Author: Raf Casert
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U.K. says last-ditch Brexit talks win legally binding changes
LONDON • The British government said Monday that frenzied last-minute diplomacy had won “legally binding changes” to overcome a roadblock in its divorce deal with the European Union, hours before Parliament was due to decide the fate of Prime Minister Theresa May’s hard-won agreement — and of Britain’s departure from the EU. On the eve…
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U.K. leader unveils Brexit Plan B
LONDON • British Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled her Brexit Plan B on Monday — and it looks a lot like Plan A. May launched a mission to resuscitate her rejected European Union divorce deal, setting out plans to get it approved by Parliament after securing changes from the EU to a contentious Irish border…
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Belgium shooting rampage was terrorist act, prosecutors say
BRUSSELS — The man who killed four people in the Belgian city of Liege this week carried out an act of “terrorist murder” and likely intended to cause more carnage, prosecutors said Wednesday, as authorities tried to establish whether he acted alone. Benjamin Herman, an inmate on a two-day prison furlough, attacked two female police…
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Man kills 3 in Belgian city after seizing police weapons
LIEGE, Belgium — A knife-wielding man stabbed two police officers Tuesday in the Belgian city of Liege, stole their weapons and shot them and a bystander dead in an attack that prosecutors fear could be terror-related. The attacker, who was later killed by police, was an inmate who had been granted a few hours release…
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Spy, temptress, victim? Mata Hari still eludes definition
LEEUWARDEN, Netherlands — A century ago on Sunday, an exotic dancer named Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad, condemned as a sultry Dutch double agent who supposedly caused the deaths of thousands of soldiers during World War I. Her life and death became fodder almost overnight for one of the greatest spy…
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Century-old battle in Belgium sums up horrors of World War I
YPRES, Belgium — Dismembered soldiers sucked into cesspools of mud. Shattered tree trunks and the waft of poison gas hovering over the wounded who were awaiting their fates on the scarred soil of Flanders Fields. The Third Battle of Ypres, fought in western Belgium a century ago, was as bad as World War I would…
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Islamic State claims deadly bombings in Brussels
BRUSSELS — Islamic extremists struck Tuesday in the heart of Europe, killing at least 34 people and wounding scores of others in back-to-back bombings of the Brussels airport and subway that again laid bare the continent’s vulnerability to suicide squads. Bloodied and dazed travelers staggered from the airport after two explosions — at least one…
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Belgium: 10 detained in 3-nation anti-terror sweep
BRUSSELS (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Belgium said Tuesday 10 suspects have been detained in an anti-terror sweep in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Those targeted in the sweeps were suspected of planning a possible attack in Belgium, the prosecutors said in a statement. Others were suspected of involvement in recruiting for an alleged Chechen…
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Europeans pouring new trend in wines
Belgium shop owner Willy Goorden has seen sales of French wine, such as these, drop in recent years. Photo by (AP)