Five years after Morocco’s deadliest suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca, the North African kingdom remains engaged in a relentless chase for Islamist terrorists. Thousands of people have been detained, including dozens who have been abducted illegally by the secret service and taken to detention centres.
A fire roared through a mattress factory in a poor section of Casablanca, killing up to 55 workers and injuring at least 12 others. A rescue chief said firefighters arrived hours late and that the emergency exit of the building was blocked. The fire broke out midmorning Saturday in an industrial neighborhood outside of sprawling Casablanca, the economic centre of this North African country.
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/ 24 February 2008
A 26-year-old engineer has been sentenced to three years in prison for creating a fake profile of the younger brother of Moroccan King Mohammed VI on the popular internet networking site Facebook. A court in Casablanca on Friday convicted Fouad Mourtada of ”usurping the identity of HRH Prince Moulay Rachid”.
It may be a far cry from the millions of blogs active in the West, but Morocco’s blogosphere has taken off as the liveliest free-speech zone in largely conservative Muslim North Africa. The Moroccan "Blogoma", as it is called, is home to at least 30 000 sites.