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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...

Excerpt - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian authorities plan to step up security measures following a terrorist threat, officials said on Friday. They made the announcement at a news conference held by the Belgian federal prosecutors and the country's crisis coordination centre. ~ snip ~

Brussels (17 December 2007) - Belgium's outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has agreed to King Albert's request to form an interim government. The king wants the prime minister to address the most urgent issues, including negotiations on important institutional reforms. Belgium is divided into French-speaking Wallonia in the south and Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north. Parliamentary elections were held in Belgium on 10 June, but so far no coalition has been formed because the French-language and Dutch-language parties have been unable to reach agreement. Mr Verhofstadt has suggested forming a government, consisting of a Christian Democratic-Labour bloc representing the Walloon...

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The head of Belgium's Flemish Christian Democrats on Saturday abandoned efforts to form a coalition government, after more than five months of fruitless talks, plunging the country further into crisis. Yves Leterme announced his decision to Belgian King Albert II after the two Dutch-speaking Flemish and two francophone parties involved in talks failed to bridge their differences over devolving more power to the regions. His move, swiftly accepted by the king, deepens the political crisis in the country where some are even talking of a possible split between the richer Flemish majority to the north and the...

Brussels (1 December) - The head of Belgium's Flemish Christian Democrats Yves Leterme has announced that he is unable to form a coalition government. King Albert II has accepted his resignation as coalition negotiator. Mr Leterme resigned after the French-speaking Christian Democrats rejected a proposal which would lead to greater regional autonomy. Belgium's political parties have been attempting to form a government since elections were held in June.

GHENT - Belgium's third largest city Ghent has banned its employees from wearing Muslim headscarves and other religious or political symbols. The proposal by the Flemish liberal party was approved in the city council by 26 votes to 23. All city personnel, such as librarians and child care workers, will not be allowed to wear such garments or symbols if they come into contact with the public. The council voted 26 to 23 late on Monday for the ban, with the Liberals, Christian Democrats and far-right Vlaams Belang in favour and the socialists and Greens against. "It is really not...

To continue the literary analogy, consider the library at Belgium's Leuven University. Make that two libraries. German armies had burned down Leuven's library in the two world wars, and it was rebuilt after each. But then in 1970, the last time the Flemings and the Walloons got seriously restive, the million-volume collection was carved into two: Odd-numbered books remained on the original campus in the Dutch-speaking part of the country, while even-numbered books went to a new Francophone school built in a field 17 miles to the south. Thirty-seven years later, Belgium's national identity is still so elusive, so fragile...

Mohamed is the no 1 name chosen by parents for their new babies since 2001 in Bruxelles, the center of the European Union. The second name are Adam, and then Hamza, Ayub, Rayan, Mehdi and Amine - all muslims. It shows the new muslism domination in european demography. In the top 100 names chosen for new babies, about 1/2 are foreign names, most of them muslims. Eurabia is born.

A Battle Rages in London Over a Mega-Mosque Plan By JANE PERLEZ Published: November 4, 2007 LONDON — Disputes over mosques have broken out across Europe. Residents from Belgium to France to Germany have expressed unease at minarets competing in the urban landscape with the spires and stones of centuries-old cathedrals.

Europe’s no-go zones or SUAs (“sensitive urban areas”) are multiplying. These are areas where the police no longer dares to venture and where Islamists hold sway. Every night since the beginning of last week, immigrant youths have been torching cars and clashing with police in Amsterdam’s Slotervaart district. The incidents started on Oct. 14 when a policewoman shot dead Bilal Bajaka, a 22-year old ethnic Moroccan, whilst he was stabbing her and a colleague with a knife. The officers were stabbed in the breast, face, neck and back. Surgeons could only narrowly save their lives. Since the incident, Slotervaart has...

One hundred and three days after their general election, life goes on in Belgium. People go to work, they meet their friends, the beer is world class, the food is good, folks go about life as they always have. And there is still no government. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20841339/) Hopefully the country will provide an inspirational example to the rest of the EU and split under the pressure caused by increasing Flemish unwillingness to pay the parasitic leftists who dominate Wallonia. Of course things might get messy but more likely it will be a velvet divorce... but the really interesting thing for me...

Belgium, it is business as usual. Trains run, the prime minister greets visiting foreign leaders, social security benefits are paid and the country’s famed bureaucracy functions unabated. If everything seems normal, it is – bar one glitch. Belgium has no new government, 101 days after a general election. Since it won independence in 1830, the country has had trouble keeping itself together. Now, concerns are growing that the Franco-phone Walloons of the south and the Dutch-speaking Flemings in the north will finally split. While Belgium bears few visible scars of political impasse, disagreements over state reform have left negotiators unable...

By Jasper Copping Last Updated: 1:29am BST 16/09/2007 He was a young man, like so many others, who fell on the battlefield at Passchendaele. Aged just 29, Private Jack Hunter died in the arms of his younger brother, Jim, who buried him there, on the front line, in a shallow grave. Jack Hunter, who died at Passchendaele, with his brother Jim Jack Hunter, who died in the first world war, with his brother Jim Once the guns had fallen silent, Jim returned to look for his brother's body, but the ground had been chewed up by artillery and he could...

The story of the week wasn't Gen. David Petraeus' testimony on Iraq, although it dominated the headlines. The story of the week wasn't the sixth return of September 11 since the jihad atrocity of 2001, although it inspired many public statements and ceremonies. The week's biggest story garnered little press and few comments. But, in a significant way, this overlooked story — an outrageous display of police force in Brussels on September 11, 2007 — symbolizes the missing link in our flawed comprehension of both Iraq and September 11. There, in the so-called capital of Europe, 200 people marked the...

It was not just the events taking place in Brussels on September 11th 2007 that indicated the end of democracy in Europe. Rather, the manhandling and arrest of passive, besuited, middle-aged men was simply the final statement — after a long history of incremental authoritarianism — by our ruling socialist elites that a new totalitarian order now controls an entire continent. What took place yesterday should be viewed from several different angles. To fundamental Islam it was a great fillip to their dream of a global caliphate, to the supporters of SIOE it was not the success we had hoped...

I just returned home from the anti-Islamization demonstration in Brussels. The Belgian police beat up the peaceful demonstrators in what even the Belgian public television call "an extremely violent fashion." Here are some video images. The grey-haired man whom we see being attacked by the police first is Luk Van Nieuwenhuysen, the Vice-President of the Flemish Parliament. Shortly afterwards we see the police maltreating Frank Vanhecke, a member of the European Parliament and the party leader of the Vlaams Belang. We see how he is handcuffed and pushed into a police bus. Afterwards we also see the police "taking care"...

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Police arrested two leaders of a Belgian far-right party Tuesday for staging an illegal protest against the "Islamization of Europe," six years to the day after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. A group wearing t-shirts which read "Stop Islamization" protest during a demonstration regarding what some believe as the Islamization of Europe in Brussels, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2007. Demonstrations were banned by the Belgian government on Tuesday and those who took part were arrested. (AP Photo/Thierry Charlier)

I just returned home from the anti-Islamization demonstration in Brussels. The Belgian police beat up the peaceful demonstrators in what even the Belgian public television call "an extremely violent fashion." Here are some video images. The grey-haired man whom we see being attacked by the police first is Luk Van Nieuwenhuysen, the Vice-President of the Flemish Parliament. Shortly afterwards we see the police maltreating Frank Vanhecke, a member of the European Parliament and the party leader of the Vlaams Belang. We see how he is handcuffed and pushed into a police bus. Afterwards we also see the police "taking care"...

BRUSSELS – Police in Brussels arrested some 50 people in the European district of the capital Tuesday afternoon, among them Filip Dewinter and Frank Vanhecke of the far-right Vlaams Belang party. The officers arrested demonstrators who were taking part in protest against the "Islamisation of Europe," after the event was banned. One of the organisers had called on people to attend the rally despite the ban, without much success it appears. Filip Dewinter, the faction leader of the Vlaams Belang in the Flemish regional Parliament, did show up. Police also arrested party chairman Frank Vanhecke. Some of the other demonstrators...

OTTAWA -- Canadian soldiers and their allies in southern Afghanistan face added risks because some NATO countries are not supplying enough troops and equipment, the head of the alliance's military committee said Thursday. Gen. Ray Henault, formerly Canada's defence chief, also said some NATO members are making it tougher on their comrades in the south by restricting where their troops can operate. With other countries not deploying soldiers to the front lines in Kandahar and its neighbouring southern provinces, Canada and its Dutch, British and U.S. allies are left to face the toughest fighting and heaviest casualties alone. "Shortfalls do...

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — A Belgian prosecutor on Tuesday recommended that the U.S.-based Church of Scientology stand trial for fraud and extortion, following a 10-year investigation that concluded the group should be labeled a criminal organization. Scientology said it would fight the criminal charges recommended by investigating prosecutor Jean-Claude Van Espen, who said that up to 12 unidentified people should face charges. Van Espen's probe also concluded that Scientology's Brussels-based Europe office and its Belgian missions conducted unlawful practices in medicine, violated privacy laws and used illegal business contracts, said Lieve Pellens, a spokeswoman at the Federal Prosecutors Office. "They...

More than ten weeks after the Belgian elections and there is still no government in sight. On 23 August, Mr Yves Leterme, the Christian Democrat who won last June's parliamentary elections and was subsequently charged with forming a new Belgian government, gave his job back. His job was in essence: looking for a workable coalition. Any government in Belgium needs to be a coalition, as no single party is large enough to rule on its own. Mr Leterme was banking on a coalition between two parties from the Dutch speaking north, known as Flanders - and the French speaking south,...

The Arab-European League (AEL), a pro-Hezbollah organization of Arab immigrants in Belgium and the Netherlands, is rallying its members to march in Brussels on 11 September “against Islamophobia and racism in Europe.” The AEL demonstration is a response to the request by the Danish-British-German organization Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) for permission to demonstrate on 9/11 in front of the European Union’s buildings in Brussels against the introduction of Sharia laws in Europe. Two weeks ago the SIOE demonstration was banned by Freddy Thielemans, the mayor of Brussels. According to Mr Thielemans the SIOE demonstration is a criminal offence...

Presented with a request to demonstrate in front of the Eurpean Parliament on September 11, the mayor of Brussels has denied the “Stop Islamisation of Europe” (SIOE), a permit, stating “he cannot guarantee public safety and that he won’t disturb the Islamic section of the population in Brussels.” The SIOE claims he could gather 20'000 people in Bussels to scream against the jihad in Europe. --------------- Translation: 20.000 Europeans want to demonstrate in Brussels against islam An international organisation wants on 11 september 20.000 demonstrators from whole Europe to manifestate as a protest against islam. That brings nervosity in the...

POLICE in Belgium are investigating a possible sighting of the missing British child Madeleine McCann. A woman has told police that she saw an English-speaking woman with a Dutch man and young girl at a cafe in the Belgian town of Tongeren, near Maastricht. ... The witness, a children's therapist, telephoned police but when she returned to her table the three had disappeared, she said. A Tongeren police spokesman said they were treating the sighting "very seriously". A spokesman said: "The woman told us the little girl bore a striking resemblance to Madeleine McCann and was behaving nervously. ...It is...

A SEBEGALESE Muslim cleric deported from Italy as a danger to state security was quoted today as telling a pan-Arab newspaper that he had met three times with Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The cleric, Abdel Qadir Mamour, told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview by telephone from Dakar, Senegal, that he had the meetings with bin Laden in Sudan from 1993 to 1996. Mamour said bin Laden had provided money to finance his trading in diamonds between Africa and Belgium, but did not say how much money was involved or if bin Laden was...

According to a study by the Coma Science Group of the University of Liège, Belgium, up to half the patients in an acute vegetative state regain some level of consciousness. Results of the study are also consistent with previous studies showing that at least 40% of patients deemed to be in a persistent vegetative state are misdiagnosed. “The study showed how very hard it is to disentangle the minimally conscious state from the vegetative state,” says Dr. Steven Laureys. And in cases that health workers diagnosed as minimally conscious, 10% were actually communicating functionally. Comparing past studies on this...

YPRES, Belgium - The summer plowing season in Flanders Fields is a good time for Ivan Sinnaeve. Known as "Shrapnel Charlie," he keeps alive memories of one of history's bloodiest battles by melting down the World War I shells harvested by farmers and transforming them into toy soldiers which he calls "soldiers of peace." The 54-year-old Belgian history buff has a huge following among war pilgrims visiting Flanders Fields, the battleground of 1914-1918. Sinnaeve, a retired carpenter, is busier than usual this year, the 90th anniversary of the phase of fighting called the Battle of Passchendaele which saw some of...