Mediterranean ombudsmen bureaus conclude meeting in Amman
Participants in a meeting for officials from ombudsmen bureaus in the Mediterranean stressed during a meeting in Amman importance of independence of these institutions to achieve efficiency and address rising challenges, organizers said today. The Association of...
Morocco’s Citrus Shipments Seen Tripling to 1.3 Million Tons
Morocco plans to more than triple its citrus fruit exports to 1.3 million metric tons by 2018 as a development program raises output, according to Ahmed Derrab, secretary general of industry group ASPAM. Aging groves, narrowing margins from sales to the euro-zone...
Mistreatment of Women, Children in Tindouf camps, denounced in Geneva
The mistreatment inflicted on Sahrawi women and children by the Polisario’s torturers in the Tindouf camps has been decried in the headquarters of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva. Delegates from two NGOs have recently taken the floor before the...
The Gibraltar, Ceuta, Melilla triangle: Why Ceuta and Melilla might become Moroccan, but Gibraltar will never be Spanish
I had a sense of déjà vu when I read an interview with Angel Manuel Ballesteros in which he put forward the view that if Spain recovered in his words Gibraltar then Ceuta and Melilla could be handed over to Morocco. Ballesteros is a former diplomat, ambassador,...
Subregional Plan for Fisheries Management Progresses
This multidisciplinary workshop in Casablanca was attended by 20 participants from the four countries and representatives of some regional and international organizations. It falls under the CCLME Demonstration Project 1on “transboundary sustainable management of...
Obama’s UN Nominee and Morocco’s Foreign Policy
Moroccan diplomats should embrace President Obamas’ UN ambassador in waiting. Samantha Power, a human rights activist familiar with Africa, is likely to entertain Morocco’s grievances regarding the U.N. slow action investigating human rights abuses in the Sahrawi...
Eco-innovation drive aims to put brakes on environmentally-damaging practices
Anyone who has witnessed the bizarre spectacle of the medieval tanneries in Fez, with hides being sloshed around in baths of dye by half-dressed navvies stained with the stuff, can see how this sloppy process must be deeply unhealthy and environmentally damaging. Most...
IMF thinks Morocco is too hesitant over reforms, Prime Minister says
The International Monetary Fund has told Morocco it is too hesitant in implementing reforms to improve its public finances, Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane said, but he pledged to move ahead with planned subsidy cuts and other measures. An IMF delegation is in...
Algerian tries to secretly enter Spain by riding a catamaran near its propellers
Police have arrested a man who secretly clung onto a catamaran ferry in Morocco and traveled to Spain by holding onto the rear of one of its engines. Authorities released dramatic photographs showing the barefoot, shirtless Algerian stowaway partially hidden at the...
UNDP Associate Administrator Praises Morocco’s Efforts To Achieve MDGs
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNDP Associate Administrator, Rebecca Grynspan, praised, Thursday in Rabat, the efforts made by the Moroccan government to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). "I applaud the efforts of the government in the area of MDGs as...