Morocco

A new agreement between Sweden and Morocco on the exchange of fingerprints has shown that 90 % ” of underage” Moroccan asylum seekers are actually adults.

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Vacationing Moroccan king drains water supply from villages outside Paris

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– Vacationing Moroccan king drains water supply from villages outside Paris:

The residents of some villages near Paris, chosen as a place of recreation for the King of Morocco, are far from amused. The monarch, who brought up to 300 people with him, has drained their water supplies.

King Mohamed VI apparently loves pompous holidays – for his French vacations in the small village of Betz he brought a whole entourage of 300 people. Betz, some 40km from the French capital, has a population of around 1,000.

The vacationers who arrived August 24 drained all the water resources of a small village in a single day, according to French media. The water was necessary not only for consumption, but for keeping the garden and watering horses in the king’s huge castle (or, perhaps, oasis).

“We received a message from the water department which advised us from drinking tap water,” local resident Dimitri told Le Parisien. 

Read moreVacationing Moroccan king drains water supply from villages outside Paris

Morocco, Algeria ‘must take back rejected refugees’ – German economy minister

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– Morocco, Algeria ‘must take back rejected refugees’ – German economy minister:

North African countries, such as Morocco and Algeria, must take back their citizens whose asylum applications are rejected by Germany, economy minister and Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Sigmar Gabriel has stated.

“Germany is willing to economically help these countries, but only if their governments act fairly and let citizens who have no right to [be granted] asylum in our country enter their territories,” Gabriel said in an interview with the ARD ‘Tagesthemen’.

“It cannot be that one receives [development] aid, but does not accept back its own citizens who can’t get asylum in our country because they simply have no reason to flee their country,” Gabriel added.

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Now THAT’S how you do solar energy

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FYI.

Morocco - A solar mega-plant to deliver electricity to half the country
Way to go, Morocco! A solar mega-plant to deliver electricity to half the country’s population.

– Now THAT’S how you do solar energy:

The current winner in the renewable energy push has to be the country of Morocco, which is building a solar energy plant that will leave every other effort in the dust. Or maybe we should say, in the dark.

Right now, Morocco imports 94 to 97 percent of its energy from fossil fuels, yet it gets 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. All of that desert sunshine is about to reverse the energy-importing trend, turning the country into a leading world source of solar energy.

Read moreNow THAT’S how you do solar energy

A World On The Verge Of War?

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Again: Any atack on Iran is the beginning of WW III.

– A World On The Verge Of War? (ZeroHedge, Sep 17, 2012):

Here is a summary of where the world stands:

From Reuters:

Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are providing non-military assistance in Syria and Iran may get involved militarily if its closest ally comes under attack, commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Sunday.

Read moreA World On The Verge Of War?

Morocco: Protesters Demand New Constitution, Economic Reforms

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RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Thousands of people marched in cities across Morocco on Sunday, demanding a new constitution to bring more democracy in the North African kingdom amid the wave of Arab world upheaval.

Demonstrators shouted slogans calling for economic opportunity, educational reform, better health services and help in coping with rising living costs during a march on central Hassan II Avenue in the capital, Rabat.

The day of demonstration was Morocco’s entree into the series of protests that have swept up North Africa and the wider Arab world after popular uprisings brought down longtime autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt.

The main target of Sunday’s rallies was parliament, where many Moroccans fear their voices are not heard. Still, the protests are likely to pressure King Mohammed VI, who has been seen as a reformer compared to his iron-fisted father, Hassan II, and who still holds absolute authority.

A sea of white banners covered Casablanca’s rain-splattered Mohammed V square, where young men in baseball caps and hoods joined young women in Islamic headscarves as well as middle-aged women in black-rimmed glasses and earrings in the diverse crowd.

Read moreMorocco: Protesters Demand New Constitution, Economic Reforms

Food And Fuel Riots in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen And Jordan

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See also:

– Algerian Riots Continue Over Skyrocketing Food Prices And Unemployment:

The cost of flour and salad oil has doubled in recent months, reaching record highs. A kilogram of sugar, which a few months ago cost 70 dinars, is now 150 dinars (£1.28). Unemployment stands at about 10% percent, the government says; independent organisations put it closer to 25%.

Latest Inflation Riot Tally: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen And Jordan


The Fed chairman is 100% confident inflation can be contained. Rapidly spreading rioting (5 countries so far) would take the under on that.

Latest on Tunisia:

Twelve people were killed in overnight clashes in the Tunisian capital Tunis and the northeastern town of Ras Jebel, according to accounts from two medical sources and a witness on Friday.

Ten of the victims were killed after clashes in the capital, two sources from Charles Nicolle hospital told Reuters.

A witness from Ras Jebel, who identified herself as Narjes, said: “I saw two dead people with my own eyes after police fired at youth”.

Tunisian officials could not immediately be reached for a comment. It was not immediately clear whether the shootings took place before or after the country’s president ordered police to stop using lethal force against demonstrators.

And now the violence has spread to Jordan:

Food price protests sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East reached Jordan on Friday, when hundreds of protesters chanted slogans against Prime Minister Samir al-Rifai in the southern city of Karak.

The peaceful protest was held despite hastily announced government measures to curb commodity and fuel prices. Similar demonstrations were held in three other towns and cities across the country, witnesses said.

“We are protesting the policies of the government — high prices and repeated taxation that made the Jordanian people revolt,” Tawfiq al-Batoush, a former head of Karak municipality, told Reuters at the protest outside Karak’s Al Omari mosque.

Three days ago, after riots in Algeria and Tunisia over high prices, unemployment and falling living standards, Jordan announced a $225 million package of cuts in the prices of some types of fuel and of staple products including sugar and rice.

Other Arab countries have taken similar steps. Libya abolished taxes and customs duties on food products and Morocco offered compensation to importers of soft milling wheat to keep supplies stable after a surge in grain prices.

…Morocco (google translated)

Protests against price rises and unemployment moved from Tunisia to Morocco, where the streets of Rabat, yesterday, saw clashes between young protesters and police forces, which tried to prevent them from organizing a demonstration outside the Moroccan parliament, in protest against unemployment and high prices and the cost of living in Morocco

And Yemen:

In Yemen, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired Minister of Oil and Chief Executive, the Yemen Petroleum Company Omar Arhabi, yesterday, due to a lack in the supply of petroleum products, not available in the market, which led to bottlenecks in front of gas stations and the creation of indignation among the citizens.

Not like there is much to add here, but we would like to add that if a rising stock market was indiciative of “wealth” then the citizens of Zimbabwe have to be the richest people in the universe.

Read moreFood And Fuel Riots in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen And Jordan

CIA Admitts Secret Overseas Prisons, Videotapes Of Interrogations ‘Found Under Desk’

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The CIA has admitted to having videotapes of interrogations in a secret Moroccan prison of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh.

twin_towers
An explosion rips through the South Tower of the World Trade Towers after the hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into it Photo: AP

Discovered in a box under a desk at the Central Intelligence Agency, the tapes could reveal how foreign governments aided the United States in holding and interrogating suspects. And they could complicate US efforts to prosecute Binalshibh, who has been described as one of the “key plot facilitators” in the 2001 attacks.

Apparently the tapes do not show harsh treatment – unlike videos the agency has destroyed of the questioning of other suspected terrorists.

The two videotapes and one audiotape are believed to be the only existing recordings made within the clandestine prison system and could offer a revealing glimpse into a four-year global odyssey that ranged from Pakistan to Romania to Guantanamo Bay.

The tapes depict Binalshibh’s interrogation sessions in 2002 at a Moroccan-run facility the CIA used near Rabat, according to several current and former US officials.

Read moreCIA Admitts Secret Overseas Prisons, Videotapes Of Interrogations ‘Found Under Desk’

Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits

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Huge budget deficit means millions more face starvation.

Ears of wheat growing in a field. Photograph: Steve Satushek/Getty images

The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a “new face of hunger”.

Read moreFeed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits

High Rice Cost Creating Fears of Asia Unrest

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HANOI – Rising prices and a growing fear of scarcity have prompted some of the world’s largest rice producers to announce drastic limits on the amount of rice they export.The price of rice, a staple in the diets of nearly half the world’s population, has almost doubled on international markets in the last three months. That has pinched the budgets of millions of poor Asians and raised fears of civil unrest.

Shortages and high prices for all kinds of food have caused tensions and even violence around the world in recent months. Since January, thousands of troops have been deployed in Pakistan to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. Protests have erupted in Indonesia over soybean shortages, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs.

Food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. But the moves by rice-exporting nations over the last two days – meant to ensure scarce supplies will meet domestic needs – drove prices on the world market even higher this week.

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Read moreHigh Rice Cost Creating Fears of Asia Unrest

Sarkozy and Merkel draft agreement detailing role of nations on EU’s southern border

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BRUSSELS: President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will end months of wrangling Thursday by presenting a joint plan to strengthen Europe’s ties with countries on its southern borders.

Read moreSarkozy and Merkel draft agreement detailing role of nations on EU’s southern border