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BRUSSELS

Brother of Belgian bomber wins gold in Switzerland

Belgian Mourad Laachraoui, the younger brother of one of the Brussels airport bombers, has won gold in the European Taekwondo Championships and will compete in this summer's Olympics.

Brother of Belgian bomber wins gold in Switzerland
Mourad Laachraoui was left 'devastated' by his brother's actions. Photo: Emmanual Dunand/AFP

Mourad Laachraoui, brother of Najim Laachraoui, beat Spaniard Jesus Tortosa 6-3 in the -54kg final in the Swiss city of Montreux on Thursday night.
   
A silver medallist at the Summer Universiades in 2015, the 21-year-old has qualified for the Rio Games in August.
   
Najim Laachraoui, 24, was one of the two suicide bombers who struck Brussels airport on March 22nd, while a third attacker blew himself up at on a metro train, with the two attacks killing 32 people.
   
Two days after the Brussels attacks, Mourad Laachraoui said he had been “devastated” by what had happened. He said he not had contact with his older brother since the latter left for Syria in February 2013.
   
“You don't choose your family,” he told a press conference at the time, adding not to draw “any parallels” with his family who were trying to “turn the page”.
   
“I have no idea why my brother turned (to terrorism). We didn't see any change when he became radicalized,” he said, explaining that his sporting career had distanced them over the years.
   
“It's crazy, they were born into the same family, they received the same education and one turns everything white and the other black, even very, very black,” Mourad Laachraoui's lawyer said after the attacks.
   
“He's not responsible for the actions of his brother.”

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BUDGET

Eurozone delivers warning to Italy on EU budget rules

Eurozone finance ministers firmly warned Italy on Monday to abide by EU rules on public spending, just days after Rome announced a big spending boost in defiance of Brussels.

Eurozone delivers warning to Italy on EU budget rules
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire (left) talks with Italian Minister of Economy and Finance Giovanni Tria in a meeting at the EU headquarters October 1, 2018. Photo: John Thys/AFP

But, meeting in Luxembourg, the ministers also vowed not to rush to judgement on the economic plans laid out by Italy's populist government, which have already spooked markets and put the country's already fragile economy under pressure.

“I just want to make very clear that there are rules and the rules are the same for every state because our futures are linked,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters ahead of the regular monthly talks with his eurozone counterparts.

However, “rushing is not the best advice,” he said, adding that ministers must move ahead “step by step” before coming down on Italy too strongly.

The fragile state of Italy's economy has reawakened memories of the debt crisis amid dangers that Italy could face punitive measures by its EU partners if it insisted on breaking bloc rules on running excessive deficits and high debt.

“Italy is on everybody's mind,” said Mario Centeno, head of the Eurogroup and Portuguese finance minister.

“I know that we all have questions about it and that we are expecting answers.”

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