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Journalism...Belgian Style

Belgian Television Network Mistakenly Declares Queen Fabiola Dead


Brussels, Belgium (AHN) -- Belgium's Queen Fabiola was mistakenly declared dead last night.

A Belgian television network's website announced that the 80-year-old royal - who is in a hospital with pneumonia - had died. The website quickly withdrew the story, blaming a "publishing error."

A network spokesman said, "This was human error. We are very sorry and our online news team has sent an apology to the royal family."

In response to the article, the Belgian Royal Palace announced that while Queen Fabiola remained in intensive care there had been "slight improvement" in her condition.

The queen - who had surgery to correct a thyroid problem earlier this month - was admitted to St John's hospital in Brussels on Friday, complaining of chest and throat problems. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and is currently in a "serious but stable" condition.

The wife of the late King Baudouin - who died in 1993 after 42 years as sovereign - sparked controversy when she elected to be sedated using hypnosis instead of general anaesthetic during her recent surgery. The royal's surgery went well and she was allowed home three days later, but was back in hospital within a week.

Fabiola - who was a hospital nurse when she met the king in the late 50s - was Belgium's queen consort between 1960 and 1993.

Countdown

So my last work week has begun. We are in our new office (although the toilets are not ready yet, and it still looks like a construction site…because it still is a construction site), and I have moved in with Emma. All is going well my last week at work and in Brussels.

Emma and Eimear leave for work WAY earlier than I normally do, so I arrived at an astounding 830 this morning (after walking all the way there and getting coffee served to me in a soup bowl, because the normal coffee cup just wasn’t big enough), only to remember that I don’t have a key. Luckily the building’s facilities guys are workaholics and were in the building ready to open the door for me. (I have a key now).

It was an interesting (and by interesting I mean cold and dangerous), walk to work today, as it was snowing quite hard (not much on the ground and most of it is gone now), and in true Brussels form, the sidewalks were icy, not cleared and of course narrow and uneven. Regardless, it took me longer than it needed to because of these inefficiencies. But I didn’t really mind as I was really early anyway.

That’s when I found the deli near the office that only had one size (tiny) take away coffee cup, and when I asked for a bigger cup, they gave me a takeaway soup bowl…much more like it.

I’ve mainly been unpacking and training the new intern today, and we went to a great African restaurant (it’s next door) for lunch which took about two hours (luckily the boss came with us). So, it hasn’t been too stressful (yet).