The World - News from Oct. 20, 1986

Belgium’s coalition government was thrown into turmoil after the surprise resignation of Interior Minister Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb, who quit as part of a bitter dispute between the country’s French and Dutch speakers. Premier Wilfried Martens nominated former Interior Minister Joseph Michel, a member of Nothomb’s Christian Democratic Party, as a successor. Talks were reportedly continuing to resolve a long-running dispute over a French-speaking mayor of a small country district who was fired for having an inadequate command of Dutch, the official language in the area.