http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/belgium/ en-us Wed, 9 Dec 2009 23:53:19 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404139/posts BRUSSELS, December 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Belgian judge has decide not to prosecute a doctor specializing in euthanasia after he was accused of murdering a woman who came to him seeking death, but who was not terminally ill.Dr. Marc Cosyns of Ghent euthanized the 88-year-old woman on January 5, 2008 after her own doctor had opposed the request for euthanasia. It was reported that the woman had an incurable disease that was not terminal and suffered from several other ailments.The woman's son filed a complaint with the public prosecutor after he learned of Dr. Cosyns part in his mother's... LifeSiteNews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404139/posts#comment Wed, 9 Dec 2009 23:53:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2398075/posts CHIÈVRES, Belgium, Dec. 1, 2009 – Sixty-five years after World War II's landmark Battle of the Bulge, U.S. and Belgian troops will again march side by side in Bastogne on Dec. 12 and 13. Veterans and servicemembers from both nations are scheduled to join thousands of well-wishers, including town officials, dignitaries and local residents, in commemorating the Allied forces' victory in the famous World War II battle. "The traditional carnival-like atmosphere in Bastogne over the weekend celebrates the historic grit and determination of our two nations' veterans 65 years ago, and the solemn ceremony at the Mardasson Memorial overlooking the... America Supports You http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2398075/posts#comment Wed, 2 Dec 2009 01:44:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2393274/posts Note: The following text is a quote: Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, November 23, 2009 Arms Dealer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Supply U.S. Fighter Jet Engines to Iran Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian national and resident of France suspected of international arms dealing for decades, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama to conspiracy to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the Untied States to Iran. Monsieur along with Dara Fotouhi, aka Dara Fatouhi, an Iranian national currently living in France, was charged in a... US DOJ.gov - JUSTICE.gov/opa - Press Release http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2393274/posts#comment Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:18:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2389703/posts The poetry-loving favourite to become the first president of Europe, Herman Van Rompuy, is also a hard-line opponent of Turkey's bid to join the European Union because it is an Islamic country. Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's Prime Minister, has in the past spoken out against Turkish EU membership because, he warned, it would dilute Europe's Christian heritage. His position on the issue is so strong that he has won the support of Vlaams Belang, the controversial far-right Flemish anti-immigrant party in Belgium. The Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2389703/posts#comment Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:14:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387675/posts Escaping the Nazis By: JOHN MULLANE Bucks County Courier Times The memories haunt Danny Goldsmith. Chill night. Nazi troopers storming his street in Belgium, pounding on doors, smashing them. He, his mother and baby sister, Lillian, hid on a rooftop as the beam of a German soldier's flashlight swept past them. It was 1942. He was 10. "At one point, I peeked over the cornice and saw our Jewish neighbors being dragged into the street in their night clothes and put in trucks," he said to a packed room this week in Arlington, Va. His parents' wedding photo was on... Bucks County Courier Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387675/posts#comment Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:30:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2361737/posts Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, October 9, 2009 United States Transfers Two Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Kuwait and Belgium WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice today announced that two detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the governments of Kuwait and Belgium. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, these detainees were approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. In accordance with Congressionally-mandated... US DOJ.gov/opa - Press Release http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2361737/posts#comment Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:05:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2353691/posts SNIPPET: "Arabic language schools in Nasr City are doing well and many Salafists come to Egypt in to learn the language of the Koran. Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?" SNIPPET: "In addition to language lessons, they usually follow courses in Islamic law offered by teachers ranging from the renowned Al-Azhar University to clandestine imams without permits. "Religious fanatics want to be taken seriously," says Walid al-Gohari, founder and director of the Al-Fajr institute,... SPIEGEL.de http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2353691/posts#comment Fri, 2 Oct 2009 20:05:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2347062/posts "Moroccan police arrest 24 from network coordinating with jihadists "in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone"" SNIPPET: "The security services in Morocco have arrested 24 members of a "terrorist network" linked to Al-Qaeda that recruited volunteers for suicide bombings in Iraq, the interior ministry said Wednesday. In a statement carried by the official MAP news agency, it said the network -- coordinating "with terrorists in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone" -- also sought recruits for Al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan and Somalia. The suspects -- now being questioned by police -- were arrested in several cities in Morocco, said... (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, September 23, 2009) via JIHAD WATCH.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2347062/posts#comment Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:40:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2343183/posts Nine police agents were injured in riots Thursday evening in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek. One agent was seriously injured. The violence began during the arrest of a 14 year old who had badgered and taunted the police over the previous days. Two minors were meanwhile arrested. The two minors threw various projectiles at the police yesterday evening and resisted their arrest. They are now being brought to the magistrate. The prosecution wants to arrest them. The minor for whom the riots began needs to show up by a youth court. For several days the 14 year old had badgered... Islam in Europe http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2343183/posts#comment Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:13:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2339648/posts THIMISTER-CLERMONT, Belgium -- Many war monuments grace the Belgian landscape. In cities and small villages, near border points and sleepy country crossroads, they mostly honor the successes and sacrifices of World War II. Another monument was unveiled the other day, and this one doesn't commemorate a great battle or an opportunistic unit. Instead, it pays tribute to what some people believe is an often overlooked war asset -- animals. Military.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2339648/posts#comment Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:24:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2330984/posts Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, 41, is taking legal action claiming Hergé's controversial Tintin In The Congo is propaganda for colonialism and amounts to "racism and xenophobia". "Tintin's little (black) helper is seen as stupid and without qualities. It makes people think that blacks have not evolved," he said. Mr Mbutu Mondondo launched a case in Belgium two years ago for symbolic damages of one euro from Tintin's Belgian publishers Moulinsart, and demanded the book be withdrawn from the market. telegraph.co.uk http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2330984/posts#comment Thu, 3 Sep 2009 04:05:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2330753/posts Note: The following text is a quote: International Arms Dealer Arrested for Conspiracy to Supply U.S. Fighter Jet Engines to Iran Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian national and resident of France suspected of international arms dealing for decades, has been arrested on charges alleging that he conspired to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the United States to Iran. Monsieur is scheduled to have his arraignment today in federal court in Mobile, Alabama. A six-count indictment returned on Aug. 27, 2009, in the Southern District of Alabama charging Monsieur, 56, and co-defendant Dara Fotouhi, aka Dara Fatouhi, 54,... US DOJ.gov/opa - Press Release http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2330753/posts#comment Wed, 2 Sep 2009 22:08:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2309131/posts BRUSSELS, Belgium, Aug. 5, 2009 – The Atomium monument is an iconic landmark of Brussels. Made in the shape of an iron crystal’s unit cell, it was built as a centerpiece for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, and has remained standing long after the fair's closing. Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan James is promoted during a ceremony at U.S. Army Garrison Brussels, Belgium, where the noncommissioned officer is known for his accomplishments. U.S. Army photo by Thad Moyseowicz  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan James, installation provost sergeant for U.S Army Garrison Brussels, first became conscious of... Face of Defence http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2309131/posts#comment Wed, 5 Aug 2009 22:56:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2308422/posts It was around 11 p.m. when armed men burst into Kazungu Ziwa’s hut, put a machete to his throat and yanked down his pants. Mr. Ziwa is a tiny man, about four feet, six inches tall. He tried to fight back, but said he was quickly beaten down.“Then they raped me,” he said. “It was horrible, physically. I was dizzy. My thoughts just left me.” For years, the thickly forested hills and clear, deep lakes of eastern Congo have been a reservoir of atrocities. Now, it seems, there is another growing problem: men raping men. -- Aid workers struggle to... The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2308422/posts#comment Wed, 5 Aug 2009 02:20:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2291763/posts Two Pakistani brothers were being held in custody in Belgium on murder charges, a magistrate said Friday, on suspicion that they carried out an honour killing. Brussels - Hammad Raza Syed and his brother Hassan were charged with "deprivation of liberty and murder" over the death of Hammad's wife Claudi Lalembaidje, a 32-year-old Belgian woman of Chadian origin. The woman's beaten body was found on June 29 in a suitcase in a canal in northern France. A funeral service was held for her in Brussels on Friday. The magistrate said the two men had denied the killing, and that a... Expatica http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2291763/posts#comment Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:42:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1356414/posts From Gloucester to Afghanistan: the making of a shoe bomber Saajid Badat this week pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up a plane. What drove this quiet football fan to thoughts of terror? Mark Honigsbaum and Vikram Dodd Saturday March 5, 2005 The Guardian He seemed the model British Muslim citizen - a poster boy for integration whose knowledge of the Qu'ran and achievement at grammar school made Gloucester's close-knit Islamic community proud. When in November 2003 anti-terrorist police turned up at the terraced house in the Barton and Tredworth district of the city that Saajid Badat shared with his... Guardian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1356414/posts#comment Sat, 5 Mar 2005 04:07:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/955085/posts BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair will be able to visit Brussels without fear of arrest after Belgium voted to scrap a controversial war crimes law under strong U.S. pressure. A large majority of the lower house of parliament passed a bill late on Tuesday quashing the universal jurisdiction law, under which cases were launched against Bush, Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The law soured diplomatic relations between Brussels and Washington after complaints were filed against high-ranking U.S. officials on allegations of war crimes during the war in Iraq. That... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/955085/posts#comment Wed, 30 Jul 2003 13:40:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/848662/posts BRUSSELS — Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut has hit out at The Wall Street Journal over an article that said Belgian soldiers could "only fight their own bad breath" and that the army is little more than a way of providing employment. Flahaut attacked the US newspaper company for what he described as negative reporting. He conceded the Belgian government helps Belgians to find work, and added that this is something that cannot be said of all US nationals. He also attacked the reporter, saying: "I see you as a caricature, not worthy to be a journalist." He added that... Expatica.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/848662/posts#comment Fri, 21 Feb 2003 16:07:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1981710/posts BANGKOK, Thailand - A Russian dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for allegedly supplying weapons to Africa's bloody conflicts over power and diamonds was arrested Thursday in Thailand on suspicion of conspiring to smuggle guns to Colombia's leftist rebels. Viktor Bout, 41, whose dealings reportedly inspired a 2005 movie about the illicit arms trade, was arrested at U.S. request in his hotel room in Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan. Bout had eluded arrest for years and was finally seized after a four-month sting organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In New York, federal authorities unsealed a criminal complaint... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1981710/posts#comment Fri, 7 Mar 2008 02:46:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/928481/posts BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian police on Friday arrested a man suspected of trying to blow up a synagogue in what could be the latest in a string of anti-Jewish attacks across Europe linked to violence in the Middle East.Jules Mathieu, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office, said the man was suspected of having placed five gas bottles in a car and torching it in front of the synagogue in a densely populated area of the southern town of Charleroi.There was no explosion and the blaze was rapidly put out by firefighters based nearby.Several synagogues and Jewish buildings in European... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/928481/posts#comment Fri, 13 Jun 2003 15:56:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740019/posts It is rare to get an insider's perspective on the emergence of al-Qaeda. It is also rare to get a glimpse of the world of spies and agents. To provide both is incredibly unusual. Omar Nasiri - not his real name but one chosen to protect his identity - says he spent seven years working as an agent for European intelligence services and as an al-Qaeda operative, part of the time in the UK. He provides a unique insight into how al-Qaeda was far more organised, coherent and determined in the 1990s than was appreciated at the time. Jihad militants... BBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740019/posts#comment Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:13:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2266747/posts Tomorrow, public officials in the Flemish city of Ghent will observe a new weekly “holiday” that’s been making international headlines: “Veggiedag.” Civil servants and elected politicians will eat meatless meals, and the streets will be littered with city-sponsored anti-meat ads. Now that the people of Ghent have two Veggie Days under their belt, we’ve been curious to know how the weekly anti-meat parade is catching on. And according to this TIME magazine report, the answer is “very slowly.” Eben Harrell describes the scene in Ghent last Thursday: While most restaurants owners and residents I spoke to had heard of Veggie Day, few had any... ConsumerFreedom.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2266747/posts#comment Sun, 7 Jun 2009 20:02:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2259684/posts TG-149 May 27, 2009 Treasury Targets Hizballah Network in Africa SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON- The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated Kassim Tajideen and Abd Al Menhem Qubaysi, two Africa-based supporters of the Hizballah terrorist organization, under E.O. 13224. E.O. 13224 targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism by freezing any assets the designees have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with them. "We will continue to take steps to protect the financial system from the threat posed by Hizballah and those who support it," said Under Secretary for Terrorism... TREAS.GOV - United States Department of the Treasury http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2259684/posts#comment Thu, 28 May 2009 10:57:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2258880/posts Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 14 04:31 PM Age: 11 hrs By: Urged by a senior al-Qaeda ideologue to take over Pakistan, members of jihadi internet forums have begun to examine the possibility of controlling Pakistan’s nuclear weapons (al-faloja1.com, April 24). At the same time, jihadis continue to collect information on nuclear facilities around the globe, especially Israel’s nuclear projects, waiting for an opportunity to perpetrate successful terrorist attacks against these facilities after massive terrorist attacks using conventional weapons failed to give rise to the global supremacy of Islamic law (al-faloja1.com, April 22). On March 14, al-Fajr Media Center... Jamestown Foundation http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2258880/posts#comment Wed, 27 May 2009 07:57:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2258624/posts May 26, 2009 On May 24, 2009, Egyptian security forces announced that they had arrested seven members of a terror cell [1] which, according to the confession of one of its members, had carried out the February 22, 2009 attack in Khan Al-Khalili. According to the announcement, the cell had ties to Al-Qaeda and to the Gaza salafi group Jaysh Al-Islam. [2] One of the captured terrorists, a Belgian national, confessed that he was supposed to travel to Belgium, make contact with Al-Qaeda operatives, and accompany them to France in order to prepare attacks there. The cell was also supposed... MEMRI.org - Special Dispatch - No. 2370 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2258624/posts#comment Tue, 26 May 2009 22:08:37 GMT