Brussels

Despite its position as one of Europe's capitals of trade and commerce - the vast port here is the fifth busiest in the world - Antwerp is really an ideal city for just hanging out. The dozens of sidewalk cafes and restaurants throughout the old city are perfect for people-watching - while enjoying a cup of coffee or one of the superb Belgian beers - and they also provide excellent vantage points for examining a cityscape studded with ornate buildings...

Joab Thomas, president of Pennsylvania State University, and James McCormick, Pennsylvania's chancellor of higher education, will discuss the need for a qualified workforce at the Eye-opener Breakfast of the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry on April 28 at 7:44 a.m. at J&J Caterers in Exton. Madeleine Wing Adler, president of West Chester University, will moderate. The cost of the breakfast is $10 for members and $15 for nonmembers. For information, call 436-7696.

It was a moment neither Jean-Claude Van Damme nor the international paparazzi corps are likely to forget. There he was, The Muscles from Brussels, walking up a set of theater steps in Cannes side by side with his Universal Soldier co-star Dolph Lundgren, the Sulking Swede. From the point of view of 500 or so shutterbugs, the photo opportunity was no big deal. But then, the unthinkable happened. The Sulking Swede pushed - pushed! - the Muscles from Brussels. Not to be outdone, the Muscles from Brussels tried to flatten the Sulking Swede with a trademark 180-degree drop kick.

Like folks all over Europe, the people of Britain have long been unsure precisely what the coming of the single, 12-nation European market at the end of next year may mean to them. Now they know. No more "prawn cocktail"-flavored potato chips. This most unnatural of food items, the third-most-popular snack in Britain, is targeted for elimination throughout the European market in a directive issued from Brussels by the European Community's department for industry. The directive in question, designed to limit the use of artificial sweeteners, prohibits their use after January 1993 except in a list of specified foods.

John McEnroe, winner of four straight U.S. Pro Indoor tournaments in the 1980s, said yesterday that he had accepted a wild card into this year's tournament. The $1 million U.S. Pro Indoor, which begins Monday at the Spectrum, already includes Australian Open finalist Ivan Lendl, defending U.S. Open and Pro Indoor champion Pete Sampras, and John's brother Patrick McEnroe, a surprise semifinalist last month at the Australian Open. The tournament also will feature Americans Tim Mayotte, Brad Gilbert, Jay Berger, David Wheaton and Jim Courier.

Shortly after 6 p.m. on March 22 in the Brussels suburb of Uccle, Gerald Vincent Bull was dropped off at his apartment after a short ride in a car driven by an employee of his company, Space Research Corp. He entered the building at 28 Francois Folie St. and took an elevator to the sixth floor. As he walked down the corridor to his flat, key in hand, someone fired two bullets from a silencer-equipped 7.65mm gun into his neck and three more into his back. He was dead by the time he hit the floor.

Belgium's largest city is famous for three things: as the capital of the Common Market, as the headquarters of NATO and as possibly the dullest city in Europe, if not the world. That reputation is grossly unfair, though it is easy to see how it arose. Brussels, inescapably, is a city of gray offices and faceless office workers, the briefcase capital of Europe. Apart from the thousands of Eurocrats attached to the European Economic Community, and the batteries of officials required by NATO and the various diplomatic corps, there are the staffs of the more than 1,000 multinational companies with their European bases in the city.

Billed by his hopeful publicists as "The Muscles from Brussels" and possessed of an acting presence as exciting as a Belgian waffle, Jean-Claude Van Damme strikes me as more of an insidious conspiracy than a leading man. As you watch his appalling work between Cyborg's many fight scenes, the conviction grows that Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren and Arnold Schwarzenegger chipped in on one of those Oliver North-type slush funds. The money went for a global search to find someone - anyone - whose acting would make them look good by comparison.

The tragedy of Secretary of State George P. Shultz is that his day in the sun, his chance to pursue his foreign policy agenda, has come too late, when he can offer too little. Moreover, Shultz is not getting any help from the one place above his head where he needs it most desperately - from President Reagan. Shultz at long last has been given his head to deal with some of the most complex problems in the world at a time when the rest of the administration is packing its bags or on the phone looking for new jobs.

Six Philadelphia defense lawyers, a federal prosecutor and two Drug Enforcement Administration agents will be spending at least a week in Belgium next month, all courtesy of Uncle Sam. The entourage is going to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels to take depositions from 10 European witnesses. Federal prosecutors say they need the depositions to make an important part of the case against reputed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo and 27 others charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiring to possess and distribute phenyl-2-propanone, or P2P, which is used to manufacture meth.