Frank Furedi announces resignation from MCC Brussels after organisation’s staff ‘not paid in July or August’
The head of Viktor Orbán’s favourite Brussels thinktank has quit, citing unpaid wages since the change of government in Hungary.
The sociology professor Frank Furedi said he was resigning as the executive director of MCC Brussels with “immediate effect” on Monday over “persistent failure to provide the contractually agreed funds”.
Continue reading...Nathan Cofnas told by Ghent University to work remotely as US ambassador claims credit for lifting of suspension
Prof Jason Arday’s accuser Nathan Cofnas has been barred from teaching on Ghent University campus for three months but has been allowed to continue his research position.
Cofnas, an American academic, was suspended from his postdoctoral research position at the Belgian institution earlier this month pending a “preliminary investigation” launched after Arday’s death.
Continue reading...Coroner finds 31-year-old deviated from a walking track as dusk fell, four days before the winter solstice
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Overlapping errors, including a lack of preparation in near-freezing winter weather, contributed to the death of a Belgian tourist on a wilderness track.
Celine Cremer set off on a walk at Philosopher Falls in Tasmania’s remote north-west on 17 June 2023 and was reported missing almost 10 days later.
Continue reading...Couple die in Salamis, while multinational forces and local farmers tackle Belgium’s biggest fire in a century near Liège
An elderly couple died in fires on the Greek island of Salamis on Sunday and Belgium is battling its largest modern-day wildfire at an inaccessible area near Germany, in the latest wave of European wildfires.
The couple died outside their home in the Peristeria beach area of Salamis, Greece’s coastguard said. More than 500 people were ordered to evacuate.
Continue reading...Kobe, 18, who made discovery on site of former brewery in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, at first thought trove was €1 coins
For a student with a summer job working on a Belgian building site, “money down the drain” has taken on a whole new meaning: excavating the trenches for a sewage system, he stumbled across a hidden trove of gold worth an estimated €9m (£8m).
“We suddenly saw something lying there,” 18-year-old Kobe told the Belgian news network VTM. “At first I thought it was €1 coins. So we started digging them up. Then we saw a gold bar. It turned out to be a bit more than we thought.”
Continue reading...Flexible short-term bookings used to store and pack drugs and stash weapons and cash, says Ine Van Wymersch
Airbnb-type short-term rentals are being used as stash houses by criminal gangs for money, drugs, weapons and people, Belgium’s lead official in charge of countering drugs has said.
The booming e-commerce sector is helping “enormously” to facilitate organised crime, Belgium’s national drug commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch, said.
Continue reading...Rights campaigners and MEPs say meeting would normalise regime that erases women from public life
Rights campaigners and MEPs have warned that a meeting between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels risks normalising a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity.
A spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry confirmed that a delegation representing the Taliban had travelled to Brussels after the Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas.
Continue reading...Number of countries issue alerts with sustained and rising temperatures expected to present danger to health
Two children aged four and two have been found dead in their family’s car in south-eastern France, the local prosecutor said, as a large swathe of western Europe suffers a ferocious heatwave forecast to shatter absolute temperature records.
“The causes of death are yet to be determined, but the heat is the leading line of inquiry,” said Hélène Mourges, the prosecutor in the town of Carpentras, where the temperature was expected to exceed 39C (102.2F) on Monday afternoon.
Continue reading...Two new rape complaints have been filed against the 67-year-old singer and actor, who denies the claims
French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, facing sexual assault allegations from multiple women, was taken into police custody on Monday, as two new rape complaints were filed against him.
The 67-year-old, a major figure in French pop culture with multiple top-selling albums and more than 40 film appearances, is being questioned about 13 victims, the prosecutor’s office in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said in a statement.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Continue reading...Two children among dead after incident at level crossing near town of Buggenhout in Flanders
An investigation is under way after four people, including two children, were killed when a school minibus collided with a train in northern Belgium.
Five children were injured in the crash at a level crossing near the small town of Buggenhout in Flanders on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Double-sided page featuring a sketch and text sheds new light on the baroque master and his time living in Rome
More than 400 years ago, the up and coming Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens toured the streets of Rome, notebook in hand, sketching images from Renaissance works adorning the city’s churches and palazzos.
Now a rare sheet, thought to be from his Roman sketchbook, has gone on display in his home city of Antwerp, shedding new light on the baroque master.
Continue reading...Étienne Davignon, 93, was last living person targeted in investigation into assassination of DRC’s first PM, Patrice Lumumba
A 93-year-old Belgian former diplomat who became the first person to be charged in the murder of the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba has died before he could stand trial.
The death of Étienne Davignon, an aristocrat who served as a European commissioner during a decades-long career as one of Belgium’s leading diplomats and industrialists, was confirmed by the Jacques Delors Institute thinktank, where he had served on the board.
Continue reading...Singer and actor who has appeared in more than 40 films faces investigations in France and Belgium
The French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, the subject of multiple rape allegations, protested his innocence on Sunday and said he would not step away from his work.
The Paris prosecutor’s office announced earlier on Sunday that Bruel was the subject of at least four complaints of sexual assault in France, and that the cases would be investigated together.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Continue reading...Family of then PM, Patrice Lumumba, welcome decision to charge Étienne Davignon as ‘beginning of a reckoning’
A former Belgian diplomat, 93, should stand trial over alleged complicity in the 1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of what was then the newly independent Congolese state, a Brussels court has ruled.
Étienne Davignon, the only person still alive among 10 Belgians the Lumumba family accuses of involvement in the killing, is charged with participation in war crimes.
The illegal transfer of Lumumba and his associates from Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) to Katanga.
The “humiliating and degrading treatment” of the men.
Depriving them of a fair trial.
Continue reading...Belgian special forces boarded the Ethera, which was sailing under the flag of Guinea, on Saturday night
Belgium has seized an oil tanker believed to form part of the so-called “shadow fleet” used by Russia to circumvent western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Special forces assisted by French helicopters boarded the ship in a clandestine operation in the North Sea on Saturday night, Belgium’s defence minister, Theo Francken, said on Sunday.
Continue reading...US ambassador accused of interference after labelling inquiry into suspected illegal circumcisions ‘antisemitic’
A diplomatic row is escalating between Belgium and the US, with Donald Trump’s ambassador refusing to apologise for accusing his host country of antisemitism and reportedly threatening to bar a socialist politician from travelling to the US.
Bill White, a staunch ally of the president like many US ambassadors, on Monday demanded Belgium drop a “ridiculous” and “antisemitic” investigation into three Jewish men suspected of performing circumcisions without medical qualifications.
Continue reading...Exclusive: UK graduates in Germany, Belgium and possibly other countries informed of rises as salary threshold is cut
Britons living in some European countries face a huge rise in their student loan repayments later this year, the Guardian can reveal, in a move that threatens to trigger a fresh backlash for Rachel Reeves.
UK graduates working in Germany and Belgium – and possibly other countries – have been told that their monthly repayments will increase from April, the Guardian can reveal.
Continue reading...Belgian police raid EU foreign service HQ and College of Europe and arrest Federica Mogherini and two others
Belgian police have arrested three people including the EU’s former top diplomat Federica Mogherini and raided the headquarters of the EU foreign service and the elite College of Europe as part of an investigation into suspected fraud.
The three were detained “as part of a probe into suspected fraud related to EU-funded training for junior diplomats”, the European public prosecutor’s office said in a statement, without naming individuals.
Continue reading...Incursions halted flights at Brussels and Liège airports last week with Russia said to be the most likely culprit
Britain is deploying Royal Air Force specialists to help Belgium counter drone threats to the country’s airports after disruptive sightings last week that some politicians blamed on Russia.
Sir Richard Knighton, the head of the UK’s armed forces, said the British military would provide “our people, our equipment” to help Belgium, though he was careful to say “we don’t yet know” the origin of the drones seen last week.
Continue reading...Source says Russia ‘very probably’ responsible amid surge in incursions into European airspace since mid-September
Belgium’s national security council will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday after drone sightings at airports caused chaos for travellers and raised security concerns.
Arrivals and departures were halted for several hours on Tuesday evening at Belgium’s busiest airport, Brussels, leading to the cancellation of dozens of flights. The skies were also closed over Liège airport, an important hub for freight transport, leading to further cancellations, delays and diversions.
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