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Culture beat – October 30

If it’s family fun you are in search of, look no further than the Halloween Festival at the Museum of Fantastic Art and Witches’ Walk at Maison Pelgrims in Saint-Gilles. As well as creepy treats and a scavenger hunt on Thursday evening, there’s a Witches’ Walk through the neighbourhood with kids (...

The property man

The property market in Brussels, both commercial and residential, has shaken off the 2008 credit crunch and is showing signs of recovery, believes Rod Scrivener, head of valuations at the Belgian office of property firm Jones Lang Lasalle. Belgium, Scrivener, from the UK, has spent the past 23...

Lonely Planet names Belgium place to be in 2014

Belgium is number eight in the Lonely Planet guidebook’s top 10 list of “2014’s most unmissable destinations”. Described as “Europe’s underrated gem,” it is noted for its picturesque cities – Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent – as well as food and drink, countryside, coast and culture. The forthcoming...

Red Star Line Museum's success exceeds expectations

The Red Star Line Museum, which opened on 28 September on Antwerp’s waterfront, has clocked 26,586 visitors so far, and many of its guided tours are fully booked until the end of the year. The museum recounts the history of the Red Star Line shipping company, which took emigrants from across Europe...

N-VA pledges to slash tax rate

The Flemish nationalist party N-VA announced this week that a tax cut would be incorporated into the party’s manifesto at the party congress early next year. Party president Bart De Wever, also the mayor of Antwerp, said that he wants to cut the average tax rate to 40%, following the next election...

Possible future mayor defends €190K salary for SamuSocial boss

Yvan Mayeur, head of the Brussels social aid agency CPAS, has defended the €192,000 salary paid to Pascale Peraita, director of SamuSocial, the non-profit set up to look after the city's homeless. Last week it was revealed that financial inspectors sent in by public works minister Brigitte Grouwels...

Demolition reveals 13th century city walls

Demolition work being carried out on a site at the corner of Rue Royale and Treurenberg in central Brussels has uncovered traces of the city walls dating from the 13th century, according to historian and Brussels member of parliament Paul De Ridder. The demolition site backs onto the house of the...

Tourist organisation expects more visitors to Belgium this week

Belgium can expect roughly 10% more visitors from other countries over the course of the autumn school vacation now under way, according to Toerisme Vlaanderen. The organisation expects a total 670,000 travellers this week, made up of 307,000 Belgians and the rest from abroad. About one in three of...

Minority students often feel stigmatised

From 2009 to 2012, research groups at the universities of Ghent, Leuven and Antwerp investigated the obstacles for and strategies of pupils with and without an immigration background in secondary education. For the project, called Oprit 14 in Dutch and Bet You! in English, the scientists carried...

Parents of early holiday-goers may face consequences

Pascal Smet is examining the level of absences from school at the beginning of the annual autumn vacation, which started last weekend. The Flemish education minister wants to determine how many parents took their children out of school early in order to get a head-start on travel plans. Schools...

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