Raoul Hedebouw, le porte-parole du PTB, a été attaqué à l’arme blanche avant son discours du 1er mai à Liège sur la place Saint-Paul.

L’agresseur, porteur d’un couteau, aurait été maîtrisé et emmené par la police. Raoul Hedebouw souffrirait d’une blessure superficielle à la jambe. Il n’a pas été hospitalisé. « J’ai pris un coup de couteau dans la jambe, mais il en faudra plus pour nous faire taire ! », a-t-il lancé en prenant la parole.

« Avant le discours, alors que j’étais sur place, une personne est passée derrière moi et j’ai ressenti une douleur à la jambe », nous explique Raoul Hedebouw. « Ce sont mes camarades qui sont intervenus. J’ai alors compris que j’avais été blessé à la jambe. Visiblement, on suscite des jalousies. Je n’avais jamais été menacé ni agressé auparavant. J’ai tenu à faire mon discours et je pars à la clinique pour me faire recoudre. ».</s>Belgium have called up yet another goalkeeper after a thigh injury to second choice Simon Mignolet that should keep the Liverpool player out of action for four to five days.

Belgian coach Marc Wilmots has summoned Anderlecht reserve keeper Thomas Kaminski. Sammy Bossut, who only received his call-up last week, will now be between the sticks when Belgium play a friendly against Luxembourg on Monday.

Chelsea's Thibaut Courtois, loaned out to newly crowned Spanish champions Atletico Madrid for the past three seasons, is Belgium's clear number one, but he has been given time off to recover from Saturday's Champions League final.

Mignolet is the number two and was to have played both the Luxembourg friendly and a warm-up match against Sweden next Sunday.

Third choice Koen Casteels broke his shin in April and has been given until the start of June to prove he has recovered.

Wilmots initially called up Anderlecht's Silvio Proto as cover, but he broke his arm in the final match of the Belgian league season, prompting Zulte Waregem's Bossut to join the squad.

Bossut will be on the plane to Brazil if Casteels has not fully recovered.</s>Nov 13 Belgian private bank Puilaetco Dewaay said on Thursday it had agreed to buy the UBS Belgium, the Belgian operations of Swiss bank UBS, for an undisclosed sum.

UBS Belgium manages more than 3 billion euros ($3.74 billion) in assets and employs 60 staff, including 20 private bankers, Puilaetco Dewaay said.

The Belgian group said it expects the deal, which would swell its asset under management to 10 billion euros, to close in the first half of 2015. (1 US dollar = 0.8020 euro) (Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)</s>But while the modest-sized nation celebrates, there is widespread doubt about the value of the honour, which many argue skews the real strengths of teams.

The Red Devils will clinch the number one spot when the contentious rankings are published in November, following second-placed Germany's loss to Ireland and Ecuador's surprise win over current leaders Argentina in the past week.

"Becoming number one was something the whole country had been looking forward to," said Pieter Jan Calcoen, soccer journalist for daily Het Laatste Nieuws.

Wednesday's newspaper front pages were full of pictures of the national squad celebrating -- a rare unifying feature in a country otherwise divided between French and Dutch speakers.

"Devils party, Orange in deep mourning," wrote broadsheet De Morgen, referring to the failure of neighbours and arch-rivals the Netherlands to qualify for Euro 2016.

The FIFA ranking, which takes into account results, the opponents, the region and the importance of the games, has been criticised for not reflecting a team's strength and excessively rewarding weaker teams who are on a winning streak.

"Belgium top of the FIFA rankings? Well that's no surprise if you consider the FIFA mess... I wouldn't say Germany deserved to be top, especially after our mediocre qualification campaign. But Belgium? Come on," he told Reuters.

Belgium, a country of 11 million people, are the second nation since the system's introduction in 1992 to take top spot in FIFA's rankings without having won a World Cup or European Championship.

The Dutch, who were there for a month in 2011, at least won the Euros in 1988 and have reached the World Cup final three times. The other former number ones are Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Belgium's rise to the top has been spectacular, from 71st, among the likes of Zambia and Uzbekistan, to their current third place.

Benefiting from a vast pool of talent, including Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, midfield wizard Eden Hazard and Manchester City's record signing, Kevin De Bruyne, Belgium reached the quarter-finals at the 2014 World Cup and climbed to fourth in the rankings.

For Euro 2016, bookmakers William Hill and Coral rate Belgium as fourth-favourites, behind Germany, France and Spain.

"I think the expectations are for Belgium to get to the semi-finals. Anything else would be a disappointment," Calcoen said.

Belgium's manager, Marc Wilmots, and his players are less effusive about being ranked the best in the world but acknowledge that their journey has been something special with captain Vincent Kompany proud of the team.

"I've won prizes in my career, and this isn't a prize as such, but today the Dutch are out and we're number one," he told reporters with a smile.
Workers' Party of Belgium representative Raoul Hedebouw gets stabbed in the thigh, moments before holding a speech in Liège, Belgium. The presumed assailant is arrested.