King Philippe I has become Belgium’s seventh monarch during a national holiday following the abdication of his father Albert.

Belgium has a new king after Philippe succeeded his father, Albert, following the monarch’s abdication.

An advance team of six UN observers has arrived in the Syrian capital to monitor the country’s ceasefire, which appeared to be rapidly unravelling today as regime forces pounded the opposition stronghold of Homs with artillery shells and mortars, activists said.

A tourist bus that slammed into a concrete wall in a Swiss Alps tunnel, killing 28 people, was not speeding, Swiss police have said.

THOUSANDS of people stood with heads bowed in cold and windy weather at a silent ceremony to remember victims of the grenade and rifle attack that left five dead in one of Belgium’s biggest cities.

Thousands of people stood with heads bowed in cold and windy weather at a silent ceremony to remember the victims of the hand grenade and automatic rifle attack that left five dead in one of Belgium’s biggest cities.

THE lone Belgian gunman who went on a murderous spree in the city of Liege, killing four people before turning a gun on himself, had a long criminal record and seemed fearful of returning to jail.

Police have found the body of a woman at an address used by the gunman who shot shoppers at a Christmas market in the Belgian city of Liege.

Five people dead today, including an 18-month-old toddler, after a man armed with grenades and an assault rifle attacked holiday shoppers yesterday at a central square in the Belgian city of Liege.

A BABY was among four people killed by a gunman armed with grenades who opened fire on a square packed with children and Christmas shoppers in the Belgian city of Liege.

A LONE gunman armed with grenades opened fire on a square packed with children and Christmas shoppers in the eastern Belgian city of Liege, killing three people and injuring 123 before shooting himself in the head.

Belgium's soon-to-be prime minister set up a slimmed-down coalition today in one of the final steps before his team formally ends the record 541 days the country has gone without a government.

Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through Belgium’s capital to protest against new austerity measures brought on by Europe’s financial crisis.

BELGIUM’S politicians were getting down to the business of trying to form a government last night, ending a world record-breaking spell in a political vacuum.

Belgium marked a year without a full government today.

Over four months after elections, efforts to form a new government flopped again in an enduring spat between Belgium’s Dutch and French-speaking camps that touches on the fate of the country as a unitary state.

BELGIUM faced political and economic limbo yesterday as right-wing Flemish separatist and French-speaking Socialist election winners sized each other up going into entrenched talks.

CLOSE to eight million Belgians will cast their votes tomorrow in a poll that could be another move towards splitting their country in two.

BELGIANS were still recovering yesterday after a television channel announced in a spoof programme that the Flemish part of the country had declared independence and that Belgium was no more.

The mayor of Charleroi, Belgium’s fourth largest city, has been arrested on corruption charges, adding to the woes of the ruling Francophone socialist party, authorities said today.

Belgian police today discovered the bodies of two schoolgirls who disappeared almost three weeks ago from a late night street party.

Belgian authorities confirmed the discovery today of a second body in their search for two missing schoolgirls.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt tonight claimed victory in the country's elections.

Seven people were killed and 23 injured in a fire early today at a public housing complex in south-east Belgium.