Paris police detained 150 protesters when crowds rallied outside the US embassy against a controversial film that denigrated Islam’s prophet. Arrests were also made in neighboring Belgium, with police pepper spraying Muslim protesters. Muslim protesters, including women and children, answered social media calls to gather at the world-famous Champs-Elysées and pray on the wide, tree-lined sidewalks. Only... 

Psychiatrists will be helping trainee priests in Belgium to avoid potentially dangerous situations at work. Special “anti-pedophile” training is the new measure to help prevent child abuse by priests. ­According to Belgium’s RTL online, psychiatrists will teach aspiring priests “the correct attitude in the presence of a child”. “The goal of the training? Not to repeat the errors of the... 

Syria's Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi The Syrian Foreign Ministry has said in a statement that Damascus expelled the ambassadors of the US, Britain, France, Turkey and some other states. Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi announced the list of expelled diplomats on Tuesday. The expulsions came after Western states expelled Syrian diplomats from their countries last week. The ministry... 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton The United States says it has exempted 11 nations including 10 European Union members and Japan from tough new sanctions on Iran as they have reduced oil purchase from Tehran. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement on Tuesday that the exemption covers financial institutions from 11 nations – Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France,... 

SWIFT, the Brussels based transaction provider, announced it has been instructed to cut services to Iranian financial institutions that are subject to European sanctions, in order to comply with the EU Council directive. ­The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, is crucial to Iran’s oil and other trade. The EU Council decision prohibits companies such as SWIFT... 

Thousands of Czech university students rally in central Prague on February 29, 2012. Massive demonstrations across Europe have taken issue with the austerity measures adopted by the European governments against economic adversity. The protests were held on Wednesday in the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Belgium, and Spain against government economic reforms aimed at dealing with the unprecedented... 

French former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is seen upon arrival at his lawyer's office in Paris. Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Khan is to be question as a suspect for his participation in an alleged illegal prostitution ring in northern France. Police will question Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday for allegedly participating in a ring that organized sex parties at restaurants... 

Killer: Nordine Amrani murdered a cleaning lady in his rented flat before heading off on a bloodthirsty rampage in the center of the Belgian city Liege killer Nordine Amrani murdered four people and wounded 125 others because he feared being sent to back to prison for a sex crime, his lawyer said today. The 32-year-old convicted criminal, who was due to marry his long-term girlfriend, used grenades... 

Protesters in Belgium on Friday, December 2, 2011 Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the Belgian capital, Brussels, in protest to austerity measures proposed by the country’s incoming government. On Friday, Belgians marched in central Brussels to voice their opposition to cuts the incoming government says are necessary to help the country’s troubled financial sector,... 

Although present, the burqa remains very rare in Belgium. A new law banning the burqa comes into force in Belgium on Saturday. The law has been approved with overwhelming support by both houses of parliament, a rare display of unity in this otherwise divided nation. Belgium is now the second country in the European Union after France to implement a burqa ban. The law has found unanimous support among... 

Belgium will soon become the second country in Europe to ban the burqa in public places, after the parliament approved legislation forbidding full veils, the bill’s author said today. The legislation quietly cleared the Senate last week after it was overwhelmingly approved by the lower chamber of deputies last month, when only one Green lawmaker voted against it and two abstained. The new law... 

A woman passes by a Jewish memorial , desecrated with Nazi symbols, at a cemetery in Dortmund, Germany, Jan. 10, 2005. Members of the Coordinating Committee of European Muslim and Jewish Leaders from Belgium, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, U.S. and more announce plans for a series of public events on Europe Day. Prominent Muslim and Jewish leaders expressed Monday deep concern regarding the rise of... 

Bart De Wever The frontrunner in Belgium’s elections this weekend is running on perhaps the ultimate in divisive proposals: the breakup of the nation. Despite its status as the home of the European Union, Belgium itself has long struggled with divisions between its 6 million Dutch-speakers and 4.5 million Francophones but until recently talk of a breakup has been limited to extremists. Now, Bart... 

Banned: A woman wears a burka in Brussels, but she could be jailed if a new law is brought in later this year Belgium became the first European country to impose a full ban on wearing a burka last night. Its parliament approved a draft law which states women can be jailed for hiding their faces in public. The bill – which must be rubber-stamped by the Belgian senate – is set to become law... 

The ban on headscarves at the Koninklijk [Royal] Atheneum in Antwerp and the Athenaeum in Antwerp-Hoboken led to massive protests by the Muslim community beginning during the summer holidays. These were the last two secondary schools in Antwerp that permitted the wearing of headscarves. In the new school year, which begins September 1, there will be none. Three hundred pupils threatened to leave the...