Nation reopens wounds after attack

Grim reality intruding in arguments over tighter security and a political blame game

Manneken Pis, the cherubic little statue insouciantly relieving himself in the heart of Brussels, has become a cheeky symbol of Belgian resistance to terror in the week since suicide bombers struck the capital.

But for all the defiance and outpouring of affection at home and abroad for Belgians' quirky, self-deprecating sense of fun amid the fear, grim reality - beyond the 35 dead and 96 still in hospital - is intruding in arguments over tighter security and a political blame game testing Belgium's fragile unity.