Rabat, Morocco - Participants at a forum of the Islamic Conference's al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee have described Jerusalem as the key to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Moroccan media reported Thursday.

The committee is staging an international forum in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, whose King Mohammed VI chairs the committee. The two-day forum was ending on Thursday.

Rabat, Morocco - Eighty-two cases of the H1N1 influenza have been diagnosed in Morocco in a single day, press reports said Thursday.

The cases were discovered in the cities of Casablanca, Fes, Meknes, Kenintra and Rabat on October 28, Health Minister Yasmina Badou was quoted as saying.

The patients were receiving treatment at home.

Morocco has diagnosed a total 346 cases of the disease known as swine flu, which is not known to have claimed any lives in the North African country. (dpa)

Rabat, Morocco - The Moroccan national journalists' trade union SNPM has accused the government of breaking the law in closing the offices of a newspaper that published a caricature of the wedding of a cousin of King Mohammed VI.

Such measures were not within the law, the SNPM said in a communique quoted by press reports on Wednesday.

The union also urged the government to change a legal article that requires journalists to "respect" King Mohammed and his relatives.

Rabat  - Morocco's King Mohammed VI, who chairs the Islamic Conference's al-Quds (Jerusalem) committee, has condemned the recent clashes between Israeli security forces and Muslims near Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque.

Moroccan newspapers Tuesday quoted a royal communique condemning "premeditated violations which hurt Muslim feelings."

Israeli soldiers had deliberately implicated a Muslim holy site in their "aggressions against a Palestinian group," King Mohammed said.

Rabat/Oslo - Diplomatic tension was brewing on Tuesday between Morocco and Norway as Oslo rejected accusations by Rabat that Norwegian diplomats had illegally taken the children of former Olympic champion Khalid Skah out of the country.

"We reject the claims," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marte Lerberg Kopstad told the German Press Agency dpa.

"Norwegian authorities and Norwegian diplomats have not been involved in these two children's departure from Morocco," she added.

Rabat/Oslo - Diplomatic tension was brewing on Tuesday between Morocco and Norway after the Moroccan Foreign Ministry accused Norwegian diplomats of illegally taking the children of former Olympic champion Khalid Skah out of the country.

A judicial inquiry has been launched in Morocco into the departure from the country of Tarik and Selma Skah, who left without the authorization of their father, the ministry said in a communique issued Monday.

Rabat/Madrid  - Ask Moroccans what they think about King Mohammed VI, who marks the 10th anniversary of his accession to the throne on Thursday, and you are likely to get a positive answer.

"The king is good," says a taxi driver in the northern city of Meknes, while a 30-year-old Rabat teacher describes the monarch as "helping the poor."

Al Futtaim Capital, the investment and development subsidiary of Al Futtaim Group, has deployed a third of its $500 million (Dh1.84 billion) real estate fund in Egypt and Morocco projects. The company is studying opportunities in Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Libya.

The sources said that in February 2007, Al Futtaim Capital has rolled out the $500m real estate development fund to focus on large-scale urban mixed-use developments in the Middle East and North Africa.

Cadiz, Spain - At least four Moroccan would-be immigrants have died while attempting to cross the sea to Spain, officials said Monday.

The bodies of two men and two women were found on Monday on a shore near their wooden boat, which had hit rocks when landing near Barbate on the south-western coast.

Another migrant, a young man, was found seriously injured. Rescuers were looking for more possible victims.

Cadiz, Spain - At least four Moroccan would-be immigrants have died while attempting to cross the sea to Spain, officials said Monday.

The bodies of two men and two women were found on Monday on a shore near their wooden boat, which had hit rocks when landing near Barbate on the south-western coast.

Another migrant, a young man, was found seriously injured. Rescuers were looking for more possible victims.

Fifty-six African undocumented immigrants have drowned or died of exposure or other causes while trying to reach Spain so far this year, according to official figures. (dpa)

Washington, June 24 : Scientists have found the fossil of a 60-million-year-old creature in Morocco, which is the rabbit sized ancestor of the modern day elephant.

According to a report in National Geographic News, Paleontologist Emmanuel Gheerbrant discovered the rabbit-size proto-elephant’s skull fragments in a basin 60 miles
(100 kilometers) east of Casablanca, Morocco.

Rabat, Morocco  - The controversial new "king's party" has won local elections in Morocco, the Interior Ministry announced Saturday.

The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), formed by Fouad Ali el-Himma - a close friend of Moroccan King Mohammed VI, received about 22 per cent of the votes, the ministry said.

In second place, with about 19 per cent of the votes, was the nationalist conservative Istiqlal party of Prime Minister Abbas el- Fassi.

Rabat, Morocco - Moroccans began voting Friday in local elections amid suspense over the results of a controversial new "king's party."

About 13 million of the north African kingdom's more than 30 million residents were eligible to elect 27,000 members to 1,500 municipal councils.

The elections coincided with a decentralization process giving greater powers to the local authorities, in areas ranging from infrastructure to tourism.

Rabat, Morocco - Morocco's economy will grow 5.4 per cent this year despite the international economic crisis, Moroccan media Tuesday quoted the African Development Bank (AfDB) as saying.

The growth was slightly lower than in 2008, when it amounted to 5.7 per cent, the AfDB said in a report on African economic perspectives for 2009.

The Moroccan government earlier estimated this year's growth at 5.7 per cent.

The growth is seen as being based on a good harvest, government investments in infrastructure and increasing consumption. (dpa)

Meknes, Morocco  - Surrounded by peacefully undulating green hills, the northern Moroccan city of Meknes offers travellers a trip back in time in the framework of imperial grandeur.

Located on the edge of the Atlas mountains, the city of nearly 1 million residents is lesser known as a tourist destination than Marrakech, Agadir or Fez.

It is, however, becoming increasingly popular among visitors to the north African kingdom where their numbers have doubled to about 8 million annually since 2001.

Rabat, Morocco - Increasing voices in Morocco want the country to demand damages from Spain for the use of chemical weapons during the 1920-26 Rif war, press reports said Thursday.

Colonial powers Spain and France put down a rebellion in the northern mountainous Rif region, which was part of the Spanish protectorate at the time.

Rabat, Morocco  - "This is our love story," two gay men, whose faces were not visible, said on the cover of the Moroccan weekly al-Michaal, which published a story on their wedding.

The simple prayer ceremony had no legal value, but the report by the small publication nevertheless apparently annoyed the authorities. It followed several similar ones, including a series of interviews by the daily Assabah with Samir Bargachi, a Moroccan living in Spain who heads Kifkif, the first association of Moroccan-born homosexuals.

Rabat, Morocco  - Morocco's flag carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) will launch a regional airline in the summer, the carrier announced Monday.

Royal Air Maroc Express will cover national and regional routes with planes made by ATR, a regional turboprop aircraft maker based in the southern French city of Toulouse.

RAM has ordered two ATR 42-600 planes with 48 seats, four ATR 72-600s with 70 seats, and has options for two additional ATR 72- 600s.

Deliveries of the new aircraft are due to begin in 2011. Meanwhile, ATR will lease four ATR 72-200s to RAM. (dpa)

Rabat/Madrid - Morocco has expelled five foreigners on charges of Christian proselytizing in the Muslim country, press reports said Monday.

The five were detained on Saturday in Casablanca, where they were holding a meeting attended by several Moroccans, according to the reports.

Police seized "evangelic propaganda" materials including Arabic-language books, videos and cult objects, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Amsterdam - A decision to evacuate, search and seal an entire Amsterdam shopping area Thursday was taken after what now appeared to be a dubious phone call by an anonymous informant warning of a terrorist attack, it emerged Friday.

Five of the seven people arrested Thursday on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack at the mall were released on Friday, the Dutch Justice ministry said.

Two suspects remained in police detention - one suspected not of terrorist activities but other crimes, police said.