Marrakech- A man, just released from prison last Wednesday, returned home to his wife only to slash her face and other parts of her body with a razor blade, leaving her seriously injured, according to Al Akhbar daily.

The husband attacked his wife, who is a minor, on Sunday morning in Marrakech after a conflict arose between the couple.

The wife had been staying at her family’s house when her husband arrived in a taxi to take her to their home. On the way, the couple had an argument, and the girl demanded a divorce. Upon hearing this, the man allegedly attacked her, saying “No one else will marry you, but me,” according to the daily.

The wife was taken to Ibnu Tofail Hospital, where she received treatment, including about 30 stitches, for the wounds on her face and several other parts of her body. She remains at the hospital.

The husband had previously been sentenced to six months in prison on a conviction of involvement in smuggling minor girls from a Childhood Protection center.

The wife was the victim of rape by her now husband one year ago, at the age of sixteen. Afterward, her rapist was forced to marry her to avoid prosecution. “We forgave him, so that he could marry her,” the daily quoted the girl’s mother.

The marriage was permissible under Chapter 475 of Morocco’s penal code, which exempted a rapist from punishment if he married the victim. Article 475 was repealed earlier this year after an outcry from feminists and human rights activists.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed.

Rabat - King Mohammed VI will chair, starting on Thursday, the ceremonies marking the wedding of Prince Moulay Rachid at the Royal palace in Rabat, says a release of the ministry of Royal Household, Protocol and Chancellery.

"The Ministry of Royal Household, protocol and chancellery is happy to announce to the Moroccan people the happy news that His Majesty King Mohammed VI, God supports Him and Grants Him glory, will chair the ceremonies marking the blessed wedding of His brother, His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid, to take place at the Royal Palace in the city of Rabat starting on Thursday 19 Muharram, 1436 (Hegira year), corresponding to November 13, 2014, in accordance with the customs and traditions of the glorious Alawit family". The wedding is expected to be attended by high dignitaries from a number of countries.

Prince Moulay Rachid, brother of King Mohammed VI, sealed his union with Miss Oum Keltoum Boufarès last June.

Oum Keltoum Boufares is the daughter of Mamoun Boufares who was the governor of Marrakech when King Mohammed VI ascended the throne in July 1999.

Moulay Mamoum Boufarès, is the son of Princess Lalla Khadija, daughter of Sultan Moulay Youssef, who is the father of the late king Mohammed V, the grandfather of King Mohammed VI. Moulay Mamoum Boufarès retired in 2009.

Rabat - Soumia Benkirane, the daughter of the current Head of Government, Abdelilah Benkirane, has reportedly made it clear she will not use her father’s post to obtain a job.

In an interview with Al Arabia, Soumia Benkirane, who has a degree in Islamic studies, said that she refused to use her father’s position as the Moroccan head of government to get a job.

"Some relatives and friends were wondering why I was not hired after my father was appointed the head of the government, saying that if they were in my father’s position, they would take care of their family and relatives before anything else,’’ said Soumia Benkirane.

She goes on to add that it took them much time to understand that “Abdelilah Benkirane will hire no one illegally, neither his sons and daughters, nor his relatives.’’

Soumia Benkirane said that she has decided to continue her studies and seek a higher degree in law in order to facilitate her integration in the labor market, rather than asking her father to use his power and get her a job.

"Neither I nor my father will allow ourselves, one day, backsliding from any principle of the Justice and Development Party, particularly fighting corruption,’’ Soumia added.

New York- Moroccan women are becoming the country’s best ambassadors abroad, bringing pride to their fellow countrymen and countrywomen.

After young Moroccan-American Nadine Hanafi was recently elected one of the US’s top young entrepreneurs, another Moroccan has added her name to the list of young Moroccan women who shine in their fields.

Sophia Fouzia Leaguedi, a Moroccan resident of Chicago, was chosen as part of a group of the 15 most influential suburban women in business. The award was granted by the Chicago-based Daily Herald Business Ledger, which every year rewards women executives and business owners who excel in business management.

Leaguedi was awarded during the 17th edition of the award, which was held last week in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago.

The Moroccan businesswoman distinguished herself through her work as head of her own company, Ameroc Export Inc., which specializes in providing American companies with services to export their products to different parts of the world.

Sophia graduated from Rabat’s Mohamed V University before pursuing a career in management and business at Los Angeles Pierce College.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed.

Rabat- A 28-year old woman from Casablanca has reportedly given birth to five babies on Sunday after receiving treatments for infertility.

Last weekend, a woman gave birth to five babies, two girls and three boys, after a successful caesarean section supervised by a medical team at the teaching hospital of Ibn Rochd, Casablanca.

The woman first conceived the babies after five years of marriage. The Maghreb News Agency MAP quoted Dr. Naima Sammouh, a physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, as saying that this is ‘’an exceptional case of birth.’’

’The woman has been taking fertility drugs as a treatment for infertility for five years,’’ Naima Sammouh explained.

The doctor noted that although multiple pregnancy appears very risky, the duration of the pregnancy exceeded 34 weeks and proceeded in good conditions. The babies were born in good health.

Naima Sammouh noted that multiple pregnancies ‘’have become much more common today than they were in the past, and It’s rare when multiple births go easily, like what happened today.’’

By Bernard Ditto

New York- Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of health problems and deaths in the United States. Both of these diseases are preventable to a degree. The only exception is with genetics.

There are certain people that are more susceptible to contracting heart disease or cancer due to their genetics than others. Aside from that, both of these diseases are largely preventable. We will talk about them below.

There are many forms of cancer that can attack all parts of your body. Some forms of cancer can be treated more easily than others. Depending on the type of cancer that you have and the state that it is in, you may be able to recover from it and you may be able to live a normal life. If the cancer is bad enough, or it is in a bad place, it may be terminal. This is why it is so important to avoid environments and actions that can cause cancer.

In the old days, people worked with asbestos often. This was later found to have been a significant cause of cancer. Once this was discovered, the chemical was removed completely. Today, the most common way in which someone can contract cancer is through smoking. Smoking causes a lot of health issues. If you are a smoker, is strongly advised that you stop doing it immediately. By quitting the bad habit, you will be significantly reducing the risk that you get cancer later in life. Along with this, you also improve your blood flow which increases your sexual health.

If you are having any issues in the bedroom, it may be due to smoking. Smoking narrows the blood vessels which make it more difficult for the blood to go around in your body. This means that it can be more difficult to be ready to perform sexually. If this is happening to you, you can fix this and buy Viagra. By doing this, you will be able to prevent one of the issues that smoking causes. This, however, is not a cure for cancer. If you are to continue smoking, you should be prepared to cancer later in life.

Cancer is not the only killer in this country. Heart disease affects millions of Americans every year. It is the leading cause of death in the country. It affects both men and women alike. Heart disease is a broad term which encompasses a wide range of conditions that can affect the heart. It includes conditions such as issues with your blood vessels, heart rhythm issues and even heart defects.

The phrase heart disease is often used in place of cardiovascular disease. The two terms are interchangeable and generally mean the same thing. The best way to avoid heart disease is to avoid smoking cigarettes and try to maintain a healthy diet which is low in fat and salt. Exercise is also a great way to increase your chances of avoiding an issue with your heart.

Rabat- Morocco has been ranked 82 on the index score of the most miserable nations in the world, between the Netherlands and Latvia.

The index, published by the Cato Institute, measures misery in 109 countries based on various economic factors, including inflation, lending rates, unemployment, and per capita GDP growth.

Morocco was ranked 58th in last year's index, meaning that the Kingdom managed to advance 24 places in only one year.

This also means that Morocco has become a little less miserable than it was a year ago.

According to the index, which was conducted by Steve Hanke, a professor of Applied Economics at the Johns Hopkins University, Morocco is happier than many other Arab countries including Algeria (57), Egypt (15), Jordan (32), and Saudi Arabia (46).

Morocco landed itself in a better position than many countries that are classified as developed, such as the United States of America, Finland, France, Iceland, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The Kingdom’s misery index decreased from 13.3 in 2013 to 12.3 this year. However, the largest contributing factor to unhappiness for Moroccans remains unemployment, noted the study.

Syria holds the disreputable spot as the most miserable country in the world, followed by Venezuela and Sudan.

Switzerland, however, was ranked 109th, giving it the title of the least miserable country in the world.

Rabat - The Justice and Development Party group (PJD) called on the house of Representatives (lower chamber of the parliament) to name the parliament hall after the late Ahmed Zaidi, former leader of Socialist Union of Popular Forces, known by its French acronym as USFP, who died on Sunday. 

The PJD call comes as a recognition for the “great morals and values that characterized the late Ahmed Zaidi.”

Abdullah Bouano, the leader of the socialist group in parliament said that Zaidi was a man of “dialogue, credibility and fairness,” adding that his death was a “big loss for the Moroccan parliament, the political field, and the media.”

The Moroccan politician, who was known for his integrity, died as he was trying to cross the Sherat river, near Rabat, to reach his home.

Zaidi was the president the USFP group in the house of representatives until last April.

Fez - In the light of what is going on in the so-called national media, this title comes as a reaction to the necessity of questioning the hidden agendas of our media, particularly those presented on national TV involving foreign programs. These programs are produced in different contexts for audiences with different languages, lifestyles, ways of thinking, norms, and values—audiences who, in one way or another, are different from us.

As it is defined, media is a means of informing, transmitting messages and meanings to different types of audiences, teaching ethical morals, and, most importantly, a means of fostering and enriching cultural values of a group of people living in a certain context. It is also an effective way of enhancing people’s awareness of polemical and serious issues in society.

The giant role of media has to be praised and encouraged as long as the local taste is taken into account during the process of production. Once the media meets the underlined objectives and needs of the Moroccan audience, everybody will applaud and voice their pride.

Nevertheless, it becomes a big problem when the media becomes a means of destruction and backwardness of societies through its shows and productions without taking into account the local culture of the audience. Media has a crucial role in shaping people’s identities and promoting spiritual belongings and ties to a community. Because through it, we discover ourselves and reflect on the way we think and live as a distinctive group. Through it, we open the gate to the world outside, perceive it and sense it not as alien and strange, but as a partner and collaborator, since it is believed that the other is a mirror of the self.

There has been a constant plea to revitalize and revive the role of media in promoting one’s belonging to the home, but without response. Recently, King Mohammed VI insisted on the pride of belonging to this nation but media producers are not supporting and consolidating this national mission and duty. On the contrary,  they are making people alienated and strange in their country.

The idea of being alienated in our country is strongly reinforced and confirmed by national TV programs in the name of openness and cultural exchange. These programs, prosaic in their nature, are taken from different sources: Turkish, Mexican, Indian, and even Japanese, which are translated into the Moroccan Arabic to be easily understood even by the commoners.

The act behind translation is done deliberately to promote “understanding” and “appreciation” of such series, and this fact creates more harm and damage to being proud of one’s belongings to this nation. In the bosom of this amalgam of series, one has to ask a few questions: who is going to benefit from these second hand soap operas, which are identical in their scenarios? Are there any scientific and educational benefits in these series? Do we need others to teach us love and conflict? Where are we in these series?

The problem here is that culture is taken out of its context and replaced by another one that is totally different from ours, and introducing the modified culture as an alternative and a good way of living and thinking. We are softly and unconsciously becoming alienated and exiled in our home through media conquering and occupation of minds. We, therefore, start to act like the other, as media tries to foster and present it as civilized, cultivated, and open-minded. To achieve this aim, Moroccan media invites its audience to become westernized and embrace its “ideal” norms and values, and deserts all that is native, local and unique.

This hurting reality brings about a sort of dilemma among people who are neither here nor there, but rather caught between the cogs and unable to identify themselves with the other, as the other refuses the self to be wholly fused and melt into its “pure” body.

The other rejects the self as being a permanent potential threat to its “superior” identity. Today, there are racist voices in Western countries, which believe in the “purity” of European blood, and thus it has not to be mixed with the other who, according to the self, is an “alien”, a “danger”, a “threat” to European identity, and “barbarous” in its nature. The rise of the right wings in France, the UK, and Italy marks a radical change in the European mind towards issues of nationalism, identity, belonging, and patriotism.

It is time to stop this massive killing and smuggling of our cultural identity by our media and launch a national discussion by media experts, producers, educators, stakeholders and decision-makers about what should be done to rescue what is to be rescued. Otherwise, the cost will be great and will be paid by coming generations. We want our people to be proud of their identity and citizenship, and feel exclusively part of a very antique civilization through using media as a tool to dig into the history of our country. We have two options: to celebrate our rich history or to wait for others to distort it.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed.

Rabat- A report published by the Qatari-based Doha Institute shows that 53% of Moroccans are against the separation of religion from social and political life.

The survey was conducted in Morocco on behalf of the Doha Institute by a research team in social sciences from the Faculty of the Arts and Humanities Hassan II in the city of Mohammedia. The study used a sample consisting of 1,437 people living in different parts of the country.

According to the survey results, on Arab Indicators 2014 and against all odds, only 37% of Moroccans believe that the practice of religion is a private matter, making the Kingdom the least favorable to the separation of religion and politics among the 15 surveyed Arab countries.

The surveyed countries are Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Palestine, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Mauritania, Libya, Yemen, and the Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Even Saudi Arabia, where a strict interpretation of Islam is adopted, seems to approve secularism more than Moroccans. In fact, 48% of Saudis push for keeping religion out of politics and society, noted the study.

Respondents from Lebanon and Tunisia scored the highest approval ratings for the separation of religious practice and political life, with 87% and 72%, respectively.

However, 82% of Moroccans agree that 'people of religion' should not influence or sway voters to choose between candidates running for office. Only 1% of the population believes that people of religion should have a say in these matters.

According to the 294-page study, 79% of Moroccans believe that the government does not have the right to use religion in order to persuade people to support their policies and decisions.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Rabat- Jean-Pierre Legrand, leader of the National Front in Roubaix, France, has proposed to "entrust the keys of a disused church to Muslims" who suddenly find themselves without a mosque.

Legrand’s proposal comes after a municipal decree issued early November that shut down the Da'wa mosque, located in the neighborhood of Alma, which every Friday holds up to 800 worshippers. "Personally, it touches me. This is simply nonsense. We have still enough abandoned buildings in Roubaix,” said Legrand.

After the closure of the mosque, the leader of the National Front proposed to allow Muslims to use the church of Notre-Dame for their prayers. The only requirements are that the Muslim community itself finance the renovation and retain the exterior design of the church.

The decision to close the mosque was "not a decision we take lightly. But our duty is to make everyone safe,” Max Pick-André, the first deputy mayor of Roubaix, said cautiously, because he knows that the decision to close a Muslim place of worship is very sensitive in the city with six mosques.

Edited by Elisabeth Myers

Rabat- A new picture of King Mohammed VI of Morocco is going viral on social media among Moroccan users.

The picture, which was posted by Soufiane El Bahri, the owner of a Facebook page devoted to the King Mohammed and the Royal family, has already been shared by thousands of people and garnered more than 60 thousand likes in within 24 hours.

The picture shows the Moroccan monarch in his office while he was 29 years old at the time when he was still heir apparent. Mohammed VI appeared sitting on his office while about to sign some documents.

In recent years, Moroccans have become accustomed to see pictures of the King posted on and shared on Facebook, and also seeing him driving his car without or little protocol in every Moroccan city he visits.

But Most Moroccans wonders how Soufiane El Bahdri, a 23-year old student from Sale, Rabat’s twine city, manages to obtain personal pictures of the King and share them on his Facebook page where he has more than 1.7 followers.

Rabat- In an attempt to 'bring about change of mentality in the Vatican hierarchy', Pope Francis carried a series of key changes in top positions including the appointment of  French Moroccan Archbishop Dominique Mamberti as the new head of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church's highest court.

Prior to his appointment, the 62-year-old native of Morocco was Secretary for relations with states, the Vatican's equivalent of a foreign minister since 2006. The pope has named British Archbishop Paul Gallagher as the Vatican's new Secretary for Relations with States in replacement for Mamberti.

Archbishop Mamberti was born on March 7, 1952 in the city of Marrakech. He later moved to France where he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ajaccio on 20 September 1981.

He has academic degrees in civil and canon law. He is considered an expert on Latin America, the United Nations, Africa, the Middle East and Islam.

As the newly-appointed head of the church's Supreme Court, Mamberti will be in charge of final appeals for cases of marriage annulments as well as cases of conflict of competencies among Vatican dicasteries.

Since such position requires the "Beretta rossa", or the red hat of the cardinal, Mamberti is expected to made cardinal in the next consistory, according to the National Catholic Register.

Marrakech - The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies held a press conference at its headquarters in Doha on Wednesday, as the headquarters of the Center in Washington, D.C. announced the results of a poll on Arab public opinion regarding the international coalition that was mobilized during October 9 to 25, 2014, to act against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

The poll aims at defining the extent to which Arabs are for or against the coalition’s objectives, and to what extent they trust the reasons behind those objectives. Additionally, the poll evaluated popular attitudes towards the ISIS organization.

The center chose seven countries in which to conduct the poll: Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Iraq. The poll included Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey.

There were approximately 5,100 respondents in all seven countries, comprised of 600 respondents in each country and 900 refugee respondents.

The poll found that 85% of the respondents held negative attitudes towards ISIS, while 11% of respondents viewed ISIS in a positive light. 13% of the supporters stand by ISIS because they thought “ISIS abides by Islamic principles,” while 55% of them expressed their support based on “Isis’ military achievements, or its readiness to confront the West and Iran, and its claim to defend the oppressed Sunnis in the Arab East.”

Even though the majority of respondents said they support the coalition, they still were dubious about its effectiveness in realizing its target objectives. Only, 22% of them thought that the coalition would succeed in its mission.

On the other hand, a majority thought that the coalition must have some ideological hidden objectives, pointing out that ones who will eventually benefit from it the most are the United States, Israel, Iran, and the Syrian regime.

The United States bore the brunt of the criticisms levied by the majority of the respondents. 73% of the respondents considered US policy in the region negatively. “This attitude might be changed if the US changes its financial and military support for Israel,” according to the Center.

Even though respondents expressed support for the coalition, they stated their opposition to the policy followed in the region. They expressed belief that Arabs will be the only loser in this coalition, while all their other counterparts will benefit from it.

The complete poll results are available at the following link: http://www.dohainstitute.org/file/Get/eecc5156-7382-476b-9ade-6efa6061441f

Taroudant - In an act of religious tolerance, the Washington National Cathedral has hosted “Aljomoa prayer” (Friday prayer) for the first time on Friday, November 13.

Muslims performed the weekly Friday prayer in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, better known as Washington National Cathedral.

The event was aimed at bridging Muslims and Christians worldwide together and promoting a better understanding and acceptance between communities of both faiths.

The sound of the church bell was replaced with the Athan (the Islamic call for prayers), Christian hymns with Islamic prayer in the chapel and the church priest with a Muslim imam.

According to the organizers, this Friday prayer marked the first time that the cathedral is hosting Muslims in a "powerful symbolic gesture'' to perform their own prayers.

South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool described the event in a statement as "a dramatic moment in the world and in Muslim-Christian relations."

In related news, last week, Jean-Pierre Legrand, leader of the National Front in Roubaix, France, proposed to “entrust the keys of a disused church to Muslims” who suddenly found themselves without a place for performing their prayers after a municipal decree issued early November shut down a mosque in the city.

Rabat - Famous Egyptian actor Ahmed Helmy has successfully undergone surgery in the United States to remove a tumor from his back.

The comedian actor, who rose to stardom in 1999 thanks to his role in the comedy Aboud Ala El-Hedoud, was moved to an intensive care unit as standard post-operational procedure.

According to Arabic-speaking website Al-Ahram, Helmy is expected to return to Egypt when his medical conditions allows.

Previously believed to have travelled to the United States several months ago with his then pregnant wife Mona Zaki in order to grant their newly-born a US citizenship, Helmy, however revealed to his 7.9 million Facebook fans the reason behind his sudden trip was to seek medical treatment to cure cancer.

Speaking to journalist Khaled Faraj from Al Watan news, Ahmed Helmy said," I'm better now and I've left the hospital two days ago (12 Nov). My health is constantly improving; I don't need to be in the ICU any longer. I will however stay in the US to follow up on my treatment."

"I thank God for curing me and standing by my side. I also thank my wife Mona who insisted on travelling with me and not leaving me for a second. She was by my side at a time when taking care of her was the priority. She was in her last days' of pregnancy and fate wanted our son to be born here," he told Faraj.

Rabat- The United Arab Emirates added Moroccan cleric Dr. Ahmad Raissouni, Vice President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, to a list of 83 terrorists and terrorist organizations released on November 15.

The Moroccan scholar was listed along with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al Qaeda, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In a move that drew immediate denials from various Muslim organizations, the UAE included the names of several prominent Muslims leaders like Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian Islamic theologian and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.

Commenting the UAE government’s list, the Raissouni told Alyoum24, “These illiterates have been trying for several years to make for themselves a better place and an important role in this world.”

Raissounni, who is also the leader of the Tawheed (unification) Movement and Reform, added that the Emirati authorities, whom he described as “politically illiterate,” have “exhausted all their tools, and now began to resort to suicidal operations against all that is Islamic, fair, and noble, so they might draw the world’s attention.”

The UAE also named the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR, and the Muslim American Society as terrorist groups.

According to the Businessweek, CAIR said in an e-mail statement “There is absolutely no factual basis for the inclusion CAIR and other American and European civil rights and advocacy groups on this list.”

The controversial list of terrorist groups comes after the UAE implemented draconian policies at home and abroad in an attempt to counter the spread of political Islam.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed.

Rabat- The second annual edition of the Walk Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index has revealed that nearly 36 million people worldwide are enslaved.

The Index produced by the Walk Free Foundation, a global human rights organization founded by Australian philanthropists Andrew and Nicola Forrest, estimates the number of people living in some form of modern slavery in 167 countries around the world.

Among the countries surveyed, India has the most slaves overall with an estimated 14.29 million people while Mauritania has the highest prevalence with 4% of its population in bondage.

Morocco was ranked 29^th as one of the countries with the highest number of modern day slaves with an estimated 158,400 enslaved people.

The report defines modern slavery 'as one person possessing or controlling a person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty.' That includes human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, commercial or sexual exploitation and the sale and exploitation of children.

The Index says that Morocco's poor score is due to its "weak victim assistance services and the absence of any domestic legislation, social or legal support for victims of human trafficking, a currently unacknowledged population who are grouped with irregular immigrants policy."

Qatar has the highest percentage of population in modern slavery in North Africa and the Middle East. Morocco was ranked 10^th in the MENA region.

The report calls for international action and to raise awareness against modern slavery while 'acknowledging that in the 2013 edition of the index the figures were an imperfect estimate as modern slavery is a hidden crime and notoriously difficult to measure."

According to the report, the ten countries with the largest estimated numbers in modern slavery are: India, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand.

While the countries that are taking the most action to end modern slavery are: the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, Australia, Switzerland Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Georgia and Austria.

Iceland and Luxembourg have the lowest number of people living in modern slavery both in prevalence and in absolute numbers.

The report explains the rise in overall figures in this year's edition to better data and methodology, and not asserting that there has been an increase in modern slavery around the world over the last year.

Rabat- An Algerian immigrant took the life of his Moroccan roommate in Belgium after a heated dispute about the African Cup of Nations.

The Algerian stabbed the Moroccan immigrant with a knife, and attempted to hide the evidence for about two weeks.

Not only did the Algerian commit the crime, he allegedly claimed that he did not know where his roommate was. He cut his roommate’s body into several pieces, which he kept hidden inside their house, according to le360.

People close to the victim informed the police about his disappearance after they suspected the Algerian was to blame.

After three days of monitoring and investigation, the police managed to find the body.

The initial probe revealed that the crime was committed by a cold weapon, and occurred after a dispute about the African Cup of Nations 2015.

Edited by Timothy Filla

Rabat- The British tourist Ray Cole, jailed this October for ‘homosexual acts’, said that Morocco has formally dropped the charges against him and his partner.

Speaking to Pinknews, Cole revealed that all the charges against both him and Jamal, known as Jam Wald Naas, had been formally dropped.

“I heard today, November 17, that all charges against myself and Jamal have been dropped and we can now put this horrible episode behind us,” the British gay said.

Cole has spoken of his relief and happiness now that the Moroccan government has dropped the charges against them, but “it doesn’t take away the memory of the appalling treatment in the police station and the frightening conditions in the prison,” he said.

The detention of the 70-year old Englishman in September triggered a strong international online campaign for his release, which finally happened on 7 October.

After Ray Cole, a 69-year old retired magazine publisher from Deal in Kent, was found guilty of ‘homosexual acts’ and sentenced to four months alongside his Moroccan partner, Jam Wald Nass, from Marrakech, a British campaign was launched on Twitter and Facebook calling on tourists to boycott Morocco.

Although homosexuality is legal in the United Kingdom, it is not in Morocco. The Moroccan government is cracking down on tourists who come to Morocco with the sole purpose of engaging in sexual relationships.

Under Article 489 of the Moroccan penal code, sexual acts between people of the same gender are punishable by between six months and three years in prison.