Delphine Boël, 45, wants a Brussels court to order Albert II and two of his three children to undergo blood tests to prove they are related

Fabian Cancellara powered to victory as he claimed his second Tour of Flanders title ahead of main rival Peter Sagan on a disappointing day for Team Sky in Belgium.

He is an athlete more normally known for his dedication to his sport – and his talent on a bike. In fact, before today, perhaps the most notable thing about Slovakian cyclist Peter Sagan was his reputation for wacky victory celebrations: doing the running man or impersonating the Incredible Hulk to mark a win.

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is hoping to see the best of summer signing Vurnon Anita after witnessing a significant breakthrough in Belgium.

Newcastle United 1 Bruges 0

Who knew that the economics editor of the BBC is so well connected that if anything happened to Kevin Bacon, the dinner-party game could be remodelled as Six Degrees of Stephanie Flanders? Stephanie's stellar achievement in the sphere of unlikely inter-connection already dwarfs anything managed by Bacon.

An 18th-century townhouse has been turned into a warm and elegant residence by its Algerian owner, says William Cook

Belgium's Tom Boonen won the Tour of Flanders for the third time yesterday, beating Filippo Pozzato and Alessandro Ballan in a three-way sprint.

Happily married to the same lady for 70 years, Lance Errington – it did not occur to us to call such an unpompous and witty man Lancelot – was a hugely effective civil servant who devoted his working life to welfare and his social life to keeping friendships in first-class repair.

Belgium hit a new milestone today — 450 days without a government — but still no one appears to be in any big hurry to resolve the situation.

Reading this epic dissection of 19th-century murder and the fascination it held for the Victorian public, you are reminded of the odd ways in which the names of perpetrators and victims continue to resonate. The expression "Sweet Fanny Adams" stems from a grisly case of 1867 when the dismembered body of nine-year-old Fanny Adams was found near Alton, Hampshire. Myles-na-Gopaleen, the pen-name used by Flann O'Brien, was a character in Dion Boucicault's drama The Colleen Bawn - derived from the real-life murder of 15-year-old Ellen Hanley, drowned in 1819. Thomas Hood's poem "Eugene Aram", repeatedly used for comic effect by PG Wodehouse – in Bertie Wooster's mangled recollection, it goes, "Tum-tum tum-tumpty mist (I think it's mist),/ And Eugene Aram walked between,/ With gyves upon his wrist" – concerned a Knaresborough man hanged for the murder of a shoemaker in 1749.

The Belgian Nick Nuyens stunned pre-race favourite Fabian Cancellara to prevail in a three-man sprint and win the Tour of Flanders yesterday.

What would be a humiliation for many turned into a party for Belgium today as the country's citizens marked 249 days without a government, a figure that they are treating as a world record in political waffling.