Morocco
The Kingdom of Morocco (Arabic: Al Maghrib) is located in northwestern Africa. Bounded by water on two sides, it fronts the Atlantic Ocean for 1,465 km (910 mi.) on the west and the Mediterranean Sea for 370 km (230 mi.) on the north. The 13-km-wide (8-mi.) Strait of Gibraltar connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean separates Morocco from Europe to the north. Morocco's eastern and southern neighbor is Algeria. In the far southwest, Morocco adjoins Western Sahara, a former Spanish possession that Morocco annexed in 1979 despite militant opposition from the Polisario Front, which continues to advocate Western Saharan independence. Morocco became Muslim with the Arab conquest in the 7th century. The country gained independence March 2, 1956, and re-established the monarchy.
Moroccan Recipes
Moroccan cuisine is considered to be one of the most exotic kinds across the globe. Here are some interesting Moroccan recipes to satiate your taste buds!
Morocco
Diverse and enjoying a rich culture, Morocco is a beautiful country to visit. You have plenty to see including the romantic Casablanca! You can enjoy all kinds of foods here as their cuisine has a rich menu to choose from plus a whole lot of spices!
Morocco: Venturing to the Capital City of Rabat
For a unique taste of Moroccan culture, venture to the capital city of Rabat for a seldom-visited tourist treasure filled with history and beauty.
Spanish Tourist's Claim of Madeleine Sighting in Morocco Proves False
Girl in photograph is from local village family · Spokesman for McCanns voices disappointment
Morocco Islamists Say Vote Unfair
Morocco's moderate Islamist party is crying foul after failing to become the largest party in the country's parliamentary elections, which were won instead by a traditional secular nationalist party, but marred by a record low turnout.
Poll Hopes Are High for Moderate Islamists, But King Will Be Real Victor
Religious moderates pledge to fight corruption and inequality in ballot watched closely by the west.
Hopes Highest for Years As Talks Reopen on Western Sahara
Morocco welcomes move but Polisario is sceptical - Renewed US interest may boost chances of success
Cannabis Cash 'funds Islamist Terrorism'
Cannabis smokers are unwittingly funding Islamist extremists linked to terror attacks in Spain, Morocco and Algeria, according to a joint investigation by the Spanish and French secret services.
Mass Trial of Islamists Accused of Terror Plot Begins in Morocco
50 charged with planning to overthrow monarchy - Court to hear of alleged suicide bomb campaign
Country Diary: Nkob, Morocco
It's 28 years since I last visited this place, which is famous as the town with more kasbahs (fortified houses) than any other in the country. By Mark Cocker
CIA Tried to Silence Eu on Torture Flights
Germany offered access to prisoner in Morocco if it quelled opposition.
By Train From Europe to Africa - Undersea Tunnel Project Takes a Leap Forward
· Spain and Morocco set up engineering study project · Major hurdles, but service could be running by 2025
Pope Has Joined Us Crusade, Says Iran
· Response marks setback to 25 years of diplomacy · Morocco denies killing of Italian is linked to row
Travel to Morocco: Mavens of the Maghreb
Morocco is the essence of North African charm and the land of commingling horizons. Glittering Saharan deserts of the south and east quickly become snow-capped mountains of the Atlas range, followed by the rolling green heartland, which drops down to the sparkling Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines.
Don't Mention the Monarch
Morocco's reconciliation process shows that, for its leaders, the past really is another country - they hope, writes Giles Tremlett.
MI6 and Cia 'sent Student to Morocco to Be Tortured'
An Ethiopian claims that his confession to al-Qaeda bomb plot was signed after beatings, reports David Rose in New York
All Quiet on the Western Sahara Front
The guns have long been silent but 30 years since its takeover by Morocco, the future of the Western Sahara remains unresolved, writes Ian Black.
Cultural Desertion
Constrained by human rights laws, the European Union is instead using Morocco to forcibly keep African immigrants from its borders, writes Giles Tremlett.
Morocco Criticised for Dumping Migrants in Desert Without Food
Morocco's treatment of sub-Saharan Africans heading for Europe drew harsh criticism yesterday after hundreds of migrants were found abandoned in remote desert areas without food or water.
Under Fire at Europe's Border
A Spanish enclave in Morocco represents a gateway to the West for hundreds of African immigrants. Now those guarding its gates are shooting to kill, reports Giles Tremlett in Melilla.
Immigrants Killed By Bullets From Morocco
Five immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who died as they tried to cross into the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, were shot, Spanish media reported yesterday.
World Watch
Morocco's royal family may be of little interest to the Beckhams as they nurse their grievances over the indiscretions of a treacherous nanny. Ian Black
Barbary Apes Out of Africa
DNA analysis today reveals that Europe's only free-ranging monkeys are all descended from two ancient populations from the forests of Algeria and Morocco.
Talks bring tunnel linking Spain and Morocco a step nearer
Plan for first fixed link between Europe and Africa comes a step closer after talks between the two countries.
Diplomatic Desert
South Africa and Morocco, never the best of friends, are at loggerheads over Western Sahara. Rory Carroll explains.
New Envoy to Tackle Sahara Deadlock
The UN appointed a new mediator yesterday to solve the problem of Western Sahara, days after the former US secretary of state, James Baker, announced his resignation. The handover to a Peruvian diplomat, Alvaro de Soto, came after Morocco, which annexed much of the potentially oil-rich...
In Morocco's Gateway to Europe, Disbelief Greets Arrests Over Madrid Bombings
Owen Bowcott reports from Tangier, the native city of three of the suspects. To close neighbours in the ancient kasbah, Jamal Zougam was an affluent expatriate. They noticed him when he was home from Spain, at the apartment his family kept for holidays. They admired his jeans and fashionable haircuts.
Spanish Police Arrest Five More Suspects Over Train Bombings
Madrid investigators focus on links with Morocco.
Searchers Scour Rubble for Quake Survivors
Rescuers continued their search for survivors of the Morocco earthquake today, using pickaxes and their bare hands to break through the rubble of flattened mud-and-stone houses and concrete apartment blocks. In the badly hit village of Im-Zouren, teams with sniffer dogs scaled mounds of...
Quake Kills 229 in Morocco
A powerful earthquake struck northern Morocco today, destroying buildings and killing at least 229 people. The quake shook rural areas near the mediterranean port city of Al Hoceima, and the Red Cross said up to 500,000 people in six outlying villages may have been affected...
Morocco Boosts Women's Rights
Morocco has approved one of the most progressive laws on women's and family rights in the Arab world, which will see polygamy almost completely eradicated from the north African country. Last-ditch attempts by Islamist deputies in the Rabat parliament failed to derail a law which had the...
Morocco Losing Forests to Cannabis
Cannabis production is expanding so fast in Morocco that it is causing soil erosion and the destruction of long-established forests, the UN reported yesterday. The illicit cash crop, which supplies most of the resin used by Europeans, is estimated to be worth £7bn a year to...
Spain and Morocco Plan Tunnel Link
Tests to begin for rail route to link Europe and Africa. Plans for a rail tunnel between Africa and Europe have taken a step forward with the agreement by Spain and Morocco on a programme of engineering tests. Machines could be digging under the Strait of Gibraltar in five years.
Anger As Smugglers' Remote-controlled Donkeys Bite the Dust
The remote-controlled donkeys were, until it all ended in tragedy, a cunning and successful way of fooling border police patrolling the barren, hilly frontier between Algeria and Morocco. Loaded with illegal goods and with tape recorders strapped to their backs exhorting them to "walk on"...
Spain Holds 550 African Immigrants
Spanish police yesterday detained 550 immigrants on beaches in the Canary Islands and the southern provinces of Cadiz and Granada in the biggest influx this year of those who make the dangerous boat trip from Morocco.
Morocco Boosts Women's Rights
Polygamy should all but disappear from Morocco after the country's King Mohammed VI announced a reform of strict laws regulating women's and family rights. The king, using his official position as the country's main religious authority, said over the weekend that changes to the "mudawana"...
Morocco Jails Twin Girls for Plotting to Assassinate King
Two 14-year-old twin Moroccan girls accused of plotting to assassinate King Mohammed VI were yesterday sentenced to prison terms as part of a massive crackdown on Islamists. Iman and Sanaa Laghrisse were given five-year sentences at the end of a trial which heard they had been...
Convert to Islam gets life sentence
A French convert to Islam was yesterday convicted and given a life sentence over charges that he tried to organise an uprising in Morocco.
Islamists Target Morocco's Jews
Violent Islamists have murdered two members of Morocco's shrinking Jewish community in the past four days and look set to drive out most of the remaining members of a community whose history stretches back centuries. The stabbing to death of 75-year-old Elie Afrat as he left his house in...
Two Britons Face Terror Charges in Morocco
UK told of men's arrests six weeks after families reported them missing.
Briton accused over Casablanca bombs
A British man has been arrested in Morocco on suspicion of being a member of the violent Islamist group that carried out suicide bomb attacks which killed 44 people in Casablanca in May.
52 in Court Over Suicide Bombings
Morocco began putting on trial 700 suspected Islamist radicals yesterday for suicide bombings which killed 44 people, including 12 bombers, in Casablanca two months ago. The first 52 appeared at a Casablanca court on charges of "forming a criminal band, acts against the security of the...
Suspicion at death of bomb suspect
Morocco's two leading human rights groups have demanded a public inquiry into the death in police custody last Wednesday of Abdelhaq Bentassir, the alleged mastermind of the Casablanca suicide bombings which killed 43 people last month.
Ketama Gold Puts Morocco Top of Europe's Cannabis League
Trying to please Europe by persuading farmers to grow avocados is not succeeding.
New Warning to British Travellers
The Foreign Office warned British travellers yesterday of a "clear" or "high" risk of terrorist attacks in Morocco, the sixth such warning for an African country. Foreign Office advice not to make non-essential trips applies only to Kenya, but the transport secretary, Alistair Darling,...
Dozens Killed By Morocco Bombs
At least 20 people were killed last night when four blasts shook the Moroccan city of Casablanca. The bombs exploded at a luxury business hotel, a Jewish community centre, a Spanish cultural centre and the Belgian consulate. Eyewitnesses reported seeing dead bodies outside one of the...
Parsley Isle Claims Get Spain's Goat
A herd of goats has become the latest issue of contention in a bitter dispute between Spain and Morocco. Rajma Lachili, a Moroccan peasant, has demanded compensation from Spain's defence ministry, claiming that crack troops who stormed the tiny disputed islet of Parsley in July killed...
Powell Pulls Off Spain-morocco Peace Accord
Spain and Morocco formally declared peace over the disputed Parsley island yesterday after a meeting between their two foreign ministers in the Moroccan capital, Rabat. Ana Palacio of Spain and her Moroccan counterpart, Mohammed Banaissa, said in a joint statement that they had agreed to...
Morocco draws new territories into Parsley row
Talks held with Spain after troops pull out. The foreign ministers of Spain and Morocco were preparing for tense talks in Rabat today as their spat over the tiny islet of Perejil threatened to widen into a bitter dispute over half a dozen territories.
Morocco Ready to End Parsley Standoff
Morocco said yesterday that it would not attempt to reoccupy the disputed Parsley island if Spain withdrew the troops that regained possession of the rock on Wednesday. The foreign minister, Mohamed Benaissa, said that he was prepared to meet Spanish demands that Moroccan forces leave the...
Morocco Pledges to Stay Off Parsley Island
The Moroccan foreign minister, Mohamed Benaissa, has pledged that his country will not reoccupy the disputed Mediterranean islet of Parsley if Spain withdraws its troops, it was reported today. In a radio interview broadcast last night, Mr Benaissa said: "I say publicly: Morocco has no...
Anyone for Parsley?
Spain and Morocco disagree on everything to do with this rocky islet in the Strait of Gibraltar, including its name.
Spanish Troops Recapture Parsley Island
The confrontation between Spain and Morocco over the islet of Perejil entered a new and dangerous phase yesterday after elite Spanish assault troops retook the barren rock, capturing six Moroccan soldiers who were immediately returned to their country. The dawn assault was carried out by...
Parsley Warriors Vow to Fight on
Spain and Morocco dug themselves deeper into conflict yesterday by refusing to budge in their battle for possession of the islet of Perejil.
World acts to pacify Parsley warriors
EU and Arab League focus on Spain's seized islet. Diplomatic efforts to ease the tension between Spain and Morocco caused by the latter's "invasion" of the disputed islet of Perejil were stepped up yesterday when the European Union and the Arab League became involved.
French pretender fights to keep council flat
The Bourbon family silver went long ago. So did the chateau in the Loire, the palace in Palermo, the estate in Morocco and sizeable tracts of prime French woodland.
Just As You Thought the World Might Be Safer...
The war against terror seemed to have been won but suicide attacks, allegations of 'dirty bombs' and plots in Morocco show al-Qaeda is still a threat.
Washington optimist embarks on mission highly improbable
After flying visits to Morocco, Egypt, Spain and Jordan, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, will today finally have his long-delayed showdown with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
Girl in photograph is from local village family · Spokesman for McCanns voices disappointment
Morocco Islamists Say Vote Unfair
Morocco's moderate Islamist party is crying foul after failing to become the largest party in the country's parliamentary elections, which were won instead by a traditional secular nationalist party, but marred by a record low turnout.
Poll Hopes Are High for Moderate Islamists, But King Will Be Real Victor
Religious moderates pledge to fight corruption and inequality in ballot watched closely by the west.
Hopes Highest for Years As Talks Reopen on Western Sahara
Morocco welcomes move but Polisario is sceptical - Renewed US interest may boost chances of success
Cannabis Cash 'funds Islamist Terrorism'
Cannabis smokers are unwittingly funding Islamist extremists linked to terror attacks in Spain, Morocco and Algeria, according to a joint investigation by the Spanish and French secret services.
Mass Trial of Islamists Accused of Terror Plot Begins in Morocco
50 charged with planning to overthrow monarchy - Court to hear of alleged suicide bomb campaign
Country Diary: Nkob, Morocco
It's 28 years since I last visited this place, which is famous as the town with more kasbahs (fortified houses) than any other in the country. By Mark Cocker
CIA Tried to Silence Eu on Torture Flights
Germany offered access to prisoner in Morocco if it quelled opposition.
By Train From Europe to Africa - Undersea Tunnel Project Takes a Leap Forward
· Spain and Morocco set up engineering study project · Major hurdles, but service could be running by 2025
Pope Has Joined Us Crusade, Says Iran
· Response marks setback to 25 years of diplomacy · Morocco denies killing of Italian is linked to row
Travel to Morocco: Mavens of the Maghreb
Morocco is the essence of North African charm and the land of commingling horizons. Glittering Saharan deserts of the south and east quickly become snow-capped mountains of the Atlas range, followed by the rolling green heartland, which drops down to the sparkling Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines.
Don't Mention the Monarch
Morocco's reconciliation process shows that, for its leaders, the past really is another country - they hope, writes Giles Tremlett.
MI6 and Cia 'sent Student to Morocco to Be Tortured'
An Ethiopian claims that his confession to al-Qaeda bomb plot was signed after beatings, reports David Rose in New York
All Quiet on the Western Sahara Front
The guns have long been silent but 30 years since its takeover by Morocco, the future of the Western Sahara remains unresolved, writes Ian Black.
Cultural Desertion
Constrained by human rights laws, the European Union is instead using Morocco to forcibly keep African immigrants from its borders, writes Giles Tremlett.
Morocco Criticised for Dumping Migrants in Desert Without Food
Morocco's treatment of sub-Saharan Africans heading for Europe drew harsh criticism yesterday after hundreds of migrants were found abandoned in remote desert areas without food or water.
Under Fire at Europe's Border
A Spanish enclave in Morocco represents a gateway to the West for hundreds of African immigrants. Now those guarding its gates are shooting to kill, reports Giles Tremlett in Melilla.
Immigrants Killed By Bullets From Morocco
Five immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who died as they tried to cross into the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, were shot, Spanish media reported yesterday.
World Watch
Morocco's royal family may be of little interest to the Beckhams as they nurse their grievances over the indiscretions of a treacherous nanny. Ian Black
Barbary Apes Out of Africa
DNA analysis today reveals that Europe's only free-ranging monkeys are all descended from two ancient populations from the forests of Algeria and Morocco.
Talks bring tunnel linking Spain and Morocco a step nearer
Plan for first fixed link between Europe and Africa comes a step closer after talks between the two countries.
Diplomatic Desert
South Africa and Morocco, never the best of friends, are at loggerheads over Western Sahara. Rory Carroll explains.
New Envoy to Tackle Sahara Deadlock
The UN appointed a new mediator yesterday to solve the problem of Western Sahara, days after the former US secretary of state, James Baker, announced his resignation. The handover to a Peruvian diplomat, Alvaro de Soto, came after Morocco, which annexed much of the potentially oil-rich...
In Morocco's Gateway to Europe, Disbelief Greets Arrests Over Madrid Bombings
Owen Bowcott reports from Tangier, the native city of three of the suspects. To close neighbours in the ancient kasbah, Jamal Zougam was an affluent expatriate. They noticed him when he was home from Spain, at the apartment his family kept for holidays. They admired his jeans and fashionable haircuts.
Spanish Police Arrest Five More Suspects Over Train Bombings
Madrid investigators focus on links with Morocco.
Searchers Scour Rubble for Quake Survivors
Rescuers continued their search for survivors of the Morocco earthquake today, using pickaxes and their bare hands to break through the rubble of flattened mud-and-stone houses and concrete apartment blocks. In the badly hit village of Im-Zouren, teams with sniffer dogs scaled mounds of...
Quake Kills 229 in Morocco
A powerful earthquake struck northern Morocco today, destroying buildings and killing at least 229 people. The quake shook rural areas near the mediterranean port city of Al Hoceima, and the Red Cross said up to 500,000 people in six outlying villages may have been affected...
Morocco Boosts Women's Rights
Morocco has approved one of the most progressive laws on women's and family rights in the Arab world, which will see polygamy almost completely eradicated from the north African country. Last-ditch attempts by Islamist deputies in the Rabat parliament failed to derail a law which had the...
Morocco Losing Forests to Cannabis
Cannabis production is expanding so fast in Morocco that it is causing soil erosion and the destruction of long-established forests, the UN reported yesterday. The illicit cash crop, which supplies most of the resin used by Europeans, is estimated to be worth £7bn a year to...
Spain and Morocco Plan Tunnel Link
Tests to begin for rail route to link Europe and Africa. Plans for a rail tunnel between Africa and Europe have taken a step forward with the agreement by Spain and Morocco on a programme of engineering tests. Machines could be digging under the Strait of Gibraltar in five years.
Anger As Smugglers' Remote-controlled Donkeys Bite the Dust
The remote-controlled donkeys were, until it all ended in tragedy, a cunning and successful way of fooling border police patrolling the barren, hilly frontier between Algeria and Morocco. Loaded with illegal goods and with tape recorders strapped to their backs exhorting them to "walk on"...
Spain Holds 550 African Immigrants
Spanish police yesterday detained 550 immigrants on beaches in the Canary Islands and the southern provinces of Cadiz and Granada in the biggest influx this year of those who make the dangerous boat trip from Morocco.
Morocco Boosts Women's Rights
Polygamy should all but disappear from Morocco after the country's King Mohammed VI announced a reform of strict laws regulating women's and family rights. The king, using his official position as the country's main religious authority, said over the weekend that changes to the "mudawana"...
Morocco Jails Twin Girls for Plotting to Assassinate King
Two 14-year-old twin Moroccan girls accused of plotting to assassinate King Mohammed VI were yesterday sentenced to prison terms as part of a massive crackdown on Islamists. Iman and Sanaa Laghrisse were given five-year sentences at the end of a trial which heard they had been...
Convert to Islam gets life sentence
A French convert to Islam was yesterday convicted and given a life sentence over charges that he tried to organise an uprising in Morocco.
Islamists Target Morocco's Jews
Violent Islamists have murdered two members of Morocco's shrinking Jewish community in the past four days and look set to drive out most of the remaining members of a community whose history stretches back centuries. The stabbing to death of 75-year-old Elie Afrat as he left his house in...
Two Britons Face Terror Charges in Morocco
UK told of men's arrests six weeks after families reported them missing.
Briton accused over Casablanca bombs
A British man has been arrested in Morocco on suspicion of being a member of the violent Islamist group that carried out suicide bomb attacks which killed 44 people in Casablanca in May.
52 in Court Over Suicide Bombings
Morocco began putting on trial 700 suspected Islamist radicals yesterday for suicide bombings which killed 44 people, including 12 bombers, in Casablanca two months ago. The first 52 appeared at a Casablanca court on charges of "forming a criminal band, acts against the security of the...
Suspicion at death of bomb suspect
Morocco's two leading human rights groups have demanded a public inquiry into the death in police custody last Wednesday of Abdelhaq Bentassir, the alleged mastermind of the Casablanca suicide bombings which killed 43 people last month.
Ketama Gold Puts Morocco Top of Europe's Cannabis League
Trying to please Europe by persuading farmers to grow avocados is not succeeding.
New Warning to British Travellers
The Foreign Office warned British travellers yesterday of a "clear" or "high" risk of terrorist attacks in Morocco, the sixth such warning for an African country. Foreign Office advice not to make non-essential trips applies only to Kenya, but the transport secretary, Alistair Darling,...
Dozens Killed By Morocco Bombs
At least 20 people were killed last night when four blasts shook the Moroccan city of Casablanca. The bombs exploded at a luxury business hotel, a Jewish community centre, a Spanish cultural centre and the Belgian consulate. Eyewitnesses reported seeing dead bodies outside one of the...
Parsley Isle Claims Get Spain's Goat
A herd of goats has become the latest issue of contention in a bitter dispute between Spain and Morocco. Rajma Lachili, a Moroccan peasant, has demanded compensation from Spain's defence ministry, claiming that crack troops who stormed the tiny disputed islet of Parsley in July killed...
Powell Pulls Off Spain-morocco Peace Accord
Spain and Morocco formally declared peace over the disputed Parsley island yesterday after a meeting between their two foreign ministers in the Moroccan capital, Rabat. Ana Palacio of Spain and her Moroccan counterpart, Mohammed Banaissa, said in a joint statement that they had agreed to...
Morocco draws new territories into Parsley row
Talks held with Spain after troops pull out. The foreign ministers of Spain and Morocco were preparing for tense talks in Rabat today as their spat over the tiny islet of Perejil threatened to widen into a bitter dispute over half a dozen territories.
Morocco Ready to End Parsley Standoff
Morocco said yesterday that it would not attempt to reoccupy the disputed Parsley island if Spain withdrew the troops that regained possession of the rock on Wednesday. The foreign minister, Mohamed Benaissa, said that he was prepared to meet Spanish demands that Moroccan forces leave the...
Morocco Pledges to Stay Off Parsley Island
The Moroccan foreign minister, Mohamed Benaissa, has pledged that his country will not reoccupy the disputed Mediterranean islet of Parsley if Spain withdraws its troops, it was reported today. In a radio interview broadcast last night, Mr Benaissa said: "I say publicly: Morocco has no...
Anyone for Parsley?
Spain and Morocco disagree on everything to do with this rocky islet in the Strait of Gibraltar, including its name.
Spanish Troops Recapture Parsley Island
The confrontation between Spain and Morocco over the islet of Perejil entered a new and dangerous phase yesterday after elite Spanish assault troops retook the barren rock, capturing six Moroccan soldiers who were immediately returned to their country. The dawn assault was carried out by...
Parsley Warriors Vow to Fight on
Spain and Morocco dug themselves deeper into conflict yesterday by refusing to budge in their battle for possession of the islet of Perejil.
World acts to pacify Parsley warriors
EU and Arab League focus on Spain's seized islet. Diplomatic efforts to ease the tension between Spain and Morocco caused by the latter's "invasion" of the disputed islet of Perejil were stepped up yesterday when the European Union and the Arab League became involved.
French pretender fights to keep council flat
The Bourbon family silver went long ago. So did the chateau in the Loire, the palace in Palermo, the estate in Morocco and sizeable tracts of prime French woodland.
Just As You Thought the World Might Be Safer...
The war against terror seemed to have been won but suicide attacks, allegations of 'dirty bombs' and plots in Morocco show al-Qaeda is still a threat.
Washington optimist embarks on mission highly improbable
After flying visits to Morocco, Egypt, Spain and Jordan, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, will today finally have his long-delayed showdown with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.