By Expatica A few hundred people took to the streets of Brussels on Saturday calling on the authorities to impose a ban on wearing the Muslim headscarf in Francophone schools. The view, according to the organisers of the demonstration, is that politicians should ban all religious symbols from schools in Francophone education. "Unveil the girls and educate the boys" is one of the slogans used by demonstrators. According to one of the advocates of a headscarf ban, Karima, there is huge social pressure in schools to wear a headscarf. "Those who don't wear a headscarf are cursed at and accused of not being religious or of being a prostitute." Nadia Geerts of the organisation RAPPEL called on politicians to take a decision to protect young girls from the obligation of wearing a headscarf. The debate over whether or not to allow religious symbols in schools has been in the spotlight over the last few months, both in Flanders as well as in Wallonia, where a number of schools have implemented a ban individually. After a turbulent start to the school year, the network of Flemish Community schools decided to implement a ban on headscarves and other religious symbols in all schools. The debate is still very much alive in Belgian schools around the country....(Remainder.)
By La Dernière Heure
Expatica One in five people risk falling victim to an internet fraudster, a risk even higher than being burgled at home. Cyber-criminality has risen by 375%, according to Symantec, an American company specialised in internet security. The likelihood of being victim of a burglary or being involved in a car-crash is much lower than being attacked on the internet, with risks of 1 in 31 cases and 1 in 3,000 cases respectively. In Belgium, more than 13,000 infraction complaints were received by the eCops watchdog in 2008, which was 17% more than 2007 and 375% more than in the last six years. Symantec observed 1.65 million viruses on the internet in 2008, a figure likely to have risen notably in their next observation....(Original.)
By Agence France-Presse
Expatica Police in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg arrested 80 people in a four-day cross-border drugs operation that ended on Sunday, a Dutch police statement said. The operation that focused on shared border areas and transport routes netted 10 kilograms of cocaine, five grams of heroine, 22 grams of hashish and 277 grams of cannabis, it said. Police officials from the three countries searched cars on busy highways, passengers of international trains and several buildings since Thursday. Arrests were carried out mainly in the southern Dutch towns of Roosendaal and Maastricht, in Antwerp in northern Belgium and two in Paris on board the Thalys high-speed train en route from Brussels. The operation was part of a broader project to tackle drug trafficking and drug tourism between the Benelux countries and France, said the police statement....(Original.)
Belgian Foreign Minister Yves Leterme and Energy Minister Paul Magnette have deplored the failure of the U.S. President to put forward concrete figures regarding the reduction of green house gases. By Expatica The Belgian ministers are happy however with the new American attitude towards fighting climate change. U.S. President Barack Obama said that the days when the United States "dragged its feet" in the fight against climate change are over. He vowed to promote renewable energy and share green technology with countries around the world. "We will press ahead with deep cuts in emissions to reach the goals that we set for 2020, and eventually 2050," Obama said in his maiden speech to the U.N. General Assembly. "The threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing," Obama said, "And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out." The Belgians had hoped that the U.S. President would come with some concrete plans or figures but he remained vague about how exactly the climate goals would be met. The Belgian Energy Minister Magnette was reportedly disappointed with what he saw as a cautious American approach to tackling climate change. The minister immediately added that he realises that it is not an easy issue for President Obama with some tough opponents in the House of Representatives....(Remainder.)
At the end of August, Belgium counted 467,718 unemployed people, 39,501 more than in July and 47,827 more than in August 2008, according to new figures from Onem.
By Le Soir
Expatica The rise in the number of job seekers has been apparent in all regions: over 21,390 in a month in Flanders, over 11,468 in Wallonia, and over 6,643 in Brussels. At the end of the month, Wallonia counted a total unemployment rate of 212,891, Flanders counted 176,660 and Brussels had 78,230 people out of a job. 73,602 unemployed people in the country are under-25, with the majority in Wallonia, with 38,525, followed by Flanders with 26,209, then Brussels with 8,868. Wallonia still counts the highest number of people who have been unemployed for a long period of time, with 104,997 people in this category, which makes up nearly half the number of the total unemployed people in the region....(Original.)
By Euronews Hundreds of women and their children demonstrated in Brussels on Saturday to calling for the veil and all other religious clothes or symbols to be banned from schools. At the moment the veil is worn at the discretion of an individual school’s headmaster, or not. Now Belgium’s 40 percent French-speakers want the same law as passed in Belgium’s Flemish half, which bans the veil. “I had long, braided hair, so they would take the lower part of my veil, and wound it into my braids.” says one women’s rights worker. But the women’s groups are split; some prefer to stress free choice, others the risk of indoctrination of the young; “The Flemish are spot on, because their law preserves the ideas of diversity and equality among pupils, pupils who are the adults of tomorrow. So we are demanding that the French speaking community takes the same decision,” says another women’s representative....(Remainder.)
By Le Soir
Via Expatica The MR is proposing a ban on wearing any visible religious symbols to school until the age of 16. The debate is hardening, according to Didier Reynders, leader of the right-wing Mouvement Réformateur (MR) party. The controversial argument has run for a long time in the French community, and it is time that someone made a decision, the MR president, Didier Reynders, announced on Sunday to the television network RTL-TVi. Many Belgian political parties want this issue solved, particularly in reference to the Muslim headscarf, but it is important to negotiate first, they have stated. Representatives of the PS, Ecolo and CdH parties also took part in the televised debate but none showed a favourable attitude towards a total ban....(Original.)
By Expatica Budget Minister Guy Vanhengel (Flemish liberal) says that the government will not continue to fill the budget deficit in the social security system. The social security system should also make an effort to fill the gap, said the federal budget minister in an interview with the financial daily De Tijd. Until now the deficit in the social security system has always been covered for by other tax money. The Budget Minister Guy Vanhengel said that it is now time for this practice to stop. According to Minister Vanhengel, the Stability Pact, which the government agreed to earlier in the week, will put an end to the automatic replenishment of social security. It is not yet certain exactly how much the social security system will have to save. The discussion with the federal government promises to be contentious. The Flemish liberals have always disliked the fact that the social security system swallows up an increasingly large chunk of tax income. The Francophone socialists do not want to touch health care, unemployment benefits or pensions in the tightening of the budget belt....(Original.)
By Le Soir
Via Expatica.com The justice department devoted EUR 21 million to listening to telephone conversations last year. According to Brice de Ruyver, professor of criminology, "police can no longer lead the struggle against crime without phone tapping". The professor confirmed that it is an expensive process and that it requires specialised personnel. Strictly speaking the actual phone tapping system only costs EUR 4 million. Then EUR 17 million must be added for court costs, the recording of incoming and outgoing phone traffic, the activation of listening, observation and identification of suspect telephone numbers, and other administrative costs. EUR 3 million is spent on translation. Professor Ruyver said that the considerable amount spent listening to telephone activity had often been discussed at the heart of the police force. "But we have since arrived at the conclusion that we cannot do without this tool. Phone tapping is one of the most effective ways of dismantling rebel groups, fighting against drug trafficking and terrorism, and keeping an eye on extremist personalities," he added....(Original.)
By Valentina Pop
EU Observer Europe has emerged as the richest region in the world, pushing North America, where wealth has declined by more than 20 percent due to the economic crisis, off the top spot, a study has shown. The world's richest also feel the recession biting, especially in North America, where the financial crisis first unfolded a year ago, reveals a survey on global wealth carried out by the Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm. North America's wealth, measured in assets under management, plummeted by 21.8 percent, the steepest decline in the world. A lesser fall was registered in Europe, where assets shrunk by 5.8 percent compared to last year, down to €22.2 trillion – a quarter of the globe's total wealth. The number of millionaire households worldwide fell from 11 million to about 9 million - a drop of 17.8 percent. The decline was steepest in North America and Europe, at 22 percent in both regions, although the United States continues to have the most millionaire households - nearly 4 million. The crisis also narrowed the gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy. Wealth owned by households with less than €90,000 in assets under management increased by two percent in 2008, but it declined in all other segments. Among households with more than €4.5 million in assets under management, wealth fell by 21.5 percent....(Remainder.)
By Valentina Pop
EU Observer
Photo: Wikipedia US government officials are likely to tell the Polish and Czech governments on Thursday that Washington will scrap the planned missile defence shield in their countries, as the threat of long-range missiles from Iran is less imminent. The Obama envoys are expected to brief lawmakers and government officials in Warsaw and Prague on the results of the seven-month review commissioned by President Barack Obama, unnamed sources in Washington told the Associated Press. The Wall Street Journal also reported on Thursday that the White House is to shelve the Bush-era plan, "a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe." The Obama administration's assessment concludes that long-range missile threat from Iran is a far lesser one than short and medium-range, making the case for the development of "regional missile defenses" for Europe, which are far less controversial for Russia, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ. The multi-billion-dollar project agreed last year planned to install 10 interceptor missiles at a facility in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic. Warsaw also managed to secure a US promise of a battery of Patriot missiles to be permanently based on Polish territory as a defence against possible Russian attack – a security guarantee Poland had sought ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Some 120 American soldiers would have been deployed at the interceptor base in northern Poland, and US soldiers would also have operated the Patriot missiles. Now the plan seems to shift more towards "rotating" Patriot missiles, which would "tour" Europe and also be stationed at some point in Poland....(Remainder.)
Belgium has stepped up its offensive against German state aid to auto manufacturer Opel's planned new owners, demanding that the slightest hint of protectionism be slapped down by Brussels. By AFP
Expatica.com BRUSSELS - The European Commission must approve 4.5 billion euros (6.5 billion dollars) of aid offered by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, currently less than two weeks away from a general election. Amid fears shared by other European Union member states that plants elsewhere may be sacrificed to keep 25,000 German Opel staff in work, the head of Belgium's Flanders regional government took the case for an Antwerp factory threatened with closure to the EU's executive arm. Seeking assurances that politics would play no part in Bussels' decision on whether or not to approve the aid and the takeover, Kris Peeters told EU Commission vice-president Guenter Verheugen of Germany that Antwerp would win out on purely economic and commercial considerations. "For Commissioner (Verheugen), there can be no question of protectionism and he will keep a close eye on this to make sure economic parameters lie behind decisions on whether to close or keep sites open," the Flemish leader told reporters. Peeters fears that the plant in northern Belgium, which employs around 2,700 people, is to be sacrificed by Canada's Magna and Russia's Sbersbank, who were on Thursday named by General Motors as the preferred buyers for its European division. He said submissions on aid and on the comparative merits of the different plants within Europe which may be affected have yet to be submitted....(Remainder.)
By Expatica.com Belgian passports do not pass the stringent security tests required by international law, according to officials in the US and Britain. The council of ministers has approved a proposal by Foreign Minister Yves Leterme (Flemish Christian Democrat) decreeing that, from next year, Belgian passports must contain a more detailed biometric photograph and it must display more finger print information . The United States and the European Union have filed a number of complaints about easily forged Belgian passports. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will make 700 cameras available to municipalities so they can take the detailed biometric photographs and accurate fingerprints. It is still possible to employ a private photographer take the pictures so long as the photographer has the prescribed equipment to take the photograph. The implementation of biometric passports is a European Union regulation designed to help combat identity fraud....(Original.)
A suspected Belgian arms dealer pleaded not guilty in a federal courtroom here Thursday to charges he sought to smuggle fighter jet engines and parts to Iran.
By AFP
Expatica.com MOBILE - Clad in a prison uniform, Jacques Monsieur, 56, spoke only once to confirm that his name had been pronounced correctly. His lawyer Arthur Madden entered not guilty pleas to all the charges against him, including six counts of smuggling, conspiracy, money laundering, and violating weapons trafficking laws and export controls in relation to a US trade embargo on Iran. Monsieur was indicted by a federal grand jury last month after being arrested in a New York airport. An alleged co-conspirator in the case, Dara Fotouhi, 54, is still at large, according to the Justice Department. Both Monsieur and Fotouhi are French residents, and Fotouhi, an Iranian national, is suspected of working for the Iranian government. The indictment against Monsieur says he contacted an undercover agent in February seeking to buy engines for the F-5 fighter or C-130 military transport aircraft to export to Iran. The J85-21 model jet engines can be used to replace the motors in the F-5 fighter that was sold to Iran by the United States before the two countries cut ties after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Today, they are on a US list barring their export from the United States without a special permit. It is also illegal to export them to Iran without an additional license from the US Treasury Department....(Remainder.)
By Radio Netherlands
Expatica.com A woman who takes care of children at her home in Belgium has sparked an outcry after her extreme right-wing sympathies were uncovered by media. A portrait of Adolf Hitler hangs in the living room of her Antwerp home, along with the flag of banned neo-fascist organisation the Flemish Militant Order, VMO. A journalist from Flemish TV news programme Terzake filmed inside the woman's home with a hidden camera, pretending to be a father looking for after-school care for his daughter. The care facility is accredited by Child and Family, a national childcare organisation. The woman told the reporter, "I have nothing to hide. I don't agree with the child care policies of Child and Family. They want the children to decide by themselves when they want to sleep." She explained that she wanted "clear rules." "My husband is an old-style Nazi. Not pro-German, but very conservative. He is very interested in WWII." The walls of the living room are lined with shelves filled with books on the Nazi occupation of Europe and fascist memorabilia. "Many parents don't understand us," the woman said. "They say, Heil Hitler, yuck!" She told the reporter that Hitler's ideas were "phenomenal" and said that current trouble with Islamic immigrant families should be handled in the same way that Hitler handled the Jews. "We've got the same problem today. We're being overrun by them." Children should be taught again to obey their parents, she added. "We should send all children to the Hitler Youth, then they will listen again."...(Remainder.)
By AFP
Expatica.com
Schools and day care centres near Brussels were under police guard on Wednesday after an apparent threat was posted on a US Internet site, local authorities said. Hundreds of police were deployed in Mechelen after the message was posted in January on the website www.4chan.org reading: "293 days to go until I strike at KTA Lyceum Mechelen, watch the news." More than 330 police officers wearing bullet-proof vests were deployed early on Wednesday morning, the date believed to correspond to the threat and symbolic for its 09/09/09 formulation, authorities said. A police helicopter also flew over Mechelen, some 30 kilometres north of the capital Brussels, Belga news agency reported. No incident has been reported and the prosecutor’s office will launch further investigations into the threat. The identity of the person responsible for the threat on the discussion website has not been discovered despite a number of arrests in recent days....(Remainder.)
By AFP
Expatica.com A luxury yacht bought by King Albert II is causing controversy after it was revealed that the monarch had not paid VAT on it, as the state budget sinks deeper into the red. Over the summer, Belgian media reported that the 75-year-old king had paid EUR 4.6 million (USD 6.7 million) for the 27-metre yacht and published pictures of him, wearing shorts, at the vessel's helm. Newspapers said that the photos, snapped as the yacht entered the Sicilian port of Lipari, contradicted his warnings on Belgian National Day on July 21 about the "increasingly materialistic" nature of society. National broadcaster RTBF said that the monarch had not paid VAT on the craft in Belgium because it was not registered in the country, or even in Italy, and because it is deemed a military vessel and is therefore exempt. This means that the king can "retain a captain and two crew paid for by the army, and so by the Belgian taxpayer," said Flemish Greens lawmaker Luckas Vander Taelen. In a break with media protocol, an RTBF reporter tried to question the royal couple about the yacht during a garden party at Laeken Palace at the end of last month....(Remainder.)
Reporters working for the VRT's flagship current affairs programme Panorama have discovered that Belgian antique dealers are illegally offering stolen Afghan art for sale. By Expatica.com Many of the profits are channelled to the Taliban. Belgian police and customs are aware of the problem, but little is being done about it. “The traffic in antiquities from Afghanistan resembles the smuggling of diamonds from Africa that are used to finance conflicts. The sale of antiquities and heroine are an important source of funding for the Taliban,” said VRT reporter Peter Brems. In order to make his report entitled "Blood Antiquities" Brems also travelled to Afghanistan. Many Belgian dealers are aware that the art is smuggled out of Afghanistan illegally. Some buyers are also aware that they purchase this art. The antiques are on sale in shops from Brussels to the prestigious resort of Knokke in West Flanders. In Belgium no certificate to authenticate Afghan art is needed. Quizzed about a possible investigation the Belgian police's Axel Poels told the VRT: "We first have to establish whether any crime has been committed. Maybe an investigation will be initiated next week."...(Original.)
The unrest is due to the new rule banning the Muslim headscarf from being worn at school which came into effect on the 1 September this year.
By Expatica.com The police of Antwerp arrested 8 youngsters at the Royal Athenaeum in Hoboken on Monday because they violated a ban on demonstrations. A left wing student organisation gathered before school opening at the Royal Athenaeum in Hoboken to hand out pamphlets and urge students not to accept the headscarf ban. Last Friday the mayor of Antwerp, Patrick Janssens (Flemish socialist), issued a ban on demonstrations at the school and the police quickly intervened. "The police have detained 8 youngsters. A ninth person was detained during protests last week," says a police spokesman. A group of Muslim women also gathered in front of the school, but retreated on to the surrounding streets when the police arrived at the scene. Calm returned to the school and surroundings at about 11am. However, the protest against the Muslim headscarf ban at the school continues. Vandals broke into the school during Sunday night and spray painted slogans on doors of the school. They also threw school books out of the windows. The vandals spray painted the slogan 'No headscarf, no school' onto the school’s entrance. They also smashed a window to get inside the school. "They went in through the side door and went to the administrative offices," said headmaster Chris Weyers. "They sabotaged the internet and jammed some doors. They took some paper and flung it around the hallway. They threw books out of the window."...(Remainder.)
Who's the douche-nozzle that though this was a good idea?
By Desmond Butler
Associated Press via WaPo WASHINGTON -- The European Union is strongly criticizing a congressional proposal to charge a $10 fee to some visitors to the United States and suggesting it may carry a price for U.S. travelers. If it passes, the EU says, some U.S. travelers to Europe could face retaliation. The fee now under consideration in Congress would finance a new U.S. program to promote travel, a burden that the EU believes Americans should bear. "Only in `Alice in Wonderland' could a penalty be seen as promoting the activity on which it is imposed," the European Commission's Ambassador to Washington, John Bruton, said in a statement Friday. One of the bill's sponsors, Democratic Rep. William Delahunt, said the EU was getting too worked up over what he called "a nominal fee." But Europeans see the issue as yet another potential hassle that the United States is preparing to burden Europe's citizens with. Visitors from most European countries have long enjoyed the privilege of visa-free travel to the United States. Early, this year, however, the United States began requiring people traveling to the United States under the visa waiver program to register online at least 72 hours before travel and renew their registration every two years. If the new proposal is passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, it would require all visitors to pay the fee when they register....(Remainder.)
By Carol Rosenberg
The Miami Herald Belgium on Friday became the latest European country to offer asylum to a Guantánamo Bay detainee, announcing that it would resettle a captive now at the prison camps who has been cleared of prosecution by a U.S. court. 
The announcement follows similar deals between the Obama administration and France and Portugal, which last month took in two Syrians for resettlement. Ireland has also agreed to take two detainees seeking third-country asylum. President Barack Obama has ordered the detention facility closed by early next year and the United States has been seeking new nations for dozens of the 226 captives now cleared for release but fearful of return to their native countries because of stigma or ill treatment. A Belgium Foreign Ministry statement Friday did not identify the detainee who would be resettled, or specify his nationality. It said "the individual in question is no longer facing prosecution,'' suggesting he was among 19 detainees still at the remote Navy base who have been ordered set free by federal judges hearing habeas corpus petitions. Belgium said the man would be given a residency visa and work papers in Belgium. It provided no timeline for the transfer but said, as host nation, the government of Belgium would take steps beforehand to ensure the man was successfully integrated into Belgian society. Meantime, the Obama administration is obliged to file a classified report with Congress on the individual's transfer plan....(Remainder.)
Four in ten employees are ready to accept a decrease in salary in exchange for other benefits, according to a study carried out on 1,665 workers by Executive Research and Kern Selection.
By Le Soir
Expatica The study revealed that 44% of the participants would accept a salary decrease in exchange for benefits such as extra holiday, working closer to home or a more interesting position. 57% of people who took the survey said that they would prefer to work within 50km of their home, and more than seven in ten employees declared that they would not want to spend more than an hour commuting to their workplace. 35% of people who participated in the study were actively seeking another job. 28% were ready to change their job within this year and 25% would look for another job next year, according to the study. More than seven in ten of the employees questioned admitted to having applied for a vacant post in their current position. Pharmaceutical and chemical companies, media, energy and communication were the main fields that the participants would have wanted to work in. One in five people also wanted to work in administration....(Original.)
Christine Defraigne has announced a proposal to ban the burkha in Belgium almost five years after a similar text was brought by the MR to parliament, reported Le Soir on Thursday. 
By La Dernière Heure
Via Expatica.com The proposal suggests that wearing a burkha in public in a way that masks or hides the identity of the person under the veil should be prohibited. Violations of this law would result in a penalty charge of EUR 15 to 25 and/or imprisonment of between one and seven days. Defraigne said that women were under no religious obligation to wear the burkha. “The Qur’an does not mention it. Banning women from wearing these items is not refusing Islam as a religion. The burkha and the niqab personify the subjugation of the individual and social dehumanisation.” “For the anthropologist Dounia Bouzar, the burkha, which is already prohibited in some Muslim countries, is not a religious symbol but a uniform which signifies self-exclusion, as well as the exclusion of others.”...(Original.)
Belgium's banking watchdog CBFA has ruled that there are sufficient grounds to warrant a thorough investigation into communication by the Fortis holding last June, when it decided to launch a capital enhancement. 
By Expatia.com At the time Fortis operations included Fortis bank which is now owned by BNP Paribas of France. By creating new shares Fortis raised EUR 1.5 billion. It also decided not to pay a dividend. Shareholders were surprised by these decisions, the possibility of which had always been denied. The following day the Fortis share tumbled 20% on the stock market as confidence in the bank evaporated. This development signalled the start of the demise of Belgium's largest bank. The financial watchdog CBFA has now completed a preliminary investigation into this matter and says that there are sufficient grounds for a thorough investigation. Fortis, if found guilty, could face a hefty fine. The watchdog is also handing information over to the public prosecutor’s office which will decide whether or not to launch a criminal investigation....(Original.)
