Entertainment
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As Chinese tourists stay away, Europe's hopes for a busy summer following COVID are fading
Urs Kessler, who runs Jungfrau Rail lines, a train that takes travelers up the most elevated mountain in Switzerland, was energized for the arrival of Chinese sightseers after Coronavirus20 March 2023Read More... -
Kortrijk 1302 multimedia museum nominated for prestigious Museums & Heritage Award
The Kortrijk 1302 multimedia museum has been nominated for the prestigious Museums+Heritage Award. In the category of Best Use of Multimedia Resources, it is competing with four other18 March 2023Read More... -
AfricaMuseum appoints diplomat and historian as new director
Belgian diplomat Bart Ouvry has been appointed as the new head of the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, Flemish Brabant. Ouvry is a man with extensive knowledge of Africa, having served as the18 March 2023Read More... -
600 Beetles conquer city center of Ninove again after four years
On Sunday, hundreds of Beetles and Volkswagen vans could be admired in the city center of Ninove. Due to the coronavirus crisis, it had been four years since the Beetle meeting could take13 March 2023Read More... -
Paris art exhibition commemorates 700 years of Vilnius
An art exhibition in Paris is celebrating the 700th anniversary of Vilnius, Lithuania's capital city. The Iron Wolf exhibition, which opened on March 9, features some of Lithuania’s most prominent...13 March 2023Read More... -
Museum of the Belgian Draught Horse reopens its doors with a significantly expanded collection
From March to the end of October 2023, the Belgian Draught Horse Museum in Vollezele will once again open its doors every Sunday from 1:30pm to 5pm, and this time with some new13 March 2023Read More... -
The Flemish government immediately blocks access to TikTok on computers and smartphones of its employees
The Flemish government has immediately blocked access to TikTok on government employees' computers and smartphones based on security advice from Digitaal Vlaanderen, the digitalization12 March 2023Read More...
Economics
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February brings further decrease in housing prices across Finland
The Finnish housing market continued to see a decline in prices of old apartments in February compared to the same period last year, according to Statistics Finland. Prices fell by 5.5 percent in...Read More... -
Polish GDP to grow 3.4% in the next year
According to the latest report from S&P Global, Poland's GDP growth in 2024 is expected to reach 3.4 percent, an upgrade from their previous projection of 3.2 percent. However, the agencyRead More... -
Germany and Denmark aim to have a land-based hydrogen pipeline in place across their shared border by 2028
Germany and Denmark are collaborating on the development of a land-based hydrogen pipeline that would cross the countries' borders by 2028. The project will facilitate the import of largeRead More... -
The first thousand hectares of early cereals have been sown in Poltava region
The first thousand hectares of early grain crops have been sown in Ukraine's Poltava region. According to Dmytro Lunin, the head of the Poltava Regional Agricultural Administration, farmersRead More...
News
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Greenpeace advocates for a ban on private jet travel from Maastricht to Liege
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has called for a ban on private jets, citing that the world's top 1% are responsible for half of the aviation emissions worldwide. This call to actionRead More... -
Trade union protesters blocked the Louvre museum in Paris
On Monday, protesters from trade unions blocked the entrance to the Louvre museum in Paris, frustrating visitors. The protesters were demonstrating peacefully against President EmmanuelRead More... -
German prosecutors say they have searched the home of two pro-Kremlin activists
German prosecutors have conducted a search of the home of two pro-Kremlin activists, in search of evidence to substantiate a Reuters report that the couple donated funds to purchase radiosRead More... -
EU Commission introduces new consumer rights to promote convenient and appealing repairs under right-to-repair
Today, the European Commission adopted a new proposal on common rules promoting the repair of goods, which will result in savings for consumers and support the objectives of theRead More... -
Castle Wissekerke in Bazel reopens after one and a half years
Castle Wissekerke has been owned by the Local Government of Kruibeke since 1989. Immediately, the general public was welcome to the estate. The imposing building was gradually restoredRead More... -
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium arrive in South Africa for first-eever state visit to the country
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium have arrived in South Africa for a five-day state visit, the first ever state visit to the country by a Belgian monarch. Their Majesties landed inRead More... -
February sees another drop in Nederland's house prices, marking first yearly Decline since 2014
The national statistics agency CBS reported on Wednesday that house prices in the Netherlands continued to decline in February, after a slight increase in January, marking the firstRead More... -
Princely Palace of Monaco refutes "malicious" rumors of Prince Albert and Princess Charlene's separation
The Princely Palace of Monaco has issued a strong denial in response to rumours that have emerged in the French press regarding the separation of Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene.Read More... -
New rail link between Ghent and Lyon takes 8,000 containers off the road annually
A new rail link has been proposed in the port of Ghent which will transport goods to Lyon five times a week. Containers brought in by ship from Sweden can be forwarded to France by train.Read More...
Most Read
- Teen held after US woman killed in London stabbings
- Football: Farhad Moshiri adamant Everton deal above board
- Greece hails new post-bailout chapter but concerns remain
- The Kokorev case caused wide discussion in Brussels
- 34th Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, Millersville University of Pennsylvania
Entertainment
British low-cost airline EasyJet has named Johan Lundgren, the former deputy of TUI travel group, as its new chief executive, it said Friday.
Top fashion designers set out Sunday to prove the saying that a stylish woman can even look good in a bin bag.
Belgian husband and wife team Filip Arickx and An Vandevorst turned black plastic bin liners and dry cleaning sheaths into skirts and elaborate embroidered ball gowns in their debut Paris haute couture show.
Haute couture is the very pinnacle of the fashion world, with only an elite band of designers allowed to show their luxurious handmade creations in the French capital, some of which cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on Thursday celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO.
The dusty desert city formally received the keys to the precious shrines to Muslim saints dating back to medieval times at a ceremony consecrating their return that was held in the legendary Djingareyber mosque.
Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents wrecked 14 of the city's iconic earthen shrines built during Timbuktu's 15th and 16th century golden age as an economic, intellectual and spiritual centre.
To mark their reconstruction, five heads of cattle were ritually sacrificed just after dawn, ahead of a reading of the entire Muslim holy book the Koran and the handing of the keys to the families in charge of their care.
"This day celebrates the remarkable and courageous work accomplished to recover your dignity," UNESCO's Lazare Eloundou told the officials, diplomats and religious and traditional dignitaries attending the ceremony.
UNESCO has listed the city as a world heritage site in danger due to "its important role of commercial, spiritual and cultural centre on the southern trans-Saharan trading route, and its traditional characteristic construction techniques."
Islamist fighters destroyed the centuries-old shrines after seizing the city in April 2012, swiftly implementing a version of Islamic law which forced women to wear veils and set whipping and stoning as punishment for transgressions.
- 'Idolatrous' -
They considered the shrines, as well as priceless ancient manuscripts, to be idolatrous.
But in January 2013 they fled the city, driven out by a French-led international force which is still stationed in Mali but has failed to take control of remote northern reaches of the vast desert nation.
On billboards across the Florida Everglades, a burly Native American man pries open an alligator's mouth, pressing his face dangerously close to the reptile's 80 glinting teeth. "Adventures Await," the ads promise, as motorists whiz by.
The man's name is Rocky Jim, Jr., a 44-year-old Miccosukee Indian who has been wrestling alligators for 31 years, entertaining countless tourists from a sand pit and pond beneath a chickee hut along the Tamiami Trail, a two-lane road linking Miami to the port city of Tampa.
But on the final Sunday of 2015, the last remaining Miccosukee Indian in the century-old tradition of wrestling alligators decided it was time to step down, leaving no successors in sight among the tribe of around 600 people.
The end came just minutes into the 1 o'clock show, when Jim coaxed the alligator's mouth open by gently tapping its snout, then placed his hand inside.
The move is perilous only if something touches the alligator's palate -- a drop of sweat, a grain of sand -- causing the jaw to reflexively snap shut.
While pulling out his hand, he rotated it slightly and accidentally grazed a tooth.
The feeling was like "a door slamming on your hand. With sharp teeth," Jim said in an interview later.
But in the moment, as he looked down at his palm and forearm encased in the alligator's jaw, he had only one thought: "Don't shake."
"If it shakes, my hand is going to go with it," he told AFP, describing the thrashing motion alligators use to slice up fresh meat, much the same way as sharks.
"Its natural instinct is to do that," said Jim, who had been bitten several times before.
Italians call it a brindisi, the celebratory clinking of glasses to mark a special occasion.
And if the occasion is really special, there is a good chance it will involve fizz from Ferrari, the country's market leader in the production of top-end sparkling wine.
A 113-year-old family-run business based at Trento in the foothills of the Alps, this Ferrari has nothing to do with Formula One.
It has long been synonymous with Italian sporting success however, most famously when legendary striker Paolo Rossi glugged from one of its magnums after the national soccer team had triumphed in the 1982 World Cup final.
On home soil, Ferrari is also a wedding toast favourite and a perennial choice of Italian leaders seeking to impress visiting dignitaries, most recently at the World Expo in Milan, where Prime Minister Matteo Renzi teased French President Francois Hollande that he would not find anything better in Champagne.
"The great heritage of the brand is how it is entwined with Italians' lives and emotions," says the firm's youthful CEO Matteo Lunelli.
Along with a clutch of cousins, Lunelli is now looking to leverage Ferrari's domestic reputation into international growth, helped by growing critical acclaim and marketing breakthroughs like being served at the after party at this year's Emmy awards.
At the recent Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships in London, the Italian producer entered nine wines and secured nine gold medals, walking away with the overall best producer award ahead of venerable champagne houses Charles Heidsieck and Louis Roederer.
"It is unheard of," said bubbles authority Tom Stevenson, the competition organiser. "It has certainly never happened in any competition I have judged at around the world."
- Prosecco 'opens a door' -
Lunelli believes the export-led boom in sales of cheaper-to-produce Prosecco, which has recently surpassed champagne to become the world's most popular sparkling wine, can help Ferrari expand steadily in its target niche at the luxury end of the market.
"Of course it is a challenge to explain to customers the diversity of Italian sparkling wines, which come from very different areas and are made in very different ways," he said.
"But I'm convinced, the success of Prosecco opens a door for us," he said.
Experts are not quite so sure at a time when the trend in wine marketing is towards recognisable brands -- something Prosecco, with its easy-drinking style and easy-to-remember name, has benefited from.
Facebook on Wednesday said it would block access to its website by non-members in Belgium, as it battles a court order to stop tracking Internet users who do not have accounts with the US social media giant.
The decision follows a so-far fruitless attempt to strike a deal with Belgium's privacy watchdog after it lodged a legal complaint over Facebook's tracking of Internet users when they visit pages on the site or click "like" or "share", even if they are not members.
Once the court order is officially received, "people without Facebook accounts in Belgium will have to log in to Facebook before they can see Facebook pages and other content," the California-based firm said in an emailed statement.
"This means people without a Facebook account will need to create and log into a Facebook account to view this content," it said.
If carried out, it would be the first time Facebook would block access to visitors in the row over the use of so-called cookies, widely used tracking devices that follow a user's Internet activity.
Facebook has vowed to appeal against last month's court decision, but said in the meantime it would "fully comply" with the Belgian Privacy Commission. Defying the ruling would cost Facebook fines of up to 250,000 euros ($269,000) a day.
Thousands of protesters gathered in central London on Tuesday in an effort to stop Britain joining air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria, a day before a parliamentary vote on the move.
A crowd of around 4,000 marched from parliament to the headquarters of the ruling Conservative party and main opposition Labour party nearby, in the second major London protest on the issue in four days.
"We're here to say one simple thing: 'Don't bomb Syria. Don't do what you did in 2001, 2003 and 2011'," the Stop the War Coalition protest movement's Lindsey German told the crowd, referring to British involvement in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
"Don't go and bomb a country where me make the war even worse."
Parliament looks set to vote in favour of joining the bombing campaign against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria on Wednesday, paving the way for sorties by British jets to start within days.
The debate has become increasingly heated, with Prime Minister David Cameron labelling Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his allies "a bunch of terrorist sympathisers" for opposing the strikes, British media reported.
How much sex is enough? Just once a week is all it takes for optimal happiness among married heterosexual couples and those in long-term relationships, said a US study Thursday.
The findings are based on surveys of more than 30,000 Americans collected over four decades, and are published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
"Although more frequent sex is associated with greater happiness, this link was no longer significant at a frequency of more than once a week," said lead researcher Amy Muise, a social psychologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto-Mississauga.
People who report drinking three to five cups of coffee per day are less likely to die prematurely from heart disease, suicide, diabetes or Parkinson's disease, US researchers said Monday.
Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee were shown to have benefits, said the study by researchers at the Harvard University Chan School of Public Health published in the November 16 edition of the journal Circulation.
The study compared people who don't drink coffee, or drank less than two cups daily, to those who reported drinking "moderate" amounts of coffee, or up to five cups daily.
The study did not prove a cause-and-effect for coffee and the reduced likelihood of certain diseases, but uncovered an apparent link that aligns with previous research, and that scientists would like to probe further.
"Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation," said first author Ming Ding, a doctoral student in the Department of Nutrition.
"That could explain some of our findings. However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects."
No protective effect was found against cancer in this study. Some previous research has pointed to a link between coffee consumption and a lower risk of certain cancers.
The study was based on data gathered from three large, ongoing surveys including some 300,000 nurses and other health professionals who agree to answer questionnaires about their own medical conditions and habits at regular intervals over the course of 30 years.
Ismael Gerli, director of a Panamanian law firm Gerli&Co, has been charged with embezzlement which allowed him to take over properties belonging to one of his clients.
Apparently, Gerli forged a number of documents that allowed him to take possession of 100% of shares belonging to the company of Vladimir Kokorev, a Spanish citizen of Russian origins. Several years ago, Mr. Kokorev retained the services of Ismael Gerli for the acquisition of an apartment where he resided in Panama, and which the Panamanian lawyer recently registered under his own name using a series of forged documents.