Last remaining multiple World Cup champions eliminated

KAZAN, Russia  — Only five countries have won the World Cup more than once. None of them have a chance to win another this year.

Five-time champion Brazil and two-time champion Uruguay were both eliminated Friday, losing in the quarterfinals. Argentina, another two-time winner, lost in the round of 16 while four-time champion Germany couldn’t make it out of the group stage.

Italy, which also has won four titles, didn’t even qualify, losing to Sweden in the playoffs.

This is the first time there will be a semifinals without at least one of Argentina, Brazil, Germany or Italy.

That only leaves France and England as former champions still with a chance to win another title in Russia.

BRAZIL

Brazil was one of the biggest favorites heading into the tournament in Russia, but it struggled early in the group stage and finally lost to Belgium 2-1 on Friday in Kazan.

After a lackluster start in qualifying, Brazil replaced 1994 World Cup-winning captain Dunga with Tite as coach. Tite oversaw an immediate improvement in results that led to Brazil’s qualification.

Although Brazil finished first in Group E, it failed to impress in attack. There were glimpses of pace and skill from Neymar and Philippe Coutinho, but the team was not as free-flowing going forward as many had hoped.

At least the defense was solid, conceding only one goal through the round of 16.

Brazil has now been eliminated by European opposition in the knockout stages at each of the four World Cups since it last won in 2002.
URUGUAY

Uruguay was the World Cup’s first winner back in 1930 and the country added a second title 20 years later when it defeated Brazil in the final match in Rio de Janeiro.

Although the Uruguayans haven’t made a final since, they have become a presence again in the final stages.

In 2010, Uruguay made the semifinals, losing to the Netherlands 3-2. The team came close again this year, but lost to France 2-0 on Friday in Nizhny Novgorod.

Uruguay came second in South American qualifying behind Brazil. Its strong all-around performances in Russia, particularly in the 2-1 victory over Portugal in the round of 16, raised hopes that the team could at least match its performance from 2010.

However, during the loss to France in the quarterfinals, Uruguay was forced to play without injured striker Edinson Cavani. And a bad mistake from goalkeeper Fernando Muslera gifted Antoine Griezmann a goal.

ARGENTINA

Argentina, the World Cup champion in 1978 and 1986, has arguably the best player of his generation in Lionel Messi. But few gave the team much of a chance of making a second straight final.

Qualifying for the tournament in Russia proved to be an ordeal, requiring a final day hat trick from Messi.

With coach Jorge Sampaoli struggling to build a team around Messi, Argentina labored during the group stage in Russia, notably in its opening 1-1 draw against Iceland.

A 3-0 loss to Croatia raised the prospect that it wouldn’t even make it out of the group, but the team scraped through with a late winner against Nigeria.

The reward, though, was tough — France in the round of 16. Kylian Mbappe exploited the lack of speed in Argentina’s defense and lead France to a 4-3 victory.

GERMANY

Germany won its fourth World Cup in Brazil four years ago. A chance for a fifth was expected in Russia, not least because the team hadn’t done much wrong in between.

Germany’s failure to make the second stage for the first time since 1938 is one of the World Cup’s great surprises. After all, Germany has made it to the semifinals in each major tournament it has contested since 2006.

Losing its opening group match against Mexico was seen as a blip. Normal service would surely resume, it was thought. However, the team struggled in its second match against Sweden, requiring a curling goal from Toni Kroos with virtually the last kick of the match to win 2-1.

In its final match against South Korea, the Germans lost 2-0.

ITALY

At least the others qualified for this year’s World Cup.

Italy, however, didn’t even make it to Russia after losing to Sweden in the playoffs. It’s the first time Italy has missed out on a World Cup in 60 years.

Italy’s national team has been in decline since winning its fourth World Cup title in 2006. At the World Cups of 2010 and 2014, the Italians failed to get out of their group.

source: philstar.com

At least 13 dead, 35 hurt in Brussels airport blasts

Brussels, Belgium - At least 13 persons have been reported dead and 35 others injured after two explosions were heard at Brussels Airport on Tuesday, Belgian media reported, even as Maalbeek train station staff also reported explosions, as Belgian authorities raised the country's terrorism alert from three to the maximum four.

Initial reports indicate one person dead at the airport blast scene. An airport source told journalists that staff have reinforced security at the airport.

Meanwhile, an explosion occurred at a metro station close to the European Union's institutions in the Belgian capital, subway staff told AFP. At least 15 persons were initially reported as injured.

The Belgium crisis center broadcast an advisory telling Brussels residents to "stay where you are".

The blast occurred shortly after 0800 GMT, in the morning rush hour, at Maalbeek station. TV images showed black smoke billowing from the station entrance.

The metro operator later said the service was being closed down.

The airport blast occurred shortly after 0800 GMT, in the morning rush hour, at Maalbeek station. TV images showed black smoke billowing from the station entrance.

The explosions in Brussels Tuesday are "an attack against democratic Europe," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said.

"It is an attack against democratic Europe. We will never accept that terrorists attack our open societies," he told news agency TT in a statement, while his Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen denounced the blasts on Twitter as a "despicable attack".

Dutch counter-terrorism officials said Tuesday they were boosting security at national airports and tightening controls on the southern border with Belgium amid a series of blasts in Brussels.

"Out of precaution we are taking a number of additional measures in the Netherlands," the Dutch coordinator for terrorism and security said, adding there would be "extra police patrols at Schipol, Rotterdam and Eindhoven and border controls on the southern border".

Security measures have been reinforced at the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris following Tuesday's bombings in Brussels, an airport source told AFP.

A full deployment of security officials was underway at all eight terminals of the international airport and its two railway stations, with reinforced checks on trains arriving from Brussels, said the source.

Images on the website of public broadcaster RTBF showed smoke rising from the terminal building, where the windows had been shattered.

The broadcaster said the airport blasts hit shortly after 8:00am (0700 GMT) and that regional authorities had gone into emergency mode, with all flights in and out of the airport halted.

Image (above) posted on Twitter by The Telegraph (@Telegraph) shows smoke rising from the terminal building at Brussels Airport.

There was no immediate confirmation of the cause of the blasts or of any injuries, but RTBF cited a witness who said they had seen several wounded people.

Images showed people fleeing from the terminal building.

The blasts come days after the dramatic arrest in Brussels on Friday of Saleh Abdeslam, prime suspect in the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people in November, after four months on the run. Watch this video below, compiled by Chad de Guzman, InterAksyon.com:

source: interaksyon.com

Paris attacks suspect Abdeslam captured in Brussels

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, Europe's most wanted man, was wounded and captured in a dramatic raid by armed police in the Belgian capital on Friday.

Abdeslam, 26, and four other suspects were arrested in the gritty Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, where the Franco-Moroccan allegedly helped plan the November 13 attacks in which 130 people died and 350 were injured.

Abdeslam was lightly wounded in the leg, prosecutors said. France said it would swiftly seek his extradition.

"The battle against terrorism does not end tonight, even though this is a victory," French President Francois Hollande told a news conference in Brussels with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

"I think of the victims of November 13, because Salah Abdeslam was directly linked to the preparation, the organization and unfortunately the perpetration of these attacks."

Hollande, whose embattled presidency will be defined by his response to the worst terror attacks on French soil, said Paris would request Abdeslam's extradition from Belgium "as rapidly as possible."

Michel, who rushed out of an EU summit for a crisis meeting with Hollande, said Abdeslam's capture was "extremely important in the battle for democracy against this abominable form of extremism."

The two leaders received the congratulations of US President Barack Obama who reaffirmed a "shared commitment" to "degrading and destroying" Islamic State.

Also arrested was a man known under the fake name of Amine Choukri who also used a false Syrian name, Monir Ahmed Alaaj.

Abdeslam and the so-called Choukri were fingerprinted by police in Germany on October 5, one month before the attacks.

Choukri could also be a so-called Soufiane Kayal who was pulled over by police on the Austrian border with Hungary in September, again with Abdeslam.

The only man known for sure to be still be on the run is Mohamed Abrini who was filmed with Abdeslam two days before the attacks at a filling station on a motorway close to Paris.

Last survivor
Former small-time criminal Abdeslam is believed to be the last surviving member of the 10-man jihadist team that carried out attacks on the Bataclan rock venue, restaurants, bars and the Stade de France stadium.

He apparently fled by car to his hometown Brussels the day after the rampage, having refused to blow himself up, and is believed to have spent much if not all of the subsequent four months in the city.

His brother Brahim carried out one of the suicide bomb attacks in Paris and was buried in a quiet ceremony in Brussels on Thursday, the day before Salah was captured.

Prosecutors said special forces raided a house in Molenbeek on Friday because of evidence found in an operation in Brussels on Tuesday, in which a Paris-linked suspect died in a gun battle with police and two other people escaped.

One of Abdeslam's fingerprints was found at the scene of Tuesday's raid, sparking the huge manhunt that led to his capture.

A witness told AFP the operation began at around 1530 GMT when dozens of police cars swooped into the rundown Molenbeek neighborhood.

"I heard about three or four shots fired, but they were muffled, as if taking place indoors," said Karim, an Oxfam charity employee who lives in the largely Muslim Molenbeek.

Footage in Belgian media appeared to show a white-hooded Abdeslam being dragged to a waiting police car by armed special forces officers.

Belgium has been at the centre of the investigation into the Paris attacks almost from day one, and has been criticized for alleged blunders that let the perpetrators slip under the radar.

Paris network 'much wider'
With Belgium having arrested a series of people over links with Abdeslam, Hollande said many more were involved in the Paris attacks than originally believed.

"We realize that there were many more people than we at first thought," Hollande said.

Investigators believe Abdeslam hired one of he cars used in the attacks and then used it to drive suicide bombers to the Stade de France with the task then of blowing himself up.

But he apparently backed out, and an explosives-filled suicide vest was later found in Paris in a region that mobile phone signals indicated he had been in.

Police believe he fled across the border the next morning. Several people have been arrested on suspicion of helping him and one of his fingerprints was found in December at different Brussels apartment.

The ringleader of the attacks, IS member Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was also from Brussels. He was killed in a raid in Paris in November.

Another of the Paris attackers, Bilal Hadfi, was last week buried quietly in the same cemetery as Abdeslam's brother.

Both had links to Molenbeek, a largely immigrant district which has been a hotbed of Islamist violence for decades.

Abdeslam and his brother had run a bar in the area until it was shut down by the authorities a few weeks before the Paris attacks.

Belgian authorities have meanwhile identified the man killed in the raid on Tuesday linked to Abdeslam as Algerian national Mohamed Belkaid, 35, who was living illegally in Belgium.

Police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, extremist Islamic literature and an IS flag near Belkaid after he was shot.

He was reportedly on a list of IS fighters leaked last week as a volunteer to commit a suicide bomb attack.

Prosecutors also said he was wanted in connection with the Paris attacks.

source: interaksyon.com

Brussels airport heist nets $50 million in diamonds

BRUSSELS - Heavily armed robbers disguised as police made off with $50 million (37 million euros) worth of diamonds in a spectacular heist on the tarmac at Brussels airport, prosecutors and diamond dealers said Tuesday.

The Monday night robbery at Zaventem airport just before 8 pm (1900 GMT) was "one of the biggest" ever, said a spokeswoman for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the global dealers' syndicate.

The raid saw a gang of eight hooded thieves pull up on the runway in two black vehicles with blue police-like markings, Brussels prosecutors' spokeswoman Anja Bijnens told a press conference.

They forced their way through security barriers and sped towards a Swiss passenger aircraft about to take off on the runway, forcing open the cargo hold to reach gems that had already been loaded, she said.

Bijnens said the thieves were wearing police uniforms and carrying machine guns, adding: "They wanted to pass themselves off as cops."

They seized at least 120 packages, which was only a partial haul from the shipment, she said.

The pilot, co-pilot and staff from a Brink's armoured car that transported the gems were held up but "no shots were fired and no-one was injured," Bijnens said of a robbery that was over "within minutes."

She said the thieves made off at high speed through the same gap in the security cordon they had opened in front of unsuspecting ground staff and travellers, adding that the passengers on board the plane "saw nothing" and that the aircraft, bound for Zurich, did not leave Brussels.

The Swiss air company said the plane was on a regular flight operated by its partner Helvetic Airways.

According to the AWDC, the global diamond business is worth more than $60 billion each year.

Some $200 million worth of stones move in and out of Antwerp every day, the spokeswoman added.

The gems taken "included rough stones as well as cut diamonds from Antwerep that were being transported to Zurich," the AWDC spokeswoman said.

"It is worrying that something like this can take place at the airport, that an armed gang can get to the tarmac," said the AWDC spokeswoman.

In February 2005, some 75 million euros worth of diamonds and jewels being shipped to Antwerp were stolen in a KLM vehicle at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

But the record for a theft of diamonds was in Belgium, in February 2003, when 100 million euros worth of stones were nabbed from the vault of the Antwerp Diamond Centre.

Asked to comment, Brussels airport spokesman Jan Van der Cruysse said: "There are very clear and very strict international security standards and we stick strictly to them."

Neither the prosecutor's office nor the AWDC official would give any details as to whom the shipment belonged. The prosecutor's office said the packages contained mainly diamonds.

The AWDC said the haul was worth $50 million.

One of the vehicles was found afterwards completely burned out near the airport, the spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.

A specialist Belgian prosecutors unit dealing with organized crime is "pursuing all lines of inquiry," Bijnens said, and is collaborating also with Swiss authorities.

"This was not a random robbery," she stressed. "It was well-prepared -- these were professionals."

Belgian Justice Minister Annemie Turtelboom was on hand at the airport as the investigation gathered pace.

There are more than 4,500 diamond dealers in Antwerp, the hub for a worldwide industry going back at least 500 years, the AWDC said.

source: interaksyon.com

Plane crash kills 5, shuts down Belgian airport

BRUSSELS -- A small passenger plane crashed at Belgium's Charleroi airport on Saturday, killing five people and closing the international hub used by Ryanair and other low-cost carriers.

The aircraft, a Cessna, had problems on takeoff and tried to return to Charleroi to make an emergency landing but crashed on the side of the runway, airport officials said.

"There was a problem on takeoff and they tried to come back, but unfortunately the plane crashed," said Melissa Milioto, an airport spokeswoman. "Five people were killed."

Firefighters sprayed water on the plane that was reduced to a wreck of twisted metal, with only the tail still visible, TV images showed.

The Belgian news agency Belga said the five killed were three young children, their mother and grandfather, and were all Belgian nationals.

The airport was closed immediately after the crash, which happened just before 1000 CET (0900 GMT).

Several flights were cancelled, with another handful of flights delayed at the start of the Belgian school half-term holidays.

Charleroi was due to re-open later on Saturday.

"Our priority is dealing with this drama. Flights are being diverted to Liege and Brussels," Milioto said.

Charleroi airport, also known as Brussels South Charleroi, serves as the country's second international airport after Brussels' Zaventem airport and expects to handle 140,000 passengers over the half-term holiday period.

Ryanair, which is the heaviest user of the airport, was not immediately available for comment.

source: interaksyon.com

Belgian chocolate makers face up to changing tastes, new markets

BRUSSELS--Belgium is rightly proud as producer of some of the world's finest chocolate but changing tastes and new markets in Asia and the Arab world are shaking up its somewhat predictable scene.

"Belgian traditional chocolates? Some people still do them really well, such as the major brands," said Laurent Gerbaud, one of the new generation of chocolatiers trying to keep up with a discerning clientele.

In his workshop in the centre of Brussels, a customer will find few traces of the Manon, the praline filled with coffee-flavoured cream and covered in white chocolate which has been the industry mainstay for decades.

Gerbaud instead offers small chocolates made with exotic and unusual flavourings -- figs from Izmir in Turkey, the bitter berries of the barberry tree, Cape pears or yuzu, a citrus fruit from Japan.

"My priority is clear, simple flavours, using the best ingredients possible. My chocolates use less sugar and fat in response to increasing demand," Gerbaud said.

Such chocolates with a bitter and sharp edge were first made in France in the 1990s as artisan chocolatiers came onto the scene.

In Belgium, the trend has been slower to get off the ground in an industry dominated by such illustrious names as Leonidas, Godiva, Cote d'Or or Neuhaus.

But that is beginning to change, with new brands coming through, even if progress is slow and Belgium's some 400 artisan chocolatiers remain wary of getting carried away.

"It is extremely difficult to establish a brand, to build up a clientele and to be profitable. After 11 years, I still do not have profits," says Gerbaud, one of the best in the business.

Traditional brands fight back

For the established brands, the challenge is different, needing to find new markets if they are to expand beyond their home base.

Leonidas was founded after the 1913 International Exhibition by Leonidas Kestekides, a Greek pastry maker who decided to settle in Belgium, and the company is using the 100th anniversary celebrations to update its offering.

Kestekides' descendants still run the business, with the Leonidas brand known worldwide through some 1,300 outlets in 50 countries, selling 6,000 tonnes a year or one million chocolates a day.

"It is clear that our potential for development lies more in the emerging economies rather than in the mature market here in Europe," said Hugues Moens, commercial director for Leonidas.

China, already home to 40 Leonidas shops, and the Arab world are now the priority for the company.

In Belgium as in France, with some 350 shops in each country, Leonidas has to find the right balance between tradition and innovation so as to keep its old customers and attract new ones.

"We do not forget that our success is based on the loyalty of customers who hold to traditional chocolates such as the Manon, our best-seller," said Claude Seneque, master chocolatier at the company.

To attract new customers and to cater for changing tastes, Leonidas must also have something for those who find the brand "a little old-fashioned", according to Pauline Vervoort, 26, from Brussels.

As part of its anniversary celebrations, Leonidas has made new pralines -- smaller and even more chocolate packed -- and plans to spruce up its shops.

"In Belgium, to succeed in chocolate is harder and harder. You have to be tough but also creative all the time," Gerbaud says.

source: interaksyon.com

Eurozone headed back towards recession

BRUSSELS - The eurozone veered back towards recession with the latest growth figures out on Tuesday showing its economy shrinking by 0.2 percent and analysts warning of falling economic output right through 2013.

Germany steered clear of the worst of the debt crisis to post better-than-expected growth of 0.3 percent in the period from April to June, and France held on for zero growth, but the experts saw precious little good news going forward.

"The big picture is that the economic growth required to bring the region's debt crisis to an end is still nowhere in sight," said London-based Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics.

"The slowdown has spread from the periphery into the core," said Tom Rogers, an analyst with Ernst & Young in London, one of many analysts to highlight a growing "north-south divide."

"Positive readings in Germany and the Netherlands (0.2 percent) are to be welcomed, but with conditions in the rest of Europe deteriorating further, and export markets farther afield also cooling, it is looking increasingly likely that output in the core economies will contract during the second half of the year," Rogers added.

Italy's economy lost 0.7 percent during the quarter and Spain 0.4 percent, with the economic implosion in Greece continuing unabated -- a 6.2 percent contraction after a 6.5 percent contraction in the first quarter of 2012.

These were to be expected, but, said Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight, it was "notable and worrying that GDP also contracted in Belgium and Finland," by 0.6 percent and 1.0 percent respectively.

Tipping an overall GDP contraction for the eurozone in 2012 of 0.5 percent, he said these countries "are being dragged down by the problems of Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal."

He said IHS forecasts thereafter "are based on the assumption that Greece leaves the eurozone around mid-2013.

"We expect a strong policy response to limit the fall-out but modest eurozone recession is still expected as a consequence in the second half of 2013," Archer added, tipping a 0.2 percent contraction for next year too.

A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of contracting activity. The eurozone posted flat growth in the first quarter of this year.

The flash estimates from the EU also show how badly Europe now lags behind its main economic and trade partners, with comparative Eurostat figures saying GDP rose by 2.2 percent quarter-on-quarter in the United States and 3.6 percent in Japan.

"Only once the Eurocrisis is back under control can a rebound in investment lead to a return to trend growth in core Europe," said Christian Schulz of Berenberg in a note issued in London.

He highlighted France as a case apart between Germany and similarly-structured neighbouring economies such as Austria that are broadly holding on, and the tumbling economies of the south.

"In terms of economic confidence, it remains firmly part of core Europe, but it is losing competitiveness ... France has to bring down its excessive public deficit eventually," he underlined.

Schulz noted France is continuing to lose competitiveness to southern eurozone countries going through difficult adjustments, with imports outpacing exports and taking the trade deficit to record highs.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, whose Socialist government has to cut its budget deficit from around 4.5 percent of GDP this year to the EU limit of 3.0 percent by the end of 2013, called the result "very weak" but held to the government's forecast for 0.3 percent growth in 2012.

Germany's economy grew fractionally faster than the 0.2 percent forecast by analysts, but slower than the 0.5 percent seen in the first quarter.

"Positive impulses came from both consumer spending and from net foreign trade," national statistics office Destatis said.

Not all experts were gloomy for Germany's prospects, Newedge Strategy analyst Annalisa Piazza stating that "the German economy remains relatively resilient and the expected effects of the eurozone debt crisis remained limited."

source: interaksyon.com