NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 28, 2016

Q: Explosions rocked the main airport and a subway in Belgium's capital last week, killing dozens of people. The attacks occurred four days after the capture of a suspect in an earlier terrorist attack. Where is Belgium?

Circle the area on this map

Q: An unexploded bomb was found later in Belgium's capital, which also is the de facto capital of the European Union. What is the capital of Belgium?

A. Berlin

B. Bremen

C. Brussels

D. Bruges

C. The subway station bombing occurred at the heart of Brussels near the headquarters of the European Union, a political and economic union of 28 nations.

Q: Islamic State terrorists claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks as they did for an attack last fall in the capital of Belgium's southwestern neighbor . . .

A. France

B. Germany

C. Luxembourg

D. Netherlands

A. Both before and after last week's attacks, Belgian police arrested suspects in the Nov. 13 shootings and suicide bombings that left 130 people dead in Paris. Belgium is bordered by France to the southwest, Luxembourg to the southeast, Germany to the east, the Netherlands to the north and northeast, and the North Sea to the northeast.

Q: Some called last week's bombings an attack on the “heart of Europe” as Belgium straddles the cultural divide between Germanic and Latin Europe. About 59% of Belgians speak Dutch and 41% speak French. Which Belgian region speaks French?

A. Flanders

B. Wallonia

B. The French-speaking Walloon population is centered in southern Belgium, although the Brussels region in Flanders is a mostly French-speaking enclave. Political differences between the groups have led to a federal form of government, and rivalries have been blamed for miscommunication and problems in dealing with terrorism.

Q: As European governments scramble to contain the expanding terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State, it is steadily losing ground in . . .

A. Afghanistan

B. Lebanon

C. Pakistan

D. Syria

D. While the Islamic State has lost about 20% of the territory it once controlled in Syria and 40% in Iraq, law enforcement officials fear the group could be as deadly in defeat as it was on offense. Strikes in Belgium, Turkey and France may be the tip of an iceberg of militant networks that have already infiltrated Europe.