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POPSNo Flowers for 9/11 Victims, Stones Thrown at Buses Last week Freddy Thielemans, the Socialist Mayor of Brussels, had prohibited the 9/11 demonstration near the Brussels WTC towers. Mr Thielemans banned the demo arguing that the Brussels WTC towers are situated near an immigrant neighbourhood and that it is inappropriate to hold such a demonstration during Ramadan. An appeal against the Mayor’s ban was rejected by the Council of State, Belgium’s highest administrative court. Last year, Mr Thielemans also banned a demonstration in remembrance of the 9/11 atrocities. When the demonstration went ahead anyway, the police savagely beat up the demonstrators and arrested most of them, including Mario Borghezio, an Italian MEP (member of the European Parliament) for the Lega Nord. Mr Borghezio’s arrest led to an official complaint from the Italian government and to Belgium formally apologizing and assuring that in future it will do “everything possible to guarantee the immunity of MEPs.”
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POPSBelgian Prime Minister Offers Resignation VRTNieuws: * Premier Yves Leterme Resigns: http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie.english/news/080715_Leterme_quits * The End Of Leterme's Dream: http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie.english/news/080715_Leterme_portrait * Five Turbulent Days Leading to the Crisis: http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie.english/news/080715_crisis_overview De Morgen: * All Articles: http://www.demorgen.be/dm/article/pagedList.do?language=nl&navigationItemId=989&navigation=&nodeId=62906&nodeTitle=Land-in-crisis
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POPSFewer Belgians attending Mass 7% attend church weekly (11% a decade ago) 57% new born children are baptised (65% a decade ago) 26.5% opt for a church wedding (49% a decade ago) 61% for church funeral (76% a decade ago) The full press release (27 pages) is available in Dutch or French
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POPSBelgian Author's Euthanasia Death: Hugo Claus "I insist on being Belgian . . . I want to be a member of the pariah nationality, the laughing stock of the French and an object of ridicule for the Dutch. It's the ideal situation for a writer." Despite his scathing criticism of Belgium, Claus received warm tributes from both the Flemish and francophone communities following his death. "In his works he gave us a mirror on our lives," said former prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, who was a close friend. "Certainly a hard image, often unpitying, which helped us understand who we really were."
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POPSAmericans in WW1: B&W pics "Of the approximately 115,000 American dead in the Great War, only about 52,000 died of battlefield wounds. More than 200,000 became more or less seriously wounded. Some 60,000 soldiers and sailors died of disease, mainly the complications of the global pandemic flue (influenza). During the war over 4,355,000 American men and women served in the armed forces. At the end of the war 1,950,000 Americans were actually fighting in France and Flanders. One in five was foreign-born and one in four was functionally illiterate."
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POPSWW! Aussie pics 2 In 1917 James Francis Hurley (1885-1962) became the first official photographer to the Australian Imperial Forces. When he arrived at the Western Front his rank was honorary captain, but the troops, seeing how he took risks to get his pictures, dubbed him “the mad photographer”. Captain Frank Hurley"To get war pictures of striking interest and sensation is like attempting the impossible," Hurley wrote in September 1917.
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POPSTrue Political Waffling: Belgian Civil War Averted! Thank goodness Belgium has been rescued from political obscurity and irrelevance! Is anyone impressed by the fact that Belgium just didn't need it's government for 6 months? Imagine if that had happened in America? We'd be looting Wallmart on day 3. (Although I, personally, would be looting Wallmart on day 0, because that's what I do on my spare time.) At any rate, waffle lovers (and I suppose swift boat veterans for truth) can now rest easy. The feud between Flanders and Wallonia, ostensibly over why Dr. Seuss was allowed to name their territories, can finally be laid to rest! Except for that they hate each other, and there's a ridiculous wealth gap, and they are both presumably frustrated by their own irrelevance.
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POPSNothing Lasts Forever, Not Even Belgium Belgium: the country where other European countries go to fight their apocalyptic wars. Flemish: Somehow not quite Dutch, but only they can tell the difference. Waffles: Yum. Endives: Not as boring as lettuce. White asparagus: whiter than regular asparagus, I guess. Eels in garlic sauce: okay, now that's taking it a bit too far... Yes, for those who thought you could take things for granted, and who just assumed that such a stalwart pillar of modern nationhood as Belgium would be around forever: prepare for extreme-right xenophobic "Flemish" nationalist Filip (Philip to those filthy Wallonians) Dewinter to rock your world: "It's 'bye-bye Belgium' time!" Indeed, it is a sad day for humanity, and a bitter personal defeat for me, being as I had long argued that Chocolate and Beer were in fact enough to keep a nation of feuding and indistinguishable ethnic groups together. Guess I can't be right all the time!
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POPSFirefighters carry doggie masks The article says that increasingly, little oxygen masks for pets are becoming standard equipment for firefighters. Hoping to save cats, dogs and other pets caught in house fires, animal advocacy groups and pet-products suppliers are equipping departments all over the country with them...
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POPSComet McNaught visible tonight in Northern Hemisphere if skies are clear! Update: the link keeps changing with new info. go to http://skyandtelescope.com if you want to check them out - this info might be in their archives now! Yay! Heralding the New Year and adding more bright "star dust" to the heavens above us! This comet is about to make it's debut in the Southern Hemisphere, but if you live in the Northern Hemisphere you can catch a view tonight if your skies are clear - do it if you can it's an interesting experience - more fun that shooting stars and meteor showers! I remember Hale - Bopp from the mid 90's, got to watch it from my front door for months!
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