BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Police have detained 17 people over the heist of $50 million in diamonds in February – one of the biggest jewelry robberies in history – after coordinated raids in Belgium, France and Switzerland, Belgian prosecutors said on Wednesday.

More than 300 police were involved in the Belgian operations near Brussels which led to 10 people being detained, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor said. One suspect was held in France and the rest in Switzerland.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Police have detained 31 people over the heist of $50 million in diamonds in February – one of the biggest jewelry robberies in history – after coordinated raids in Belgium, France and Switzerland, Belgian prosecutors said on Wednesday.

More than 300 police were involved in the Belgian operations, near Brussels, which led to 24 people being detained, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor said. One suspect was held in France and the rest in Switzerland.

BRUSSELS, May 7 (Reuters) – Belgium’s Solvay took
a first step towards casting off its PVC business by agreeing a
joint venture with privately-hold INEOS, which will ultimately
take full control of the unit.

The PVC business, which makes plastics used in pipes, window
frames and vehicle interiors in Europe, has suffered as the
financial crisis has cut building projects and new car sales.
Solvay wants to exit PVC production and focus on products which
earn it higher profit margins.

BRUSSELS, April 29 (Reuters) – Shares in Ageas
rose to their highest level in three years after the Belgian
insurer sold its stake in a bad bank to close the door on its
past as banking group Fortis.

Ageas, the insurance activities left over after the break up
of Fortis at the height of the financial crisis, has been dogged
by litigation and liabilities linked to its previous
incarnation.

BRUSSELS, April 27 (Reuters) – Belgium has pared back its
public debt with the sale of the structured credit portfolio
held by its ‘bad bank’, Royal Park Investments, to U.S. private
equity firm Lone Star and Credit Suisse, the finance
ministry said on Saturday.

Finance Minister Koen Geens said in March that Belgium
needed to find a further 1 billion euros ($1.30 billion) from
asset sales to ensure that national debt did not rise above GDP.

CHARLEROI, Belgium, March 28 (Reuters) – Just a day after
giving birth, Belgian entrepreneur Esmeralda Desart was back at
work running her export business, putting in the kind of 16-hour
day that has become the norm since she started up a company
selling printer parts in 2007.

Refused bank loans, looking after a baby was just one more
concern as Desart confronted the problems of red tape and rising
costs that entrepreneurs say are making her homeland at the
heart of the euro zone a bad place for business.

LEUVEN, Belgium, March 6 (Reuters) – 3D printing has already
changed the game for manufacturing specialised products such as
medical devices but the real revolution will come when designers
start to rethink the shapes of objects.

3D printing removes the limitations of the manufacturing
process from the equation, which means whatever can be designed
on a computer can be turned into an object, 3D printing
specialists say.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian Finance Minister Steven Vanackere resigned on Tuesday, leaving the six-party government scrambling to find a successor to steer imminent talks on further austerity savings.

Belgium only emerged at the end of 2011 from 18 months of political paralysis which saw its bond yields shoot to euro-era highs as investors worried about its ability to rein in deficits and tackle a debt burden approaching 100 percent of output.

HELSINKI/BRUSSELS, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Luxembourg-based
stainless steel maker Aperam has teamed up with two
Italian peers to bid for Outokumpu’s Terni plant in
Italy, boosting hopes the Finnish company will find a buyer for
the mill.

Outokumpu has committed to sell the Terni mill by May 7 to
gain regulatory approval for its purchase of ThyssenKrupp’s
stainless steel business Inoxum last year.

PARIS, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Tycoon Bernard Arnault, accused in
France of trying to dodge new wealth taxes, wants Belgian
citizenship to protect a foundation designed to control his
family’s holdings in LVMH if he dies, a spokesman for
the luxury group said.

Arnault, France’s richest man and LVMH chief executive,
caused an uproar when he sought Belgian citizenship last
September, an attempt which has been blocked by Belgian
prosecutors.