Pharmacists in Belgium will from October 1 be paid to provide comprehensive advice to certain chronic patients about the taking of their prescription drugs, Le Soir and De Standaard report today. Unlike the usual advice accompanying the delivery of a drug, the new service will last about fifteen...

Belgacom has filed a ‘complaint against persons unknown’ for hacking into its internal IT systems and apparently inserting a virus, writes GigaOM's David Meyer . The telecoms operator has not officially suggested who this ‘person unknown’ might be, but De Standaard has quoted sources as saying it...

Dutch railway firm NS has told the Italian maker of the troubled Fyra trains to pick up all 16 units and take them back home, reports Dutch News . “We want to get rid of them,” a spokesman told Dutch television. “It’s a one-way ticket to Italy.” The (supposedly) high-speed trains have been idle in...

Belgian Central Bank governor and European Central Bank governing council member Luc Coene said Belgium must make structural reforms in order to avoid falling behind its eurozone peers, writes the Wall Street Journal’s Frances Robinson . "All countries are going full speed ahead with structural...

Belgium has offered €2m towards efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change on thousands of farmers in Uganda’s so-called ‘cattle corridor’, writes The Observer’s Moses Mugalu . Natural disasters such as floods and long spells of drought, have contributed to diminishing crop and animal...

Belgians know little about their cholesterol levels, it appears from an online European survey in which 1,000 Belgians aged over 45 took part. According to the survey, 79% of Belgian respondents are aware of the cardiovascular risks linked to cholesterol, but three out of four do not know what...

Fare dodging costs public transport companies STIB, TEC and De Lijn a total of €16.5m in 2012, according to figures released today by L’Echo. STIB is the most affected, with a shortfall of more than €11m. The Brussels public transport company suffers an fare-dodging rate of 4.5%, the highest by far...

Belgium has signed a secret agreement with the United States on the modernisation of nuclear weapons stocked on Belgian soil, according to expert Hans Kristensen of the Federation of Nuclear Scientists. New bombs should replace the existing B61 warheads at Kleine-Brogel airbase, report Het Belang...

The average electricity bill for Belgian households has decreased by 9% and gas bills by as much as 12%, resulting in savings of €280 a year, according to figures released by the Electricity and Gas regulatory body (Creg), published in L'Echo today. This decrease results from a combination of...

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite met with king Philippe to discuss bilateral relations between Lithuania and Belgium as well as European and international issues, becoming the first foreign head of state to meet with the new Belgian king, writes the Baltic Course’s Petras Vaida . "The...