Belgian news in brief, 17 February 2006

Cluster bomb ban to be diluted

The coalition government majority is prepared to dilute the federal Parliament’s decision to ban cluster bombs. Diluting the ban would protect jobs at the weapons factory Forges de Zeebrugge in Liège, but especially avoid a row with the US. The Parliament agreed on Wednesday to ban the production, storage, possession and trading in submunition for cluster bombs. Submunition is used to describe small bombs that are packed into cluster bombs. Government MPs are prepared to submit new legislation reducing the number of bombs that can be defined as submunition.

25pc of firms face bullying problem

One in four companies in Belgium is confronted with bullying in the workplace. This is despite the fact that 84 percent of them have an anti-bullying policy, an international study by Office Team has revealed. The Netherlands had the highest rate of bullying (39 percent), followed by Germany (38 percent), New Zealand (33), Belgium, Luxembourg and Australia (25), Britain (24), Ireland (23), France (15), Italy (9) and the Czech Republic (6 percent).

Prostitute guilty of client’s death

An Antwerp prostitute has been convicted in absentia and ordered to serve a three-year jail term and pay a fine of EUR 5,000 for the death of a 64-year-old client. The man and woman had met in a city hotel last year when the woman allowed the man to smoke cocaine so that she could rob him more easily. But the man suffered an overdose and died.

Subject: Belgian news