Belgium

World News

Gunman kills 2 Swedes in Brussels, prompting a terror alert and halting a soccer game

11:34pm October 16, 2023

by The Associated Press

Belgian police hunted Tuesday for a gunman with suspected terrorist motives who killed two Swedes. Authorities shut down a Belgium-Sweden soccer match and held 35,000 fans for hours as a precaution.

Jolien Boumkwo competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the European Athletics Team Championships, in Chorchow, Silesia, Poland, this weekend, answering her team's call for help in securing two points in the competition.

A Belgian shot-putter runs the hurdles after answering her team's call for help

5:10pm June 26, 2023

by Bill Chappell

"I really love it," Jolien Boumkwo said as her unusual turn in the 100-meter hurdles created a sensation.

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This photo from July, 1960 shows Patrice Lumumba. He was assassinated 6 months later.

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Belgium returned a single tooth to the Congo this week. Here's why

10:55am June 21, 2022

Patrice Lumumba was the first democratically elected prime minister of the Congo, and was assassinated in a Belgian-supported coup. Can the return of his remains help them reconcile over colonialism?

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A commuter wearing a protective face mask looks at her mobile phone in a train arriving at the Central Train Station in Brussels in May 2020. Belgium's new rule addresses the ever-blurry line between work and personal life in the pandemic.

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In Belgium, government workers no longer have to answer the boss's emails after hours

2:59pm February 01, 2022

by Rachel Treisman

Thousands of federal civil servants will no longer have to answer calls or emails from their bosses outside of working hours. The law aims to address burnout exacerbated by the pandemic.

Zara Rutherford, 19, carries the Belgian and British flags on the tarmac after landing her Shark ultralight plane at the Kortrijk airport in Belgium, on Thursday at the completion of a record-breaking solo circumnavigation.

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19-year-old lands in Belgium, becoming youngest woman to fly solo around the world

2:13pm January 20, 2022

Zara Rutherford set off from Belgium in August to circle the globe in her Shark UL plane. Five months later, she landed back home, having landed in 41 countries on five continents.

A man rows a boat down a residential street after flooding in Liège, Belgium, on Friday.

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In A Belgian City Ravaged By Flooding, The Signs Of Disaster Are Everywhere

2:50pm July 17, 2021

by Rebecca Rosman

In Liège, Belgium's third-largest city, water from the Meuse river overflowed into parts of the city center, prompting city officials to call for residents to evacuate the area or seek higher ground.

Flooding has led to the collapse of an entire field in Rhein-Erft-Kreis, a district in western Germany. Officials have said a warming climate is at least partially to blame for floods.

Flood Deaths Are Rising In Germany, And Officials Blame Climate Change

1:19pm July 16, 2021

The worst flooding in decades to affect Germany and parts of Belgium has killed more than 100 people as search and rescue efforts for hundreds of missing continue, officials said.

Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police) officers of the art squad's archaeological unit pose with a headless Roman statue wearing a draped toga in Brussels on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021.

1st Century Roman Statue, Looted A Decade Ago, Found In Belgium By Off-Duty Police

7:24pm April 13, 2021

The statue is valued at 100,000 euros and was stolen from an archaeological site near the outskirts of Rome.

A statue of King Leopold II stands defaced after protests this month in Brussels. Belgian King Philippe acknowledged "acts of violence and cruelty" in his country's colonial past in Africa.

World News

Belgian King Conveys 'Deepest Regrets' For Brutal Colonial Past In Congo

4:04pm June 30, 2020

by Colin Dwyer

King Philippe's ancestor, Leopold II, ruled the region as his personal property and started a notorious system that left millions dead. Now, the reigning king is expressing remorse for the first time.

Protesters pull down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter protest on College Green, Bristol, England, on Sunday. The protest grew in response to the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis that spark

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How A U.S. Police Killing Triggered The Toppling Of Statues In U.K. And Belgium

8:55pm June 09, 2020

by Frank Langfitt

The widespread protests sparked by George Floyd's killing are reverberating in Europe, leading to the removal of two statues in the United Kingdom and one in Belgium tied to racist, colonial legacies.