Today Saturday Belgian Police arrested two Sudanese men, purported al-Qaeda affiliates, in Zaventem International Airport near Brussels. The cell phone of one of the two contained the name “Usama Bin Laden” in its phone number list. Upon searching their luggage, the police found photos of suicide terrorists. The two entered our country on a flight from Greece. Sorry, no link in English found.

And the Dutch Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD) (General Intelligence and Security Service) claims to have indications that some radical Muslims are preparing terror attacks. The Dutch have a 1,300 strong Infantry contingent in the Iraqi al-Muthanna province, and is therefore at risk for Islamist attacks. Just recently the Dutch government got authorization from Parliament to extend the troops' stay in Iraq till after the January 2005 elections. The AIVD claims to follow 150-200 suspected (read: linked to terrorism) Muslims. The Dutch government is also working on a similar color code based Alert System as the US's one.

As for the Tour de France, today’s ride Châteaubriant/Saint-Brieuc (204,5km) was won by the Italian Filippo Pozzato from the Fassa Bortolo Team. Frenchman Thomas Voeckler still keeps the Yellow Shirt though. For the General Classification look here. Lance is still no. 6. One cyclist, Christophe Brandt, was forced out of the Tour for using non-authorized drugs. Oh yeah, in case you are interested in some in-depth info on the Tour, here’s the official website in English.

MFBB