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Morocco arrests suspected insurgent
Moroccan anti-terror police announced Sunday the arrest of an alleged jihadist who "planned a suicide attack". The 41-year-old extremist tried to "build expertise in the use of arms", Morocco's central office for judicial investigations said in a statement. He was...
Morocco: Another tragedy on North Africa roads, 17 killed in bus crash near Taza
Rabat, Dec 2, 2019 - A bus crash in northern Morocco killed 17 people as the vehicle overturned, the health ministry said Monday, in the second such accident in North Africa the same day. The bus crashed on Sunday near Taza, a town between the Rif and Atlas mountains,...
Morocco: Spirit AeroSystems acquires Bombardier’s Casablanca site
London, Oct 31, 2019 - Canadian manufacturing group Bombardier announced Thursday it was selling its aerostructures business to US firm Spirit AeroSystems, involving operations in Belfast, Casablanca and Dallas, in a cash-plus-debt deal exceeding $1 billion....
Morocco: Police seize more than four tons of cannabis in Tangier
Customs and police operating at the port of Tangier-Med thwarted an attempt to ship 4.4 tons of cannabis to Europe. The cannabis was found in a shipment of fish for export. One man was arrested.
Morocco arrests seven suspected insurgents, says MEA Risk
The Moroccan authorities arrested seven Moroccan nationals suspected of plotting attacks in the kingdom. The police say the suspects were acting on behalf of Islamic State (IS) focusing on infrastructure. The seven were arrested in several locations in Tamaris, near...
Morocco: Amnesty accuses Morocco of using spyware on rights activists
London, Oct 10, 2019 - Two rights activists in Morocco have been targeted by surveillance technology developed by an Israeli firm that enables the sender to seize near-full control of mobile devices, Amnesty International said Thursday. The rights group said academic...
Inside the Moroccan cannabis business: local marijuana being replaced by hybrid varieties
Ketama, Morocco, Oct 10, 2019 - Morocco's rugged Rif Mountains have long been renowned for their cannabis but traditional varieties are being smoked out by foreign hybrids offering higher yields and greater potency. The local strain of marijuana, known as Beldiya, is...
Western Sahara: The forgotten conflict that is likely to perdure
United Nations, United States, Oct 3, 2019 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he hopes to maintain the political "momentum" to seek a solution to the Western Sahara conflict, despite having not had a special envoy to the region for the past four...
Morocco: Journalist Hajar Raissouni sent to jail for “illegal abortion”
Rabat, Sept 30, 2019 - Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni was sentenced in a Rabat court Monday to one year in jail for having had an "illegal abortion" and sexual relations outside marriage. Her gynaecologist was given two years and her Sudanese fiance one year in...
Morocco: Flood overturns bus in Errachidia, 17 killed
Rabat, Sept 9, 2019 - At least 17 people were killed in Morocco when flood waters overturned their bus in the kingdom's southeast, authorities said Monday. Rescuers have been searching for bodies since the accident Sunday, when the bus flipped on a bridge in a valley...
Morocco: Female journalist and others arrested for alleged ‘abortion’
Rights groups urged Moroccan authorities on Friday to immediately release a journalist arrested on charges of having an "illegal abortion" -- an act her lawyers deny. Hajar Raissouni writes for the Arabic-language daily Akhbar Al-Yaoum, which has a history of run-ins...
Morocco: Raging flood water claims lives of seven people in Taroudant
Rabat, Aug 29, 2019 (AFP) - At least seven people were killed Wednesday when a river burst its banks and flooded a village football pitch where a game was being played in south Morocco, local authorities said. The victims included a 17-year-old boy and six elderly men...
Morocco: Court issues death sentences in 2017 Marrakesh shooting
July 27, 2019 - A Moroccan court has sentenced to death two Dutch citizens over the accidental killing of a medical student in 2017, a lawyer for the victim's family said Saturday. Two years ago Edwin Gabriel Robles Martinez and Shardyone Girigorio Semerel allegedly...
Morocco: Landslide buries bus near Marrakesh, kills 15
Rabat, July 26, 2019 - Moroccan emergency crews pulled 15 bodies from the mud after a rare summer downpour triggered a landslide that buried a minibus, authorities said Friday, providing the first official toll. The victims -- eleven women, three men and one child --...
Morocco: Killers of European tourists get death sentence
Salé, Morocco, July 18, 2019 - Three Islamic State group supporters were sentenced to death by a court in Morocco on Thursday over the beheadings of two Scandinavian women on a hiking trip in the High Atlas Mountains. The defendants had asked God for forgiveness...
Morocco: Migrants breach Melilla border fence
Madrid, July 19, 2019 - Around 50 migrants forced their way into Spain's North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco on Friday by climbing over a towering border fence, Spanish authorities said. About 200 migrants tried to storm the barbed wire fence at dawn but...
Morocco: Judges under intense pressure to issue death penalty to killers of European tourists
Salé, Morocco, July 11, 2019 - The mother of a Danish student beheaded along with another Scandinavian woman while hiking in Morocco's High Atlas mountains called Thursday for the suspected jihadist killers to face the death penalty as their trial neared its end. "The...
Morocco intercepts massive amount of cannabis bound for Europe
Rabat, July 8, 2019 - Moroccan police seized a "record" 27.3 tonnes of cannabis resin hidden in trucks bound for Europe, the country's security service said Monday. The drugs were discovered Sunday evening at the vast Tanger Med port in three vehicles "believed to be...
Morocco: Lawyers speak of Moroccan government failure to track terrorists, as suspects face death penalty
Salé, Morocco, June 27, 2019 - Lawyers for the family of a Danish hiker murdered last year in Morocco said on Thursday that authorities had failed to monitor the activities of some suspects before the killing. Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and...
Morocco: Killers of European tourists in Morocco face death penalty
Salé, Morocco, June 27, 2019 - (By Ismail Bellaouali) - Moroccan prosecutors on Thursday called for the death penalty for the three main jihadist suspects on trial for the "bloodthirsty" murder of two young Scandinavian hikers. The maximum sentence was sought for...
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