E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSA tightrope walker practices between two spheres of the Atomium monument in Brussels, Belgium, May 20.
Sebastien Pirlet / Reuters
Hundreds gather to honor the 28 dead in Switzerland bus crash
Yorick Jansens / AFP - Getty Images
Coffins are displayed during a remembrance service at the Soeverein hall in Lommel on March 21 for the 28 victims of last week's fatal school bus crash in a Swiss alpine tunnel. Belgium's king and the Dutch crown prince joined thousands of mourners in a highly emotional homage in the sleepy northern town near the Dutch border, home to 17 of the dead, six of them Dutch nationals. Swiss investigators are due to travel to Belgium soon to question the children on board the coach in attempts to ascertain the cause of the accident.
At least 28 people died in Switzerland after their bus crashed on the way home from a ski trip. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
Belgium mourns as bodies of bus crash victims are flown home
Belgian Defense Department via AP
Soldiers unload coffins of children and teachers who were killed in a deadly bus crash in Switzerland, at the military airport of Melsbroek, Belgium, on March 16. A coach accident in Switzerland on Wednesday left 28 dead, including 22 children traveling home after a skiing holiday.
BRUSSELS/SION, Switzerland -- Belgian military aircraft brought home the bodies of 22 children and six adults killed in a bus crash in Switzerland, and the country observed a minute's silence during a national day of mourning on Friday.
White coffins were loaded into two Hercules transport aircraft near the Swiss town of Sion and landed at a military airport near Brussels from where undertakers collected them after a short ceremony. A third plane returned with their belongings.
In factories, offices and schools, Belgians stood silent. Buses, trams and some trains also stopped for passengers to pay their respects to the victims, most of them 11 and 12 year olds returning from a school skiing trip.
"The grief is so intense, but this helps," said one man from the town of Lommel - home to 17 of those killed - referring to acts of remembrance across Belgium.
-- Reuters
Yves Logghe / AP
A convoy of hearses leave the military airport of Melsbroek, Belgium, on March 16. A tour bus slammed into a tunnel wall in the Swiss Alps in a horrific accident that killed 22 12-year-old students returning from a joyous ski vacation as well as the six adults who were accompanying them.
Yorick Jansens / AFP - Getty Images
Children of primary school 'De Speling' in Lommel form a circle around a heart drawn with chalk on March 16 during a minute of silence at the 't Stekske primary school in Lommel for the victims of the March 13 bus crash near the town of Sierre in southern Switzerland. Twenty-eight people died in the accident, including 22 children from two schools of Lommel and Heverlee, returning to Belgium from a skiing holiday. Belgians observed a minute of silence and church bells tolled across the grieving nation on March 16 as the bodies of the victims were flown home.
Families visit site of deadly bus accident in Switzerland
Laurent Gillieron / EPA
Relatives of victims leave the Hotel des Vignes, where the families of victims are staying, the day after a tourist bus from Belgium crashed in a tunnel of the motorway A9, in Uvrier, Switzerland, 15 March 2012. Twenty-eight people, including 22 children, returning to Belgium from a skiing holiday died in a bus accident in Sierre in the Swiss canton of Valais, Swiss police said 14 March 2012.
Olivier Maire / Keystone via AP
A bus with the relatives of victims leaves the tunnel after they paid tribute at the site of the accident in Sierre, western Switzerland, on March 15. Twenty-eight people, including 22 children, returning to Belgium from a skiing holiday died in a bus accident in Sierre in the Swiss canton of Valais, Swiss police said Wednesday.
Family members of the victims in yesterday's deadly bus crash in a Swiss tunnel, were taken to the scene of the accident that killed 22 schoolchildren and 6 adults. The bus was carrying Belgium students returning from a school ski trip. According to AP, before visiting the site, the relatives were also taken to the morgue to help identify bodies.
-- Reuters and AP contributed to this report
Virginia Mayo / AP
A young girl looks out from behind a fence with tributes attached to it at the 't Stekske school in Lommel, Belgium, on March 15. Belgium is preparing to fly back home the bodies of 22 schoolchildren and six adults who died after a bus bringing them back from a skiing holiday slammed head-on into a tunnel wall in Switzerland. The bus was carrying students from two towns, Lommel, east of Antwerp, and Heverlee, near Leuven.
Georges Gobet / AFP - Getty Images
School children lay tributes in front of the St. Lambertius school in Heverlee on March 15, for the victims of the Swiss bus crash. Twenty-eight people were killed when a coach packed with schoolchildren crashed in southern Switzerland as they returned to Belgium from a skiing holiday, Swiss police said.
Olivier Hoslet / EPA
Chlidren react as they pay their respect at a memory wall outside the City Hall in Lommel, Belgium, on March 15. Twenty-eight people, including 22 children from two schools in the Belgian cities of Lommel and Heverlee, who were on their way home to Belgium from a skiing holiday, died in a bus accident in Sierre in the Swiss canton of Valais, Swiss police said 14 March 2012.
Belgian schoolchildren learn of bus crash that killed classmates
Yves Herman / Reuters
Relatives, parents and teachers arrive at the Sint Lambertus school in Belgium on March 14, 2012. A bus carrying children from the school crashed in a tunnel in Switzerland, killing 28 people.
Yorick Jansens / AFP - Getty Images
There was equal grief at the Stekske primary school in Lommel, Belgium, following news of the bus crash.
Reuters reports from Heverlee, Belgium — At morning assembly on Wednesday, the children of St Lambertus primary school in the Belgian town of Heverlee learnt of the bus crash in the Swiss mountains that killed a teacher and several of their classmates.
Twenty-four pupils from the Catholic school in the Leuven suburb of Heverlee were on the ski trip, a popular annual event. A teacher and a trip organizer were killed in the crash along with eight local children. In total, 22 children and 6 adults were killed.
"The eight sets of parents, they can only sit and wait, they just don't know. I'm in pain, I have tears inside," said Dirk De Gendt, a priest at St Lambertus Catholic church and a member of the school board.
"We don't have words, only deep grief. They were supposed to be back now." Read the full story.
Denis Balibouse / Reuters
A worker stands in front of the wreckage of a bus that crashed into a motorway tunnel in Sierre in western Switzerland on March 14, 2012. The bus, carrying 52 people, hit the side of a tunnel on the way back from a school ski trip and slammed into a wall, crushing the front third of the vehicle.
Yves Logghe / AP
A sandal is seen in the Reda mosque in Brussels, Belgium, on March 13, 2012. A mosque near Brussels was the target Monday evening of an arson attack in which the imam died, Belgian authorities said.
Imam dies in arson attack on Belgian mosque
Reuters reports from Brussels — A man threw a petrol bomb through the window of a mosque west of Brussels on Monday, killing the imam and injuring a second person, Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure reported.
The newspaper quoted police as saying a suspect was detained after the attack in Anderlecht.
Belgium has a Muslim population of about 500,000 out of a population of nearly 11 million and there are occasional acts of violence between communities, particularly in areas such as Anderlecht. Read more.
Mourners gather at site of Belgium attack
Laurent Dubrule / Reuters
A woman prays at the site of a gun and grenade attack in central Liege December 14.
Laurent Dubrule / Reuters
A woman stands near flowers and offerings placed at the site of a gun and grenade attack in central Liege December 14. Nordine Amrani, a 33-year-old previously jailed for possession of arms and drugs offences, brought carnage to Liege on Tuesday, spraying bullets at Christmas shoppers and hurling a grenade at people waiting for a bus, killing four people including a girl of 17 months before shooting himself dead.
Robin Utrecht / EPA
Shattered glass in a window after the shooting and grenades attack in Place Saint-Lambert, Liege, Belgium, on Dec. 14. A wounded child died late Dec. 13 after a shooting and grenade attack on a Belgian Christmas market, raising the death toll to five, a news report said. The dead consisted of four victims and the perpetrator, a man who hurled grenades and fired into a crowd 13 December in Liege before taking his own life, the Belga news agency reported. More than 120 people.
Christophe Licoppe / Photonews via Getty Images
People mourn at Place Saint Lambert on Dec. 14, in Liege, Belgium. Three people were killed and over 120 injured after Nordine Amrani threw grenades and started shooting at a busy market. Amrani commited suicide at the scene.
From msnbc.com news services:
LIEGE, Belgium - Investigators have found the body of a woman in a shed belonging to the gunman who killed four people and wounded 125 in eastern Belgium on Tuesday.
The body was found following an overnight search of the building, which police said shooter Nordine Amrani had used to grow cannabis.
The 33-year-old brought carnage to the eastern city of Liege by hurling grenades and spraying bullets into crowds of Christmas shoppers.
Two boys aged 15 and 17 were killed, along with a 75-year-old woman and a toddler of just 17 months, whom hospital doctors fought for hours to save.
Attacker throws grenades, kills four in Belgium
Bruno Devoghel / Photonews via Getty Images Contributor
People run as police mobilize after a grenade attack at Place St-Lambert in the heart of the city on Dec. 13 in Liege, Belgium. Two people were killed and 25 injured after at least two men threw grenades and started shooting with Kalashnikovs at a bus stop. According to reports one of the attackers was killed and another is on the run.
Bruno Devoghel / Photonews via Getty Images Contributor
Emergency services assist a victim after a grenade attack at Place St-Lambert in the heart of the city on December 13, 2011 in Liege, Belgium. Two people were killed and 25 injured after at least two men threw grenades and started shooting with Kalashnikovs at a bus stop. According to reports one of the attackers was killed and another is on the run.
Bruno Devoghel / Photonews via Getty Images Contributor
Police run with unholstered guns after a grenade attack at Place St-Lambert in the heart of the city on Dec. 13 in Liege, Belgium. Two people were killed and 25 injured after at least two men threw grenades and started shooting with Kalashnikovs at a bus stop. According to reports one of the attackers was killed and another is on the run.
Reuters
Rescuers evacuate injured people at the Place Saint Lambert square where two men threw explosives in the city center of the Belgian city of Liege on Dec. 13. The men threw multiple explosives towards a bus stop, killing two people including one of the attackers and wounding about 15 people, Belgian news agency Belga reported on Tuesday.
From msnbc.com news services:
LIEGE, Belgium - A man armed with hand grenades and guns opened fire in the crowded center of a Belgian city on Tuesday, killing four people and wounding dozens, officials said.
Liege Prosecutor Danielle Reynders said that the dead included a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and a 75-year-old woman. Officials say at least 75 people have been wounded.
La Libre newspaper said one of the wounded is a 2-year-old girl, who is in critical condition.
The man, named by Belgian press agency Belga as 32-year-old Nordine Amrani, opened fire and threw explosives on a city center square which was hosting a Christmas market.
It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack in Liege city, but Interior Ministry official Peter Mertens said it did not involve terrorism. He said the assailant died, but did not say how that had happened. The daily La Meuse newspaper said the unidentified attacker killed himself.
Earlier media reports had said as many as three men had launched the midday attack, which left blood splattered across the cobblestone streets of a central square in Liege where people were doing Christmas shopping.
Click here to read more on the story as officials respond to the attack.
Belgian labor activists 'clean' Brussels Stock Exchange in symbolic protest
Bruno Fahy / EPA
Members of the CSC / ACV Christian trade union bathing in foam in front of the Brussels Stock Exchange building in Belgium on November 9. Their protest action, a symbolic cleaning of the Bourse, is part of a larger action of the three main Belgian unions, FGTB/ABVV, CSC/ACV and CGSLB/ACLVB, asking for government action on the financial crisis.
Bruno Fahy / AFP - Getty Images
Demonstrators bathe in foam in front of the Brussels Stock Exchange on November 9.
Fishing for shrimp on horseback in Belgium
Yves Herman / Reuters
Belgian shrimp fisherman Eddy D' Hulster, 68, who has been fishing for shrimp for 47 years, rides a carthorse to haul a net out of the sea after catching shrimp during low tide at the coastal town of Oostduinkerke, August 16. At the end of the fishing, the fishermen and their mounts leave the water to empty the net and to put the contents into two wicker baskets fixed on each side of the horse. This traditional method of catching shrimps along the North Sea coast, which dates back to some 500 years, attracts tourists every summer.
Yves Herman / Reuters
Belgian shrimp fisherman Maurius prepares his nets ahead of shrimp fishing during low tide at the coast town of Oostduinkerke, August 16, 2011.
Yves Herman / Reuters
68-year-old Belgian shrimp fisherman Eddy D' Hulster, with 47 years of experience in shrimp fishing, stands next to his carthorse after catching shrimp during low tide in the coastal town of Oostduinkerke August 16, 2011.
Yves Herman / Reuters
A Belgian shrimp fisherman boils his catch after fishing in the coastal town of Oostduinkerke August 16, 2011. At the end of the fishing, the fishermen and their mounts leave the water to empty the net and to put the contents into two wicker baskets fixed on each side of the horse. This traditional method of catching shrimp along the North Sea coast, which dates back to some 500 years, attracts tourists every summer.
Virginia Mayo / AP
Anesthesiologist Fabienne Roelarts hypnotizes patient Christel Place prior to her thyroid surgery in the operating theater of the Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc Hospital in Brussels, Belgium, in a picture taken on July 15 and made available on July 27. At the hospital, one third of all surgeries to remove thyroids and one quarter of all breast cancer surgeries are performed using hypnosis and local anesthetic rather than full anesthesia.
For some, hypnosis eases pain, recovery of surgery
The AP reports:
As the surgeons cut into her neck, Marianne Marquis was thinking of the beach.
As she heard the doctors' voices, she was imagining her toes in the sand, the water lapping.
Marquis had been hypnotized before surgery to have her thyroid removed. She's among a growing number of surgical patients at the Belgian hospital, Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc in Brussels, who choose hypnosis and a local anesthetic to avoid the groggy knockout effect of general anesthesia.
These patients are sedated but aware, and doctors say their recovery time is faster and their need for painkillers reduced. This method is feasible for only certain types of operations.
In her case, Marquis, 53, imagined herself in a field near a beach — which her anesthetist began describing by whispering into her ear about 10 minutes before surgery. Continue reading.
Yves Herman / Reuters
Performers in historic costumes take part in a procession during the annual medieval festival, the Ommegang, in Brussels' Grand Place July 5. The Ommegang pageant is a re-enactment of celebrations marking the historical entry of Charles the Fifth, his son Don Philip, infant of Spain and Duke of Brabant, and his sisters, Eleanor of Austria, Queen of France and Mary of Hungary into Brussels in 1549.
Ommegang pageant in Brussels celebrates history of Belgium
Don't try this at home. Read about Ommegang here.