Guy Spitaels, Belgian socialist leader, dead at 80

BRUSSELS (AP) — Guy Spitaels, a Belgian socialist leader who was convicted in 1998 of corruption along with ex-NATO Secretary General Willy Claes, has died of a brain tumor, his party said Tuesday. He was 80.

Spitaels held pivotal political jobs in national politics and in Wallonia, Belgium’s French-speaking south, where the Socialist Party reigned supreme under his leadership but was never far from fraud and corruption allegations. He died late Monday or early Tuesday, local media reported.