Journal De Bruxelles - News from Brussels, Belgium, Europe and the world

Tonga prop Ben Tameifuna said on Wednesday a tsunami that hit the Pacific Island nation last weekend will "knock it back a few steps" after also struggling due to coronavirus restrictions.

European stock markets mainly fell Thursday with sentiment jarred by sliding shares on Wall Street, which was rocked by surging global inflation and the prospect of rising interest rates.

A growing number of Western nations and cybersecurity groups have issued digital surveillance warnings for next month's Winter Olympics in Beijing, with some advising foreign athletes to leave personal phones and laptops at home.

Daniil Medvedev tamed Nick Kyrgios to surge into the Australian Open third round on Thursday and avoid joining Garbine Muguruza and Emma Raducanu on the list of high-profile casualties.

An app that Winter Olympics attendees must use has been patched, a Chinese official told AFP Thursday, after cyber security researchers said they had found a "simple but devastating" flaw that could allow data leaks.

Emirates said Thursday it will lift a suspension of flights to several US destinations in a "temporary reprieve" after the launch of 5G networks was delayed near American airports over safety fears.

"Frustrated" three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray was stunned by Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel in straight sets in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday.

Several Afghan women's rights activists said Thursday they are going into hiding to escape a Taliban crackdown, just days after the hardline Islamists used pepper spray to break up a rally in the capital.

A British man who took hostages at a Texas synagogue told his family he had prayed for two years to carry out the attack, media reported Thursday, as police made two arrests.

A Paris court on Thursday ruled that Twitter must reveal its measures for fighting hate speech, in one of several cases thrashing out whether the French justice system has jurisdiction over the US social media giant.

The stark contrast between the lives of two coronavirus patients unearthed by Chinese contact tracers sparked a widespread debate on Thursday over the country's entrenched wealth inequality.

Online retail giant Amazon could pull out of a deal to create its Africa headquarters in Cape Town, if a legal challenge by indigenous activists is allowed to proceed, a Cape Town court heard Thursday.

Garbine Muguruza was among several seeds to fall on a day of shocks at the Australian Open on Thursday ahead of men's title favourite Daniil Medvedev and Nick Kyrgios squaring off in a blockbuster encounter.

Former Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford has failed in his attempt to win medals at both the summer and winter Games after missing the cut for Britain's bobsleigh team for Beijing.

Misfiring Stefanos Tsitsipas survived a thorough examination by former world number one junior Sebastian Baez before taking his place in the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday.

Spain is spearheading calls for governments to start tackling Covid-19 as any other endemic respiratory virus like seasonal flu, despite WHO opposition and warnings that the approach is premature.

Taiwan said Thursday its vice president will transit in the United States on his way to the inauguration of Honduras' president-elect, a stopover seen by China as an affront to Beijing's claim on the island.

Indian animal lovers are in mourning over the sudden passing of a nationally famous tigress credited with repopulating a forest redoubt for her endangered kin.

The caretaker of the last Sikh temple in Kabul to regularly host open prayer surveysthe cavernous hall where throngs once gathered in worship.

The first humanitarian flights arrived in volcano and tsunami-stricken Tonga Thursday, five days after the dual disaster cut the Pacific kingdom off from the rest of the world.

Three dachshunds lay claim to a big bed, while an agitated mongrel yaps constantly and a miniature schnauzer appears disgruntled despite soothing Bob Marley tunes playing over the stereo.

The engineers aboard the floating power station on Lake Kivu could only watch nervously as the volcano in the distance erupted violently, sending tremors rumbling throughthe water beneath them.

Tears stream down Antonina Zaytseva's face as she considers the possibility of her separatist region of Ukraine again being engulfed by war.

The United States has called for a diplomatic solution with Russia to resolve a crisis over Ukraine, but in public at least, the two powers remain deeply at odds.

Thailand will resume its quarantine-free travel scheme from February 1, officials said Thursday, after the programme was suspended due to the fast-spreading Omicron Covid-19 variant.

Virat Kohli became India's leading run-scorer in away one-day internationals as he hit an energetic half-century against South Africa just days after his shock exit as Test skipper.

The CIA has concluded that US diplomats suffering mysterious headaches and nausea in what has been dubbed "Havana Syndrome" were not targeted in a global campaign by a foreign power, reports said Wednesday.

Next month's Beijing Winter Olympics can still be meaningful even with the general public locked out because of Covid-19, a top official from last year's pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games has said.

Malaysian badminton ace Lee Zii Jia, ranked seventh in the world, has quit his country's national team to play as an independent, reports said Thursday.

Australia's former US Open champion Samantha Stosur bid an emotional farewell on Thursday to singles tennis after being ousted at her 20th Australian Open.

Five former residents of the last remaining uninhabited town near Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant returned on Thursday to live there for the first time since the 2011 disaster.

An 800-year-old minaret considered one of the finest examples of Islamic architecture in Afghanistan was damaged by two earthquakes this week and is in danger of collapse, an official has said.