12 terror suspects held in brussels

BRUSSELS: Twelve people suspected of planning new attacks were arrested across Belgium overnight after police carried out about 40 house searches in the country, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Saturday. “In connection with a criminal investigation concerning terrorism... 40 persons were taken for questioning. Twelve among them were arrested. The investigating judge will decide on their possible detention later today,” the statement said. Europe is on high alert as the Euro 2016 soccer tournament is under way in neighbouring France. Islamist suicide bombers killed 32 people in Brussels in March following attacks in Paris in November in which 130 people died. FBI agents on Friday questioned a member of the Florida mosque attended by Omar Mateen, the man who shot 49 people to death at a gay nightclub, as new information surfaced revealing the killer had exhibited chronic behavioral problems during his youth.

Academic records obtained by Reuters showing Mateen was frequently suspended as a student — at least twice for fighting before he was transferred to a special high school for potential dropouts — added to a disturbing portrait of the long-troubled gunman who committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Mateen, the 29-year-old