Belgian police detained 14 sus-pected Islamic extremists, and the government said they were plotting a jailbreak to free an al-Qaeda prisoner convicted of planning to attack US military personnel.
Authorities tightened security, warning of a heightened threat of attacks despite the arrests. Police stepped up patrols at Brussels airport, subway stations and the downtown Christmas market, which draws large crowds of holiday shoppers.
"Other acts of violence are not to be excluded," said Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
The US Embassy warned Americans that "there is currently a heightened risk of terrorist attack in Brussels," although it said it had no indication of any specific targets.
In a series of overnight raids around the country, police picked up 14 suspects and seized arms and explosives. The prime minister and prosecutor's office alleged the detained were planning to use the weapons to free Nizar Trabelsi, a 37-year-old Tunisian sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003 for planning to a drive a car bomb into the cafeteria of a Belgian air base where about 100 US military personnel are stationed.
The Kleine Brogel base was reported to house US nuclear weapons, although that has not been confirmed by US or Belgian authorities. Security services in several European nations suspect Trabelsi, who trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, had links with extremists in Britain, France and elsewhere in Europe.
"Trabelsi would be helped by a group of people driven by an extremist vision of Islam," the Federal Prosecutors' Office said in a statement on the arrests.
Details about the identities of the suspects were not immediately released, but the RTL-TVI television network said one of those detained was Malika El Aroud, the Moroccan-born widow of one of the suicide bombers who killed Afghan anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massood two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
El Aroud, a Belgian resident, was acquitted in a Brussels court of involvement in Massood's killing in 2003. In June, she was convicted in Switzerland for supporting a criminal organization by running Web sites that posted statements from al-Qaeda-linked groups and showed executions.
She received a six-month prison sentence suspended for three years, which would keep her from going to jail unless she commits another punishable offense during that time.
Within hours of the arrests, police were out checking for suspicious packages and bags in the capital's landmark Grand Place, where tourists and local shoppers mingled beneath a huge Christmas tree. The Interior Ministry urged citizens to report anything suspicious.
"If a group with an extremist view of Islam was ready to use arms and explosives to release Mr Trabelsi, there is no guarantee that they would not use them for other ends," said Lieve Pellens, spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutors' office.
The extra security measures were expected to last until at least Jan. 2.
Prison Inspector Claude Spinoit told RTL-TVI that he had spoken to Trabelsi on Thursday. He said the former professional soccer player was being held under tight security in Nivelles prison, 35km south of Brussels. Spinoit described Trabelsi as "calm" and said he had asked for isolation in order to pursue religious contemplation.
Trabelsi came to Europe in 1989 for a tryout with the German soccer team Fortuna Duesseldorf. He got a contract but was soon let go. Over the next few years, he bounced from team to team in the minor leagues, acquiring a cocaine habit and a lengthy criminal record.
Eventually, he made his way to al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, where evidence showed he placed himself on a "list of martyrs" ready to commit suicide attacks.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
RSS