 2011 the country infamously went 541 days without a government, and Albert's...

Nearly half of Belgian festivals do not respect the ban on the sale of alcohol to young people under the age of sixteen or eighteen, an initial inspection conducted by the federal public service for health indicates, De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad report today. Violations were observed in five out...

The federal police’s Fugitive Active & Asset Search Team (FAST) has arrested an Israeli drug dealer known as ‘Israel’s godfather’. The man was arrested as part of an international operation led by the United States in which the Belgian federal police took part. Other arrests also took place in...

The number of reported cases of ICT crime in Belgium rose to 20,536 in 2012, 37.5% higher than the year before, according to an annual study released by the Belgian federal police department in charge of economic and financial crime (DFJ), reports Telecompaper . The number of recorded cases in 2011...

A brand new lounge concept is set to open in Dubai in September, based on Belgian tapas, reports AMEinfo . Bapas, which will be based at the prestigious H Hotel, is the brainchild of Belgian restaurateurs Lars and Ronny Haesen. The two brothers are no strangers to running successful projects and...