Where better than Brussels to put on an exhibition about the Tower of Babel? All those languages! All that confusion! And at Botanique as well, in the shadow of the Finance Tower. Perfect! But I’m getting carried away with the old version of the Babel story as it appears in the Book of Genesis...

As with many important life skills such as developing and maintaining successful relationships or having and raising children, money management is not taught at school. For many of us what follows is a consequence of personality, cultural background and habits formed early in life. A sensible...

Librarian Katia De Pooter, 35, from Bornem talks about what she earns and how she spends it. What do you do for a living? I work at the local public library, where I’m in charge of children’s books and everything youth-related. So I organise visits from school groups, I’m also responsible for our...

A growing number of asylum seekers in Belgium cite their homosexuality as the reason for applying, saying they fled their country because of homophobia and the violence that accompanies it, reports Het Laatste Nieuws. In 2011, 823 such applications were made, compared to 116 in 2006. Of the 522...

Belgium risks being fined for missing its 2012 budget target and needs a convincing plan to rein in its deficit this year and next without relying on one-off measures, the Economic Times quotes an EU official as saying yesterday. Belgium’s government had aimed to reduce the public sector deficit to...

The fault that shut down the Interconnector UK-Belgium gas pipeline today has been found, but the line will remain closed while the problem is rectified, the operator said. “The fault [the failure of a water/glycol pump in the Bacton boiler house] has been identified and we are seeking to rectify...

Bars and nightclubs are behaving stubbornly when it comes to the smoking ban, reports De Standaard. Spot-checks last year showed that one in four pubs was in breach of the law, while almost half of nightclubs were flouting the ban. Health ministry inspectors conducted 4,700 daytime and 900 evening...

With cheap spaces, a friendly scene and a thoughtful audience, Brussels’ arts scene is making some noise, writes the New York Times’ Jim Lewis . “The Belgian system is more flexible than the French,” says Almine Rech-Picasso, who moved from Paris in 2006, bringing with her a branch of her deluxe...

The top 50 American companies in Belgium contributed €1.7 billion in taxes and social security payments to the state coffers in 2012. This finding, and many others, is contained in the recently released report The Importance of US Companies in Belgium, published by the American Chamber of Commerce...

The Belgian army is unable to remove its 16 Salafist recruits, or even to prevent them from being promoted, La Libre reports today. The legal impasse was confirmed in a session of the Defence Committee, held behind closed doors in the houses of parliament. Two of the 16 Salafists have attained the...