Belgium Government

The Belgian government and its foreign minister survived a parliamentary confidence vote over the visit of a top lieutenant in the Abu Nidal terrorist group on the eve of the war. Foreign Minister Mark Eyskens faced probable forced resignation had the government lost the vote over the Jan. 16 visit of Walid Khaled of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah. Khaled was granted a tourist visa to Brussels during negotiations that led to the release of four Belgians held hostage in the Middle East.

France and Belgium reported their first suspected cases of foot-and-mouth disease Saturday, stoking fears that the contagion that broke out in Britain last month might have spread to continental Europe. As Britain shut down much of its countryside for the weekend in an effort to contain the spread of the infection, officials in Europe said the chances that their own livestock would be spared were slim. "If we do nothing, it will spread across our country fast.

In a historic transition, Belgium's new government of liberals, Socialists and environmentalists took office after more than 40 years of rule by the center-right. Guy Verhofstadt leads a government that combines fiscal conservatives with Socialists, promising policies friendly to business and the environment and an overhaul of scandal-ridden state institutions.

Flaming torches in their hands and outrage in their hearts, the protesters from the far-right Vlaams Blok were on the move. Their government had plans to open a center for foreign asylum-seekers in their city--and weren't there far too many foreigners already? "Enough is enough! Antwerp is not a garbage can!" the march leader, Filip Dewinter, blared through a megaphone as 120 riot police backed by Belgian shepherd dogs blocked demonstrators from going any farther.

Belgium's coalition government faced a new threat after a French-speaking group--whose leader has brought down the last two governments--apparently won a majority in a local election. Early returns in the nationwide voting for local councils had no clear implications for the five-month-old government led by Prime Minister Wilfried Martens.

"We were only eight years old, and we had lots of dreams. We thought life would be beautiful. You grown-ups, prepare us a better world." --Memorial placard written by the parents of Melissa Russo and Julie Lejeune **** The dark circles beneath Gino Russo's heavy eyes tell the story of a father's living hell.

Egypt, Kuwait and Algeria on Sunday joined the ranks of countries curbing imports of Belgian meat and poultry as Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene halted a reelection campaign to deal with a food contamination scare. The bans were announced despite new measures unveiled by Belgium on Saturday to reassure consumers and control Europe's worst food scandal since Britain's "mad cow" crisis.

The center-left government of Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene lost Sunday's general elections in Belgium, preliminary results showed. With 86% of the vote counted, the coalition was set to lose 16 seats of its 82-seat majority. This loss would take it to 66 seats, well below half of the mandates in the 150-seat federal Parliament.

France and Belgium reported their first suspected cases of foot-and-mouth disease Saturday, stoking fears that the contagion that broke out in Britain last month might have spread to continental Europe. As Britain shut down much of its countryside for the weekend in an effort to contain the spread of the infection, officials in Europe said the chances that their own livestock would be spared were slim. "If we do nothing, it will spread across our country fast.

In a historic transition, Belgium's new government of liberals, Socialists and environmentalists took office after more than 40 years of rule by the center-right. Guy Verhofstadt leads a government that combines fiscal conservatives with Socialists, promising policies friendly to business and the environment and an overhaul of scandal-ridden state institutions.

The center-left government of Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene lost Sunday's general elections in Belgium, preliminary results showed. With 86% of the vote counted, the coalition was set to lose 16 seats of its 82-seat majority. This loss would take it to 66 seats, well below half of the mandates in the 150-seat federal Parliament.

Egypt, Kuwait and Algeria on Sunday joined the ranks of countries curbing imports of Belgian meat and poultry as Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene halted a reelection campaign to deal with a food contamination scare. The bans were announced despite new measures unveiled by Belgium on Saturday to reassure consumers and control Europe's worst food scandal since Britain's "mad cow" crisis.

The short-lived escape of a child-murder suspect sent waves of anger, disbelief and shame across Belgium and led to calls Friday for the country's shaky government coalition to resign. The resignations Thursday of the Justice and Interior ministers did little to calm public outrage over the three-hour escape of Marc Dutroux, a convicted rapist charged with abducting and abusing six young girls and killing four of them.

"We were only eight years old, and we had lots of dreams. We thought life would be beautiful. You grown-ups, prepare us a better world." --Memorial placard written by the parents of Melissa Russo and Julie Lejeune **** The dark circles beneath Gino Russo's heavy eyes tell the story of a father's living hell.

King Baudouin of Belgium died of apparent heart failure Saturday while vacationing in Spain, a government spokesman said. The king, 62, died in Motril, a town in the southern province of Granada on the Mediterranean coast. He and his wife, Queen Fabiola, had been vacationing in Motril the past week. The king, who presided over a nation of 10 million people actually governed by a parliament, had prostate surgery in 1991 and an operation to repair a heart valve last year.

Belgium's Parliament approved a drastic revision of the constitution to turn the country into a federal state, granting extensive regional autonomy to Dutch- and French-speaking regions. The 35 amendments must be approved by King Baudouin I and the new constitution must be published in the official journal before the kingdom is transformed into a federal state. The king has not expressed a firm opinion on the revision, but he has never stopped a constitutional revision in his 40-year reign.

All Belgians will go to the polls Sunday --it's against the law not to vote--to elect new members of Parliament. The outcome is likely to be a government very much like the current one. That would mean another coalition of the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking wings of the centrist (Christian Democratic) and slightly leftist (Socialist) parties.