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"Belgian police arrest Al Qaeda terror suspects," from Agence France-Presse, December 11 (thanks to Alex): AFP - Belgian police on Thursday arrested 14 suspected Al-Qaeda members, including a man believed to have been planning a suicide attack, officials announced, as EU leaders gathered in Brussels. "We don't know where the suicide attack was to take place," federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle told reporters. "It could have been an operation in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but it can't be ruled out that Belgium or

European human rights watchdogs are now watching Belgian democracy closely after the move by Flemish local authorities. The Council of Europe has "opened a monitoring procedure on local democracy" fuelling a row between Dutch speaking and francophone Belgians that has threatened the existence of Belgium. Flemish regional authorities have blocked three French-speaking mayors from taking up public office since they were elected in January 2007 in the Brussels suburbs of Linkebeek, Wezembeek-Oppem and Kraainem. Marino Keulen, the Flemish Interior Minister responsible for the ban, remained defiant and announced he will stick by his decision to outlaw the elected mayors....

GHENT, Belgium, November 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Belgian couple faces possible jail time for having sold their newborn child on eBay and for having registered the child under an assumed name.   A Belgium state prosecutor said, “The couple are suspected of registering the birth under a false name, which is an offence. That is to say that the name the baby boy was given was not that of his real mother.” The offence carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. According to iafrica.com, obtaining an adoption without official authorization, a charge to which the couple may have...

Regional war fear as 50000 homeless in Congo in two days Times Online - 29 Oct, 2008 Congolese government forces are fleeing the eastern capital of Goma as Rwandan-backed rebels press towards the town, threatening a lethal confrontation with United Nations peacekeepers and the prospect of all out regional war. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5039595.ece

TRANSINNE, Belgium , Aug. 18, 2008 – With Joshua Mayo in the pilot seat and flight director Daniel Arvleo-Perez overseeing a mission control center hundreds of miles away, the space shuttle landed flawlessly. Not bad for a couple of teenagers. Chelsea Ryan, from Wiesbaden, Germany, reviews a checklist in preparation for a simulated space shuttle launch at the Euro Space Center, in Transinne, Belgium. Ryan was one of 24 participants in a space camp hosted by Installation Management Command Europe Region as part of its Camp A.R.M.Y. Challenge. U.S. Army photo by Ray Johnson, Installation Management Command Europe Region  (Click...

Olympic drunk is sports minister A drunk fan of Olympic competitors from Belgium has been identified as the country's sports minister. A loud Belgian fan had been shouting out during a doubles match between Argentinian and Belgian players. Eventually Argentine tennis ace David Nalbandian lost his temper and told him to be quiet. But other Belgian supporters recognised the "very drunk" man as sports minister Michel Daerden, media in the country have reported.

BRUSSELS, Belgium – The European Parliament says that part of the roof of its Strasbourg chamber has collapsed.

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Politicians and Wall Streeters are starting to ask why the Belgian beer company InBev purchased Anheuser-Busch and not the other way around. Anheuser-Busch is an iconic American firm and some find it almost unpatriotic that Anheuser CEO August Busch IV allowed the "King of Beers" to relocate across the Atlantic -- though shareholders were the big winners here with a $50 billion-plus takeaway. But here's the real question: Was the takeover basically financed by the savings Anheuser expected from escaping America's increasingly uncompetitive corporate tax system? According to the Tax Foundation, Belgium's corporate tax rate is 33%, but the effective...

Belgium is in danger of falling apart. For more than six months, the country has been unable to form a government that is able to unite the French-speaking Walloons (32% of the population) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (58%). The Belgian monarch, Albert II, is desperately trying to stop his subjects from breaking up the nation-state. But perhaps we should all care at least a little, for what is happening in Belgium is unusual but not at all unique. The Czechs and Slovaks already parted ways, as did the different nations of Yugoslavia. Many Basques would like to break away from Spain,...

"It would be a shame if Bud is foreign-owned," Barack Obama said last week, when asked about the prospect of InBev taking over Anheuser-Busch. Many Americans no doubt share these sentiments.Believers in free markets naturally disagree, and they are probably joined by legions of beer connoisseurs. They are also joined by a motley group of World War I aficionados. InBev is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, home of one of Europe's oldest and most prestigious universities. On Aug. 25 and 26, 1914, the town was sacked by German troops. ("The Oxford of Belgium" was then better known by its French name,...

Belgian Prime Minister offered his government’s resignation to the king Monday, said a source BRUSSELS - Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme offered his government's resignation to the king Monday after talks between Flemish and French-speakers on new reforms failed, a source close to the government said. "He will present his government's resignation," the source told AFP under cover of anonymity. "It's an admission of a complete deadlock on community questions, combined with the fact the government will not be able to present an agreement on reforming the state by 15 July," as Leterme had promised, the source said. Leterme only...

Seventeen women have been taken by police from a luxury hotel in Brussels amid allegations that they had been enslaved by an Arab royal family. Police officers and officials from Belgium's Labour Audit Authority raided the Conrad Hotel, the city's most prestigious and the preferred choice of many national leaders during European Union summits, on Tuesday evening. The operation was triggered by the apparent escape of a maid who was among 20 servants working for the widow of a senior royal figure from the United Arab Emirates and her four daughters who have rented the entire fourth floor of the...

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 2, 2008 – Absenteeism, corruption, low pay, lack of equipment and weapons, and a high casualty rate are just some reasons policemen show up at the Jalalabad Regional Training Center in Afghanistan. The goal for them is to avoid these situations. An Afghan police instructor shows a police trainee how to properly turn and arm himself at the Jalabad Regional Training Center, one of seven RTCs located throughout Afghanistan. The eight-week training gives the police the basics of police operations to include proper arrest procedures, human rights, Afghan laws, and corruption issues. More than 52,000 police...

Rape by gangs of immigrants is an assertion of dominance, and in that sense it is a political act. It says, “We are in charge here, and we do as we please with non-Muslims. No one may stop us; we operate with impunity.” There’s been a lot of talk here recently about the increased incidence of rapes, many of them committed by Muslim immigrants, in both Europe and Australia. We’ve highlighted the situation in Sweden, Norway, and Britain. Now it’s time to look at Belgium as well. If the Belgium government fails to prove such assertions wrong, then immigrant-dominated areas...

European air force bases that store U.S. nuclear bombs are failing to meet basic security requirements to safeguard the weapons, according to a report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The U.S. keeps an estimated 350 thermonuclear bombs in six NATO countries. In four of those — Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands — the weapons are stored at the host nation's air bases, where they are guarded by specially trained U.S. military personnel. But according to an internal U.S. Air Force report, the sites are falling short of Department of Defense requirements, with fencing and security systems in...

Google defeated in Belgian copyright case; everyone but Google loses By Ken Fisher | Published: February 13, 2007 - 11:48AM CT The group of disgruntled newspapers in Belgium that sued Google for copyright infringement has emerged victorious after a decision was granted in their favor today in court. The judgment echoes a previous ruling from the Court of First Instance in Brussels that found Google in violation of copyright law when the company published extracts of articles from Belgian newspaper publishers. Copiepresse, the Belgium copyright group representing the nearly 20 papers scandalized by Google News, now gets its wish: Google...

BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 13, 2008 – NATO has made significant progress in Afghanistan, and the alliance now needs to deliver on the goals the alliance’s heads of state set when they met in April, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. Gates spoke during a news conference at NATO headquarters following two days of meetings with NATO defense ministers. Alliance heads of state agreed at their Bucharest, Romania summit in April that more capabilities are needed at the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. They also promised to field all the troops the NATO operations plan calls for....

BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 13, 2008 – It was going to be a typical NATO defense ministers working dinner until Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates threw away his script. Gates spoke from his heart last night during a dinner at which ministers discussed the NATO mission in Afghanistan. According to a U.S. official who was there and later spoke with reporters on background, Gates “was on fire.” The secretary had a 10-page speech prepared, but that went out the window as he began to speak. Gates started by saying he is particularly impassioned about Afghanistan “because in May, U.S. casualties in...

BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 12, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and fellow NATO defense ministers will discuss alliance operations in Afghanistan, the alliance missile defense program, and transition plans for Kosovo during a two-day ministerial beginning here today. The ministers will focus on how NATO nations are moving toward implementing decisions the member nations’ heads of state reached at the alliance’s April summit in Bucharest, Romania, a senior defense official speaking on background told reporters traveling with Gates. Afghanistan will dominate much of the conference, the official said. Gates will participate in meetings centered on NATO’s Regional Command South...

Excerpt - Anheuser-Busch Inc. confirmed it has received an unsolicited $65 per share offer from Belgian brewer InBev to buy the iconic American brewer. With more than 713 million shares outstanding, the bid is valued at more than $46.3 billion. Anheuser-Busch's board of directors will evaluate the proposal and make its decision to InBev's proposal in due course. The brewer of Budweiser and Bud Light said that its board of directors will act in the best interests of the company's stockholders. Anheuser-Busch is the dominant domestic competitor of Miller Brewing Co., of Milwaukee. ~ snip ~

Belgium's dwindling churches to be converted into mosques By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels Last Updated: 12:38AM BST 09/06/2008 Churches in Belgium are to be turned into mosques as Christian congregations decline while Muslims demand more places to worship. Philip Heylen, Antwerp's deputy mayor, has called on the city to "break the taboo" over the many empty and unused churches. "It's a looming issue yet it seems impossible to have a debate about this," he said. "Churches were built as places of worship and they should not be used as shopping malls. We've had a positive response from members of the...

There has been an outcry in Belgium over a proposal to convert little-used churches into mosques. A senior official in Antwerp argues too many of the city's churches stand empty most of the time and he has put forward suggestions to convert them into mosques to benefit the city's large Muslim population. Philip Heylen, who is deputy-mayor, says he wants to "break the taboo" over the future of the city's churches, many of which have dwindling and ageing congregations. He shrugs: "It's a looming issue yet it seems impossible to have a debate about this, churches were built as places...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

BRUSSELS — On the street, Malika El Aroud is anonymous in an Islamic black veil covering all but her eyes. In her living room, Ms. El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY. But it is on the Internet where Ms. El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name “Oum Obeyda,” she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe. She calls...

BRUSSELS - Nearly 200 youngsters were detained during riots in the Brussels borough of Anderlecht on Friday evening where immigrant youngsters clashed with supporters of Anderlecht Football Club. Fourteen police officers were injured. Two are still receiving medical treatment. Twelve rioters were also hurt. Most of the youngsters were minors and were released in the course of the night. Earlier in the week, immigrant youngsters used the Internet to unveil their plans to fight with Anderlecht supporters. There was a massive police presence in the Brussels borough of Anderlecht. The police were deployed between the two groups in an attempt...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Two Belgian beer fans have launched a video game named 'Place to pee', which allows players to slalom down ski slopes or kill aliens while relieving themselves at urinals. Werner Dupont, a software developer, and Bart Geraets, an electrical engineer, got the idea while drinking Belgian trappist beers, they told Reuters Television at a local festival on Sunday. "This thing had to be invented by Belgian people and that's what we are," they said. The 'Place to pee' booth is designed for two users at a time and offers two games -- blowing up aliens in outer...

dd India and Belgium to the list of countries worried about attacks coming from China. Officials from both countries warned the public over the past week that online attacks -- appearing to come from the People's Republic of China (PRC) -- have targeted their government networks. Unnamed Indian officials told the Times of India that almost daily probes have focused on mapping and scanning India's official networks over the past 18 months. The Justice Minister of Belgium warned that e-mail attacks, aimed at compromising government computers, appear to be coming from China, according to a United Press International report.

Attacks on nuclear power stations, oil and gas terminals, Canary Wharf and Heathrow’s control tower were being considered by leaders of the plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-flight, a court was told yesterday. Documents found on computer memory sticks at the home of an alleged terrorist ringleader contained a list of targets across Britain – including the gas pipeline between Britain and Belgium. The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised. Peter Wright, QC,...

A 62-year-old policeman was trying to stop the fight between the youths and other passengers where he received heavy blows to his head, stomach and neck. ANTWERP - Following the bus incident in Antwerp on Tuesday where a 62-year-old policeman was badly injured, three young suspects have been taken in. The incident, which took place on Tuesday, saw a group of young migrants got into an argument with the couple sitting next to them on the bus. A fight ensued and the bus driver and one of the other passengers, a plain clothes policeman, came to their rescue. In doing...

The Austrian authorities have indicted politician Susanne Winter on charges of incitement and degradation of religious symbols and religious agitation. This offence carries a maximum sentence of two years. Last January, Ms Winter said that the prophet Muhammad was “a child molester” because he had married a six-year-old girl. She also said he was “a warlord” who had written the Koran during “epileptic fits.”The politician, a member of the Austrian Freedom Party FPÖ, an anti-immigration party which is in opposition, added that Islam is “a totalitarian system of domination that should be cast back to its birthplace on the other...

IN a departure from Belgium’s usually reverent treatment of its royalty, the illegitimate daughter of King Albert II is about to publish a book attacking him for disowning her. The autobiography of Delphine Boël, an artist, will be published next month and coincides with an exhibition of her work expressing bitterness towards the king. Some are accusing her of an anti-royalist plot to undermine a divided country but Boël, 40, insists that her grievances are merely a family matter. “We’ve never had a big-time daddy-daughter relationship,” she said last week in her Brussels studio. “The last time I saw him...

Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

Teenagers should be given the right to medically assisted suicide and the parents of terminally ill younger children should be able to choose euthanasia under proposals from members of Belgium's coalition government. The plans to extend rules allowing doctors to perform euthanasia on terminally ill people suffering "constant and unbearable physical or psychological pain" comes amid heated Belgian debate on the issue. Under existing Belgian laws, in place since 2002, patients, other than newborn babies, must be over 18 to qualify for assisted suicide, a situation that Bart Tommelein, leader of Belgium Liberals, wants changed. Mr Tommelein, whose party is...

It's taken nine months, but now the political crisis in Belgium appears finally to have been resolved. Following a final, marathon round of negotiations, a coalition agreement has emerged which has the - somewhat hesitant - approval of the five parties which will form the country's next government. With that agreement finalised, the next step will follow swiftly with the swearing in this Thursday, 20 March 2008, of the members of the new cabinet by Albert II, King of the Belgians. At the point, current caretaker Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt will make way for his successor, Flemish Christian Democrat politician...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

LONDON - As doctors struggle to eradicate polio worldwide, one of their biggest problems is persuading parents to vaccinate their children. In Belgium, authorities are resorting to an extreme measure: prison sentences. Two sets of parents in Belgium were recently handed five-month prison terms for failing to vaccinate their children against polio. Each parent was also fined $8,000. "It's a pretty extraordinary case," said Dr. Ross Upshur, director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. "The Belgians have a right to take some action against the parents, given the seriousness of polio, but the question is,...

Rabat - Belgian police officers are in Morocco to investigate a suspect who has confessed to murdering six prominent figures in Belgium in the 1980s. Abdelkader Belliraj, a Moroccan national, was arrested in Morocco last month together with dozens of other suspects regarded as the leading members of al-Qaeda in Morocco. His victims in Belgium are thought to include a cleric at the Great Mosque in Brussels and a leading member of the Jewish community. He also worked since 2000 as an informer for the Belgian secret service and possibly the CIA. Since Rabat never extradites Moroccan nationals, it is...

A Belgian man set out to trace one Minnesota soldier's story, from Minneapolis to the Battle of the Bulge. How long has it been since anyone thought of Albert Cobb Martin? Full of promise, the Army first lieutenant and Yale graduate from Minneapolis was 24 when he died in World War II. His mother and father died a few years later. Bert, as he was called, was an only child. Most of his classmates and all of his close relatives are gone. But half a world away, the Vandeberg family of Belgium won't forget his sacrifice. They never knew Martin,...

Geert Wilders, popular MP whose film on Islam fuelled debate on race in Holland, wants an end to mosque building & Muslim immigration. .. adores Thatcher... 'Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology,' - Wilders, a lanky Roman Catholic, 'the ideology of a retarded culture.' ..a crash course in Koranic study. Likening the Islamic text to Hitler's Mein Kampf, wants 'fascist Koran' outlawed.. all immigration from Muslim countries halted, Muslim immigrants paid to leave & all Muslim 'criminals' stripped of Dutch citizenship and deported 'back where they came from'.. 'I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. ...Swiss...

ANTWERP (EJP)---The Mayor of the Belgian city of Bruges has asked for an inquiry after an American Jewish tourist was ousted from a café-restaurant because he was wearing a kippa or skullcap. On a visit to Bruges two weeks ago, Marcel Kalmann, a 64-year-old US professor, entered Le Panier d’Or, a renowned café-restaurant located on the main city square, to have a coffee. When the waiter saw his kippa under his hat, he told him to get out. “We are not serving Jews, out of here,� he allegedly shouted. In shock, the man went to another café nearby where the owners helped...

Brussels - Belgium is going to deploy 100 soldiers and four F-16 fighter planes in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. For four months starting in September, the Belgian forces will support Dutch troops stationed in the Afghan province. The move comes in response to a NATO call for more troops to be deployed in Afghanistan. At the moment, Belgium has 360 soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them at Kabul airport. Germany has rejected a more recent United States call for more troops to be deployed in war-torn southern Afghhanistan. In an unusually frank letter, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had urged his...

Rightist EU politicians plan new party By ASSOCIATED PRESS Far-right politicians from four EU nations have announced plans to form a pan-European "patriotic" party, the BBC reported on Saturday. The leader of far-right parties from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and France said their aim was to defend Europe against "Islamisation" and immigrants. At a news conference in Vienna, they said they planned to launch the party by November 15. In Vienna, the heads of Austria's Freedom Party, Belgium's Vlaams Belang, Bulgaria's Ataka and the French National Front said the new party would be a counter-balance to other political forces in Europe,...

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Five men were convicted Thursday on charges of belonging to a terrorist group that sent fighters to Iraq, including a Belgian woman who blew herself up in an attack on U.S. troops north of Baghdad in November 2005. Bilal Soughir, 34, who prosecutors said was the leader of the group, was given a maximum 10-year sentence by the court's three judges. Police and prosecutors said Soughir was responsible for communicating with terrorists in Iraq. The other four were given sentences of 28 months in jail. A sixth member of the group who did not face terrorism charges...

Bomb alerts disrupt train traffic throughout Belgium; no ... PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria - Jan 4, 2008 AP BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Bomb alerts disrupted train traffic in four Belgian towns Friday. Several train stations were closed and searched, ... http://www.pr-inside.com/bomb-alerts-disrupt-train-traffic-throughout-r371839.htm

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Belgium's political tensions entered the glamour stakes after it was revealed that the new Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch. Belgium's political tensions entered the glamour stakes after it was revealed that the new Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch. Alizee Poulicek, who comes from the country's French-speaking region, was booed at the contest by some of the 4,000 audience when she admitted that she could not understand a question put to her in Dutch. Alizee Poulicek, who comes from the country's French-speaking region, was booed by some of the 4,000 audience when she admitted that she...

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Belgian authorities on Saturday released 14 suspects detained over an alleged plot to free an al-Qaida prisoner after a court decided there was insufficient evidence to hold them for more than 24 hours, the Federal Prosecutor's office said. ADVERTISEMENT The government's Crisis Center said the investigation was not over. And Lieve Pellens, spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, said tightened anti-terrorism measures triggered by the arrest of the suspected Islamic militants on Friday would remain in place over the holidays. "We think there is still a threat," Pellens said in a telephone interview. Police picked up the 14...

Fourteen people arrested in Belgium on suspicion of plotting to free a convicted al-Qaeda member from jail have been released without charge. The suspects were released for lack of evidence after 24 hours in custody. They were suspected of plotting to free Tunisian national Nizar Trabelsi, jailed in Belgium in 2003 for planning to attack US targets. In spite of the releases, the interior ministry said heightened security measures would remain in place. The federal prosecutor's office said searches at suspects' homes had yielded no explosives, weapons or other evidence to persuade the court to keep them in jail. "According...

Belgium foils al-Qaeda jailbreak Trabelsi said he had met Bin Laden Fourteen people have been arrested in Belgium after authorities foiled a plot to free an al-Qaeda member arrested in September 2001, officials say.The suspects, detained in police raids, were described as Islamic militants. They were seeking to free Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi, jailed in Belgium for planning to attack US targets. An official said the plot involved explosives and that security was being stepped up in the capital over fears of a "possible attack". Belgium hosts the main European Union institutions and Nato headquarters, as well as a raft...

Belgium arrests 14 in terrorist plot By RAF CASERT, Associated Press Writer BRUSSELS, Belgium - Belgian police Friday arrested 14 Muslim extremists suspected of planning the jailbreak of an al-Qaida prisoner convicted of plotting a terrorist attack on U.S. air base personnel, officials said. Extra police were deployed across the capital at airports, subway stations and other public places. The U.S. Embassy warned Americans of "a heightened risk of terrorist attack in Brussels," although it had no indication of any American targets. Police arrested the 14 in all-night raids across the country and discovered arms and explosives apparently intended for...