Tag Archives: Belgium

Global stocks recover from early selloff following Brussels attacks

NEW York (Reuters) – Global equity markets were little changed, regrouping from early losses while safe-haven gold and government bonds eased from higher levels on Tuesday following attacks on the airport and a rush-hour metro train in Brussels.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for suicide bomb attacks in the Belgian capital that killed at least 30 people, with police hunting a suspect who fled the air terminal.

Travel sector stocks, including airlines and hotels, were among the hardest-hit, although equities managed to recover from sharp losses and bonds and gold eased from their early highs.

On Wall Street, the NYSEArca airline index lost 0.9 percent and was on track for its first decline in five sessions. Cruise ship operators Royal Caribbean, down 2.9 percent and Carnival Corp, down 2.1 percent, were among the worst performers on the S&P 500.

Those declines were offset by gains in Apple, up 0.8 percent to $106.72 and a 0.9 percent gain in the healthcare sector.

“The news obviously has been dominated by what has gone on in Brussels, but experience tells us not only is it the morally right thing to do to basically not overreact, it also turns out to be the most profitable thing to do,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds in New York.

“The objective of terrorists is to disrupt and, to the extent that they can, do horrible things but at least we have the small victory that they have not disrupted global financial markets today.”

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 41.3 points, or 0.23 percent, to 17,582.57, the S&P 500 lost 1.8 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,049.8 and the Nasdaq Composite added 12.79 points, or 0.27 percent, to 4,821.66.

The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading shares closed down 0.12 percent at 1,338.20, rebounding from a 1.6 percent drop. Belgian stocks rose 0.17 percent after having been down as much as 1.4 percent. MSCI’s index of world shares edged down 0.03 percent.

In Europe, the STOXX Europe 600 Travel & Leisure index was down 1.8 percent. Shares in major European airlines like Ryanair and Air France-KLM also fell.

Volume is expected to continue to diminish ahead of the Easter holiday, and investors were beginning to think about cashing in on a steep rally in stocks over the last few weeks.

Gold was up 0.31 percent at $1,248.10 an ounce after hitting a high of $1.259.60 earlier.

Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes were last down 6/32 in price to yield 1.9403 percent after falling as low as 1.879 percent as Chicago’s Federal Reserve president struck a bullish tone on the U.S. economy.

In currency markets, the Japanese yen, regarded by investors as a shelter from turbulence, pulled back from early gains, notably against the euro. The euro was last up 0.14 percent at 126.01 yen and the dollar turned positive, up 0.3 percent at 112.27 yen.

The euro fell 0.16 percent against the dollar to $1.1221. The dollar was up 0.33 percent to 95.606 against a basket of major currencies.

Oil prices also steadied after the initial rush to safer assets, with U.S. crude settling down 0.17 percent to $41.45 a barrel while Brent rebounded from a low of $40.97 to settle up 0.6 percent at $41.79.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dan Grebler)

U.S. airports on edge after deadly Belgium bombings

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Major U.S. transportation hubs were placed on alert on Tuesday and Denver International Airport briefly evacuated part of its main terminal in a false alarm there hours after suicide bombings in Brussels killed at least 30 people.

Despite public safety concerns unleashed by the violence in Belgium’s capital, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the agency had no intelligence that would point to a similar attack being plotted against the United States.

But the State Department issued a travel alert warning U.S. citizens in Europe to avoid crowded places, to be vigilant when in public or using mass transit and to exercise extra caution during religious holidays and at large festivals and events.

“Terrorist groups continue to plan near-term attacks throughout Europe, targeting sporting events, tourist sites, restaurants, and transportation,” it said in a statement.

The Brussels bombings reverberated on the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign trail, with Democratic contender Hillary Clinton declaring that more needed to be done to confront the Islamic State militants who claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The Republican front-runner in the White House race, Donald Trump, called again for tighter border security and suggested U.S. intelligence services could use torture to head off future attacks.

Some of the country’s busiest airports and other transportation facilities were placed on heightened security status, as illustrated by a greater law enforcement presence.

Large numbers of uniformed police officers and National Guard troops dressed in battle fatigues and carrying rifles patrolled New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Several U.S. carriers – Delta Air Lines Inc, United Continental Holdings Inc and American Airlines Group Inc  – said they canceled or rerouted flights as a result of the Brussels attacks.

At midafternoon, authorities at the Denver airport evacuated two levels on the west side of the main terminal after several packages that appeared suspicious were spotted near ticket counters, airport spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.

Denver police, FBI and U.S. Transportation Security Administration officers converged on the airport, but the packages were ultimately deemed to pose no threat, and the terminal was fully reopened within two hours.

Several airlines were affected by the scare, including American Airlines, Aeroméxico, Air Canada, Lufthansa and British Airways, the airport said.

‘WORLD MUST UNITE’

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered flags flown at half-staff in memory of the victims in the Belgium attacks.

The State Department said an undetermined number of U.S. citizens had been injured in Brussels but none were killed. Three Mormon missionaries and a U.S. Air Force member and his family were among those hurt.

The Obama administration also was expected to impose tighter security measures at U.S. airports following the Brussels Airport bombings, which occurred in a public hall outside of the security check area.

U.S. Representative William Keating of Massachusetts, senior Democrat on a House subcommittee on terrorism, said the suicide bombings illustrated the difficulty of protecting “soft targets” outside tightly controlled security cordons.

“The targets aren’t going to be just getting on the plane itself, but the airport in general,” he said in a phone interview.

Obama addressed the attacks briefly in a speech in Havana on his historic visit to Cuba, vowing to support Belgium as it hunts for those responsible.

“This is yet another reminder that the world must unite. We must be together regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism,” Obama said.

Candidates seeking their party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election immediately weighed in, with Clinton, a former secretary of state, vowing to strengthen her drive to “defeat terrorism and radical jihadism.”

Trump, a billionaire businessman, told NBC’s “Today” program: “If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding. You have to get the information from these people.”

His Republican rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, strengthened his call for Obama to clip the flow of refugees from “countries with significant al Qaida or ISIS presence,” and called for heightened police scrutiny of neighborhoods with large Muslim populations.

The attack raised worries among some U.S. Muslims that they could face more hostility, although mainstream Muslims have repeatedly denounced violence.

“The media hype and political manipulation heightens our concerns,” said Sheikh Shaker Elsayed, imam of the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia.

Some travelers expressed concern that new security measures at airports, which had already imposed extensive restrictions since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, would increase inconvenience without improving safety.

“It already takes all day,” said Hans Vermulst, 66, who was at New York’s Kennedy airport trying to get home to the Netherlands after his connecting flight to Brussels was canceled. “We have to take it as it comes, but I’m not happy with it.”

(Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Idrees Ali, Julia Edwards, Mark Hosenball, Ian Simpson, Alana Wise and Susan Heavey in Washington and Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Grant McCool and Peter Cooney)

U.S. airlines cancel Brussels flights after blasts

(Reuters) – U.S. airlines including Delta, United and American canceled flights on Tuesday after two deadly blasts in a packed departure area of the Brussels Airport at Zaventem.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in one of the Tuesday morning airport explosions, which public broadcaster VRT said killed 14 people. Another 20 were killed when a blast tore through a rush-hour metro train in the European capital shortly afterward, VRT said.

Video at the airport, which was shut down, showed devastation, with ceiling tiles and glass scattered across the floor. Some passengers emerged from the terminal with blood spattered over their clothes.

While there were no credible threats to U.S. airports or transportation hubs, police presence was beefed up as a precaution in the nation’s major cities, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

Delta Air Lines Inc said its flight DL42 from New York to Brussels was diverted to Amsterdam. Another flight, DL80 from Atlanta, had landed safely at the Zaventem airport and was parked remotely while the airline’s local staff helped passengers exit safely.

News of the multiple blasts, which have Brussels on lockdown and have snarled some cross-border traffic, sent shares of U.S. airlines and travel-related companies lower. Delta was down 2.1 percent at $49.04 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading, while United Continental Holdings Inc fell 1.4 percent to $69.34.

United Airlines, which had two flights due in Brussels on Tuesday morning, said both landed there safely.

The company said it was suspending all remaining flights to and from Brussels.

American Airlines Group Inc said it had canceled flight 751 from Brussels to Philadelphia and would accommodate its passengers when the airport reopens.

The explosions did not occur where American’s check-in operates, the company said, so all of its airport employees are safe and accounted for.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc said all of its hotels in Brussels were on lockdown, along with the rest of the city.

Facebook Inc said it had activated its “safety check” feature, which allows its users to check on friends who were in the area of the blasts.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr and Lisa Von Ahn)

‘Sad day for Europe’, tearful EU foreign policy chief says after Brussels attacks

AMMAN (Reuters) – The attacks which killed 34 people in Brussels and shut down the Belgian capital on Tuesday brought the same suffering to Europe which the Middle East endures on a daily basis, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said.

In a news conference in Jordan which Federica Mogherini cut short after tears welled in her eyes, she said Europe and the Middle East should tackle together the radicalization and violence which brought grief to both parts of the world.

“It’s a very sad day for Europe as Europe and its capital are suffering the same pain that this region has known every single day – plagued in Syria, plagued elsewhere,” she said in the Jordanian capital Amman.

Jordan is hosting more than 600,000 U.N.-registered refugees from the five-year-old conflict in Syria, across its northern border, which has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced more than 10 million.

“It is quite clear that the roots of the pain we are suffering around our region are very much the same and that we are united in not only suffering our victims, but also reacting to this acts and preventing radicalization and violence together,” Mogherini said.

One of Tuesday’s explosions struck a train close to European Union institutions in Brussels.

“You will understand today is a difficult day,” Mogherini said at the end of her statement.

As Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Joudeh began to speak, Mogherini appeared to fight back tears before shaking her head. “I’m sorry,” she said, putting her head briefly on his shoulders and walking off the platform with him.

Captured Paris attacks suspect ‘worth weight in gold’ to police, lawyer says

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The only suspected participant in Nov. 13 Paris attacks to be captured alive has been cooperating with police investigators and is “worth his weight in gold”, his lawyer said on Monday.

Belgium’s Interior Minister Jan Jambon said the country was on high alert for a possible revenge attack following the capture of 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam in a flat in Brussels on Friday.

“We know that stopping one cell can …push others into action. We are aware of it in this case,” he told public radio.

French investigator Francois Molins told a news conference in Paris on Saturday Abdeslam had admitted to investigators he had wanted to blow himself up along with others at the Stade de France on the night of the attack claimed by Islamic State; but he later backed out.

Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary said he would sue Molins for making the comment public, calling it a violation of judicial confidentiality.

Mary said Abdeslam was now fully cooperating with investigators.

“I think that Salah Abdeslam is of prime importance for this investigation. I would even say he is worth his weight in gold. He is collaborating. He is communicating. He is not maintaining his right to remain silent,” Mary told Belgian public broadcaster RTBF.

MORE OPERATIONS PLANNED?

As the only suspected participant or planner of the Paris attack in police custody, Abdeslam would be seen by investigators as a possible major source of information on others involved, in support networks, finance and links with Islamic State in Syria. There would also be urgent interest in finding out what further attacks might be planned.

Belgian prosecutors said in a statement they were looking for Najim Laachraoui, 25, using the false name of Soufiane Kayal. His DNA had been found in houses in Belgium used by the Paris attackers.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on Sunday that Abdeslam may have been plotting more operations drawing on a weapons discovered in the Forest district of Brussels and a network of associates.

Jambon said he could not confirm that, but it was a possibility.

“After 18 months of dealing with this terrorist issue, I have learned that when the terrorists and weapons are in the same place, and that’s what we saw in Forest, we are close to an attack. I’m not saying it is evidence. But yes, there are indications,” he said.

Reynders said Belgium and France had so far found around 30 people involved in the gun and bomb attacks on bars, a sports stadium and a concert hall in the French capital.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski and Barbara Lewis; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Fugitive from Paris attacks arrested in Brussels shootout

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The most-wanted fugitive from November’s Paris attacks was arrested after a shootout with police in Brussels on Friday, Belgium’s prime minister said.

Charles Michel described the capture of 26-year-old French suspect Salah Abdeslam and two others as “a very important result in the battle for democracy”. French President Francois Hollande said he was confident they had links to Syria and to Islamic State which claimed the attacks that killed 130 people.

“The threat level is very high,” said Hollande, who was in Brussels for an EU summit. He added that it was now clear many more people had been involved in the Paris attacks on a sports stadium, bars and cafes and concert hall than had been realized.

Michel said Abdeslam was wounded — local media said he was shot in the leg — in the operation launched as EU leaders met on the other side of the city to discuss Europe’s migration crisis. U.S. President Barack Obama sent his congratulations.

Television footage showed armed security forces dragging a man with a sack on his head out of a building and into a car.

“We got him,” Belgian government minister Theo Francken said on Twitter.

Hollande said France wanted to extradite Abdeslam, who was born and raised in Brussels to a Moroccan immigrant family, and hoped he would yield more clarity about an operation mounted by Syria-based Islamic State in which all the known attackers died.

Several bursts of gunfire rang out earlier in the capital’s Molenbeek area – Abdeslam’s home neighborhood and the scene of past investigations into the Paris attacks – and police officers surrounded an apartment block there from around 4 p.m. (1500 GMT).

Two explosions were heard after the arrest, though it was unclear whether they were part of a new operation or the clear-up. Some four hours later, the main police presence had stood down but crime scene investigators were still at work.

There had long been speculation about whether Abdeslam had stayed in Belgium or managed to flee to Syria. Security services will be seeking information from Abdeslam on Islamic State plans and structures, his contacts in Europe and Syria and support networks and finance.

Hollande said he was sure Abdeslam, whose elder brother blew himself up at a Parisian cafe on Nov. 13, had also been in the city that night and had helped plan the attack.

FINGERPRINTS

Belgian police had found fingerprints belonging to Abdeslam at the scene of an apartment raided on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office also said an Algerian killed during that earlier operation was probably one of the people French and Belgian investigators were seeking in relation to the attacks in Paris.

Public broadcaster RTBF said it had information that Abdeslam, whose elder brother blew himself up in Paris, was “more than likely” one of two men who police had said evaded capture at the scene before a sniper shot dead 35-year-old Belkaid as he aimed a Kalashnikov.

It said Belkaid was the man known to police as Samir Bouzid who has been sought since December when police issued CCTV pictures of him wiring cash from Brussels two days after the Paris attacks to a woman who was then killed in a shootout with police in the Paris suburb of St. Denis.

She was a cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian who had fought in Syria and is suspected of being a prime organizer of the attacks in which 130 people were killed. Both died in the apartment in St. Denis on Nov. 18.

France’s BFM television said the fingerprints were found on a glass in the apartment, where four police officers, including a Frenchwoman, were wounded when a hail of automatic gunfire hit them through the front door as they arrived for what officials said they had expected to be a relatively routine search.

Abdeslam’s elder brother was among the suicide bombers who killed themselves in Paris. The younger Abdeslam was driven back to Brussels from Paris hours later.

Belgian authorities are holding 10 people suspected of involvement with him, but there had been no report of the fugitive himself being sighted.

Investigators believe much of the planning and preparation for the November bombing and shooting rampage in Paris was conducted in Brussels by young French and Belgian nationals, some of whom fought in Syria for Islamic State.

The attack strained relations between Brussels and Paris, with French officials suggesting Belgium was lax in monitoring the activities of hundreds of militants returned from Syria.

Hollande and Michel took pains to exchange mutual compliments to their security services and cross-border cooperation.

Brussels, headquarters of the European Union as well as Western military alliance NATO, was entirely locked down for days after the Paris attacks for fear of a major incident there. Brussels has maintained a high state of security alert since then, with military patrols a regular sight.

(Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Jan Strupczewski; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Andrew Heavens; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Alastair Macdonald)

Algerian named as dead Brussels gunman, manhunt goes on

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian prosecutors on Wednesday named a 35-year-old Algerian as the man shot dead by police on Tuesday during a police raid on a Brussels apartment in the hunt for clues to bloody attacks in Paris last November.

Police found an Islamic State flag in the apartment used by Mohamed Belkaid and two others suspected of being with him after officers were met with a barrage of automatic weapons fire as they arrived to search the flat.

Belkaid, who was living in Belgium illegally and had a police record for theft but was not on security watchlists, was killed by a special forces sniper after a three-hour siege. A manhunt for the two other suspects continued on Wednesday.

The government held its alert status steady at Level Three, one step below the maximum.

The prosecutors said a radical Islamic text was found next to Belkaid’s body and a cache of ammunition was also discovered. It was not clear if he had any links to the Paris suspects.

Two people detained overnight on suspicion of links to the shootout in the suburb of Forest were released without charge.

Investigators believe much of the planning and preparation for the Nov. 13 shooting and bombing rampage in Paris that killed 130 people was conducted in Brussels by young French and Belgian nationals, some of whom fought as militants in Syria.

Ten people are being held in Belgian custody on a variety of charges relating to the four-month investigation, though prime suspects, including Salah Abdeslam, a brother of one of the Paris suicide bombers, are suspected of having fled the country.

SHOOTOUT

On Tuesday, six Belgian and French police officers arrived to search the flat and came under automatic fire through a door from at least two people barricaded inside. Four officers, one of them a Frenchwoman, were wounded, none very seriously.

Ministers said the police visit to the apartment had not been expected to provide much new evidence and that the presence of French officers did not imply a major break in the case.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said he was holding the state of alert steady after a meeting of security and intelligence chiefs in Belgium’s national security council .

Brussels, headquarters of the European Union as well as Western military alliance NATO, was entirely locked down for days shortly after the Paris attacks because of fears of a major incident there. The city has maintained a high state of security alert since then, with military patrols a regular occurrence.

Belgium, with a Muslim population of about 5 percent among its 11 million people, has Europe’s highest rate of citizens joining Islamist militants in Syria.

People living in the quiet neighborhood of Forest suffered hours of lockdown on Tuesday and voiced shock at the events.

Schoolboy Maxime, 11, was at home sick when he heard gunfire and helicopters and saw masked commandoes on a rooftop. “They had a huge weapon,” he said, adding he was “very, very scared”.

(Additional reporting by Miranda Alexander-Webber; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Tom Heneghan)

Belgian army to protect nuclear sites, interior ministry says

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium has ordered its military to protect nuclear sites such as power plants in the country to safeguard them against possible militant attacks, the country’s interior ministry said on Friday.

Some 140 soldiers will be mobilized to protect locations such as Belgium’s two nuclear power plants at Tihange and Doel as well as nuclear research and storage facilities, a spokesman for the interior ministry said.

“We are setting up a special police unit for this sort of security task but that will take some time for it to be operational,” the spokesman said, adding that the army would take over in the meantime.

In February, Belgian investigators searching houses linked to suspects in the Islamist militant attacks in Paris last November found a video tracking movements of a man linked to the country’s nuclear industry.

The spokesman said there was no direct link between the discovery of the video and the decision to take the additional security measures.

(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Belgium charges suspect allegedly tied to Paris attacks, releases another

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium charged a man detained this week with terrorist offenses linked to the Paris attacks and released another held for three weeks due to lack of evidence, federal prosecutors said on Friday.

A judge determined that Zakaria J., born in 1986 and detained on Wednesday, should be kept in custody for a further week on charges of terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.

A second man detained this week, Mustafa E., was released.

A Belgian court also ordered on Friday the release from custody of one of 10 people previously charged with involvement in the Paris attacks due to insufficient evidence against him.

Ayoub Bazarouj, 22, was detained after a search of his house on Dec. 30 and charged the next day with terrorist murder and participation in a terrorist organization. Bazarouj’s lawyer Yannick De Vlaemynck said he had been freed without conditions.

Many of those being held in Belgium are charged with having aided Salah Abdeslam, a former Brussels resident who was in Paris on the night of the Nov. 13 attacks in which 130 people were killed.

“He knew of Salah Abdeslam as he lived in the area, but he was not a friend and there are no elements showing that he provided help in any way,” De Vlaemynck said.

Belgium has been at the heart of investigations into the attacks as four of the Paris suicide bombers had either been living in Belgium or were Belgian-Moroccans. Belgian investigators are also looking for two fugitives, notably Abdeslam, whose brother was one of the suicide attackers.

(Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop and Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Belgium detains two more suspects over Paris attacks

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium has arrested two more men suspected of links to the Paris attacks on Nov. 13 in which 130 people were killed, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.

The men, identified as Belgian national Zakaria J., born in 1986 and Moroccan national Mustafa E., born in 1981, were arrested during two house searches on Wednesday and Thursday morning in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, prosecutors said.

“Both were arrested due to their possible ties with different suspects in this case,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “The Investigating Judge will decide later today upon their possible further detention.”

No arms or explosives were found during the searches, it added.

Since the November Paris attacks federal prosecutors have already taken 10 people into custody over their suspected involvement, which appear to have been prepared mainly in Belgium.

If the two latest detainees are kept in custody, their number would rise to 12.

Last week, investigators said a number of the Paris attackers used two apartments and a house in Belgium as possible safe houses in the weeks leading up to their coordinated shooting and suicide bomb assault on the French capital.

They also found a possible bomb factory for the Paris attacks in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek, with traces of explosives.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Dominic Evans)