Missing Supermodel - Waris Dirie - Found alive in Brussels

finally, the puzzle of the missing supermodel is solved. After two days of a massive police hunt, the Somali born Model and activist was found wandering around at the Grote Markt (the Grand Place - Historic Town Square) and claimed that she had lost her way after after leaving a Disco in the early morning. Waris Dirie, has been on the forefront of women's rights campaign, specifically against the age-old practice of female genital mutilation, practiced in many parts of Africa. Recently, another African model Katoucha Niane, who campaigned against female circumcision was found dead, floating on river Siene.

Waris Dirie, naturalized Austrian citizen was born in Somalia in 1965 . According to her memoirs, she was married off to a 61 year old man, when she was 13 and her family was given five camels in exchange. She fled to Britain and lived there illegally, until British photographer Terence Donovan put her on the 87 Pirelli Calendar.

As a United nation's Goodwill ambasaddor, she was planning to attend a conference in Brussels on the occassion of International Women's day.

Other than modelling, Dirie has written four books (Desert Dawn, Desert Children, Desert Flower and "a letter to my mother") and also had a brief role in James Bond movie - "the living daylights".

Pavilion of Happiness - what can 43000 crates of Beer get you ?

the Pavilion of happiness in bruxelas was created with over 43000 crates of beer to commemorate the 50th year anniversary of 1958 expo in Brussels. This structure is right next to the atomium.

See Stunning pictures of pavilion here.

More information and Pictures of Atomium here.

Daniela Hantuchova Vs Yanina Wickmayer

Daniela Hantuchova has reached the quarter-finals of Proximus Diamond Games, after beating Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium (6-4, 6-3). the 18 year old Yanina hit seven aces and saved 10 out of 12 break points.

Yanina Wickmayer, daughter of Marc Wickmayer and Dannevoye Daniella, was born on 20th October 1989 in Lier, Belgium.

(picture : Above : Daniela Hantuchova, picture below: Yanina Wickmayer)
Yanina has played two WTA tournaments ( Record : 1-2 )

Daniela Hantuchova (pronunced as HAHN-too-Kho-vah), the leading player of WTA (Women's Tennis Association) was born on April 23, 1983 in Czechoslovakia (city : Poprad). Daniela has topped the ACE Tennis magazine's Sexiest tennis players. Daniela is the daughter of a Igor, a professor of computer science at the University of Technology in Bratislava and Marianna - a toxicologist.

(pictures : Below : Yanina Wickmayer )

Tourist information and Transport Links/Maps for Belgium / Brussels

Viktoria Mohacsi criticizes remarks by Berlusconi

Viktoria Mohacsi, a Roma rights advocate and Lawmaker in Brussels criticized Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had earlier called for "zero tolerance" towards Roma, Criminals and Illegal Immigrants during an election campaign. Mr. Berlusconi has made a number of similar remarks alleging that Roma Camps were breeding criminals. Viktoria Mohacsi said that it is shameful and unacceptable and these kind of statements encourage and incite hate and stigmatisation of Roma, based on their ethnic origin.

Viktoria Mohacsi was born on 1-April-1975 in Berettyoujfalu.

Background Information : On 8th April 2005, European Parliament had adopted a resolution on the situation of people of Roma Origin in Europe, on the initiative of Hungarian ALDE MEP Viktoria Mohacsi. On that occassion, Mohacsi had declared that "The adoption of such a text is a very important step. I am pleased that members of the European parliament are ready to utterly condemn every formof human rights abuses which the Roma people face. the European Parliament, must by no means forget the Romani people"

Prince Charles and Gordon Brown to Visit Brussels

Prince Charles, who will be on a two days visit to Brussels is planning a speech on Climate Change at the European Parliament and he will be visiting the Belgian Royal Family including Crown prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to meet with European commission members and President Jose Manuel Barroso at Brussels. The prince of Wales has been active in raising awareness about Climate Change and supports the proposal to cut down greeenhouse gases by 20% before the year 2020.

50th Year Birthday Gift

If your 50th birthday falls between April 17th and October 19th 2008, you will get a free ticket to visit one of Belgium's best known monument - the Atomium. ( the combined ticket price for the Pavilion of Happyness and Atomium is twelve Euros). Coinciding with the 50th anniversary celebrations, the Belgian Post office will issue a collectors edition of Postage stamps. The Royal film library of Belgium has planned a number of outdoor film shows including -
“And God Created Woman” (1956) - story of a 18 year old orphan with a unsatiable sexual appetite.
"Rebel Without A Cause” (1955) -cult classic movie about rebellious teens indulging in drag racing and thuggery.
"Mon Oncle” (1958) - story of a Frenchman , who is against all sort of technology and his brother-in-law, who is addicted to gadgets.

Fortis Bounces Back after Dresdner report

Fortis jumped to a Five Year high (rose to fifteen percent, before stabilizing at 8.1 percent), after stating that the company will meet all solvency requirements, in spite of the subprime related debt obligations. Petercam analyst Ton Gietman mentioned that this report is comforting, though issued a little late. After taking in the impairments, a profit of Four Billion Euros (approximately USD 5.9 Billion) is expected for the full year.

The company spokesperson said that they were fully on track in implementing the twenty four Billion Euro financing plan for ABN AMRO acquisition. Last year October, Fortis along with Banco Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland announced that their offer of eighty six percent of outstanding ABN AMRO stock was accepted, which resulted in one of the biggest financial transactions ever. Mark Fischer from Royal Bank of Scotland was appointed as the CEO. Banco Santander, with a market capitalization of EUR 88,436 is world's 12th largest financial group.

Fortis has announced the 2009 dates for publication of results, AGM and dividents. Annual results will be available on March ninth 2009. The annual General meeting will take place on twenty ninth April 2009.

Links mentioned in this article : Royal Bank of Scotland , Banco Santander

More writedowns at Fortis - Dresdner Kleinwort

Dresdner Kleinwort has said that Fortis (Belgium's largest Financial Institution), may announce further writedowns on subprime related assets ( home equity loans and mortgage backed securities ). The repercussion was immediately felt in Japan, where the largest and second largest banks ( Mitsubishi UFJ & Sumitomo Mitsui ) both lost 2.7 percent. The ratings on the stock has been changed to "ADD" (from "BUY").

Fortis ( Chairman : Maurice Lippen, CEO : Jean-Paul Votron ) is among the top twenty financial institutions in Europe with a market cap of Forty Three Billion Euros. The group has presence in over fifty countries and has a workforce of 60000. Fortis has extensive presence in the Benelux area , considered as one of wealthiest in Europe.

Here's an interesting tidbit : Fortis has been in Financial Services for nearly three hundred years and financed United States' puchase of Louisiana from napoleon !!!

Links mentioned in this article : Fortis , Dresdner Kleinwort

Umicore (Belgium) to Join S&P Europe 350 Index

Umicore - a leading name in Zinc and Copper mining businesses, has diversified into recycling precious metals and other materials like Germanium Substrates etc. Germanium substrate is used in Solar Cells on NASA's exploration Rovers. Many of you may remember the Umicar Infinity, which finished second in a gruelling Five day race ( Panasonic World Solar Challenge) from Darwin to Adelaid, Australia. The Umicar Infinity had an array of Solar Cells made up of a layer of Gallium Arsenide, which is placed on top of Germanium Substrate. These are further processed into highly efficient (conversion efficiency of 28.5%) radiation hard solar cells by an American Company - Emcore .

Umicore would be joining the S&P Europe 350 Index from January 29th ( Classified under Materials Sector ).
The S&P Europe 350 Index is a free float Market Cap weighted index which measures the Performance of Equities in seventeen European Markets. This approximate covers about seventy percent of the total Market Cap. This index is part of the S&P Global 1200 [ Base Date : Dec 31, 1997 - Base Value : 1000].

External Sites mentioned in this article : Umicore , Emcore

Belgium and Vietnam sign 5.7 Million Water Deal

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) and the Belgium Embassy in Vietnam signed a USD 5.7 Million deal for assessing and managing water resources. The main activities include setting up integrated water resource management institutional framework, developing water resource development plan, an interactive database for seven provinces.

The mission of this project is to increase capacity with the Ministry and it's district bureaus.