Last week, Brussels came second in the contest to become Europe’s next eco-capital. To be beaten by Bristol was a great disappointment to the Brussels government. However, it seems to be the right decision. Brussels is doing rather well as far as green spaces and sustainable building are concerned...

This morning’s rush-hour on the railways passed off “virtually problem-free” despite strikes, according to the rail authority SNCB. Flanders was mainly unaffected by the industrial action, aside from the Antwerp-Charleroi train stopping in Brussels. Meanwhile in Wallonia, stations were blocked by...

A family of four beavers who had constructed a lodge in the river Dijle in the centre of Leuven has left the city, chased away by a TV camera crew, it was claimed. According to Jan Loos, whose non-profit Landschap organised 'beaver safaris' to show the family to visitors, a crew from the VRT animal...

Fifteen children found abandoned by their parents in a house in Anderlecht have been placed in childcare centres as police look for their parents. The children, from three Bosnian families living in Brussels illegally, were being looked after by a 19-year-old girl from one of the families. She was...

The number of cafes going broke in a year has gone up by 40% since the introduction of the general smoking ban in July 2011, according to NSZ, the organisation that represents the self-employed. Last year at around this time, on the first anniversary of the ban, the number of bankruptcies had risen...

The government of the Brussels region has revived a plan to create a museum of immigration, according to Rachid Madrane speaking yesterday in the Brussels parliament. The museum will be known as the House of Diversity, and may find a home in Saint-Josse, the capital’s most culturally and ethnically...

The launch of the satellite Proba-V a month ago, and its successful positioning in low orbit, brings us back to Kruibeke. Here, on the left bank of the river Scheldt, lie the European headquarters of QinetiQ Space – the company that built Proba-V. For me, it’s a reunion of sorts, because I was here...

Two of Brussels’ most popular attractions, the theme park Mini-Europe and water park Océade, have had the contract for their location on the Heysel plateau prolonged until 2016. The news comes as a stay of execution for the two attractions, which had been told they would need to leave Heysel this...

A man who stabbed two police officers and attempted to stab a third has been sentenced to 17 years in prison by a court in Brussels. Brahim Bahrir, 35, had travelled to Brussels from Paris after hearing of protests following a police identity check of a woman wearing a burqa in Molenbeek. The...

The National Lottery has warned of a hoax email currently in circulation which announces that the recipient has won €35,000 on the e-lottery and invites the ‘winner’ to click on a link and provide bank details. “To be perfectly clear, the National Lottery never does such a thing,” said spokesman...