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Islamist PJD Party Wins Morocco Poll Abdelilah Benkirane's PJD party will be the single biggest party in the new chamber. Morocco's moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has won parliamentary elections, say officials. According to provisional results, the PJD won 80 seats in the 395-seat assembly, Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui told a news conference. That would make it the largest party and give it the right to lead a government. The poll is part of reforms which King Mohamed VI hopes will defuse protests prompted by the Arab Spring. "We thank the Moroccans who voted for the PJD and...

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The Arab League voted to suspend SyriaÂ’s membership at its meeting on Saturday and said it would impose economic and political sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as call for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus. The Arab foreign ministers meeting at the LeagueÂ’s headquarters in Cairo also called on the Syrian army to cease its involvement in the killing of civilians and invited the Syrian opposition for transition talks. Opponents of Assad were hoping that the Arab League would suspend SyriaÂ’s membership after Assad pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three European aid workers continue to be held by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) after being kidnapped from refugee camps controlled by the Polisario Front near Tindouf, Algeria last week. According to reports, Polisario members in the camps helped the kidnappers by supplying weapons and directions to the victims' location. The two Spanish and one Italian hostages are being held at an undisclosed location. They remain alive, though no demands or conditions for their release have been made, despite considerable efforts by the international community. Agence France Press (AFP) reports that "less than...

A Moroccan court found on Friday the chief suspect guilty in the April 28 bombing of a Marrakesh café and sentenced him to death, The Associated Press reported. 17 people were killed in that terror attack, including Israeli citizen Michal Weitzmann Zikri and her husband Masoud Zikri, a native of Morocco. The two were in the country to celebrate Passover with Masoud’s family. They were survived by their two-year-old son, who was with his grandparents at the time of the attack. Michal was six months pregnant when she was killed. Prosecutors had accused Adel al-Othmani of dressing like a tourist...

Five foreign men were arrested during a courthouse break-in early on Wednesday and police said they found photographs of public buildings, water systems and malls from various U.S. cities in their van. The men, at least three of whom were in their 20s, will be questioned by a joint terrorism task force including the FBI and immigration authorities, officials said. Bexar County spokeswoman Laura Jesse said three men were found inside the 120-year-old Bexar County Courthouse, a landmark in downtown San Antonio and two in a large recreational vehicle parked in front of the building. She said all five were...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Five Moroccan nationals arrested Wednesday for breaking into a San Antonio courthouse were found to have pictures of public buildings, water systems and malls across the country, Reuters reports. While they were nabbed by local police, the suspects will be interrogated by a joint terrorism task force that includes the FBI and immigration enforcement authorities, the wire service reported.

SNIPPET: "Rabat — Morocco's security forces have broken up a five-member terrorist cell that used to operate in the cities of Salé (near Rabat) and Casablanca, National Police Department said on Saturday in a statement. The statement added that the dismantled cell includes a member linked to the former emir of al Qaeda network in northern Iraq. The cell, which pledged allegiance to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, used Internet to forge close ties with al Qaida, especially in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Yemen and Somalia, it said." SNIPPET: "To carry out their plans, the members of the cell contacted, via Internet, experts in...

The last place she'd seen Mbarek Lafrem was in the bathroom stall of a Hell's Kitchen bar, where he would leave her stripped and unconscious, lying on the filthy floor in a growing pool of blood. "The last picture I have of him is him breaking into my stall," Lafrem's beautiful victim told the Post in an exclusive interview. "And I remember screaming." The brave young woman -- a pediatric nurse with a whispery voice and long blonde hair -- had sat sobbing softly in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday as she saw Lafrem for the second and final time, as...

Morocco said yesterday it had broken up a three-man cell with links to Al Qaeda which planned to carry out attacks on security headquarters and Western interests in the kingdom. "The members of this cell intended to join camps of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) outside Morocco to undergo military training with the aim of returning to the kingdom to carry out criminal acts," the interior ministry said. The cell, which called itself the Al Battar Squadron, "included a former detainee under anti-terrorist legislation, and was headed by one of the most active individuals on jihadist Internet sites...

DCNS launches Moroccan FREMM frigate 18:57 GMT, September 14, 2011 Lorient | On 14 September 2011, DCNS launched the FREMM multimission frigate for the Royal Moroccan Navy. The launch took place at DCNS's Lorient shipyard in the presence of senior Moroccan and French officials and is a major milestone in the construction of the vessel, scheduled for delivery in 2013. DCNS today launched the FREMM multimission frigate for Morocco. The event at the Group's Lorient shipyard was attended by Admiral Laghmari, Inspector General of Royal Moroccan Navy, Admiral Verwaerde of the French Navy and Patrick Boissier, Chairman & CEO of...

First SIGMA class frigate transferred to the Royal Moroccan Navy Written by defenceWeb Tuesday, 13 September 2011 The SIGMA class frigate Tarik ben Ziyad was yesterday transferred to the Royal Moroccan Navy after completing sea trials and outfitting. The SIGMA (Ship Integrated Geometrical Modularity Approach) frigate, built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) in Vlissingen, the Netherlands, was handed over to Rear Admiral Mohamed Laghmari, the Commander in Chief of the Royal Moroccan Navy on time and on schedule. After commissioning, the crew will continue with another three weeks of Sail Safety Training in Den Helder and the North Sea....

The Obama administration finally highlights Iran’s key role in supporting al Qaeda On July 28, the Treasury Department designated six al Qaeda operatives involved in shipping money and men from the Persian Gulf to senior al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The move targets a node of the global terror network that is critical to its overall strength, freezing any of its financial assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting any transactions with the operatives. Of the many conduits for al Qaeda funds and personnel across the world, the U.S. government believes this one is the most important. “This network...

Italy's parliamentary commission has approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public. The draft law was sponsored by Souad Sbai, a Moroccan-born member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative Freedom People party. The law, which was passed by the constitutional affairs commission Tuesday, would prohibit women from wearing a burqa, niqab or any other garment that covers the face. It would also sentence anyone who forces women to cover their faces in public to up to one year in prison and fine them $43,000. The Italian news agency ANSA reports the opposition voted...

In the capital Rabat, hundreds of protesters chanted the slogan "May God bless the life of my people" and carried placards demanding a "change that marks a break with the past," according to a Reuters witness. "This protest is not meant to be a response to the allegiance ceremony. It is our response to the overall political climate in the country," said Mohamed al-Aouni, an activist from the February 20 Movement, which has held almost weekly protests demanding reform. "We will continue to press for a parliamentary monarchy, freedom, social justice and dignity," Aouni said. About 4,000 people protested in...

IT isn’t news anymore when an Arab ruler facing mass protests pledges sweeping reforms. But Morocco’s July 1 constitutional referendum may be the most significant development in the Arab world all summer. For the first time since the Arab Spring began, a population broadly embraced its leader’s reforms and scaled back antigovernment demonstrations. In the weeks before the referendum, over 100,000 people had taken to the streets; after the vote only about 10,000 did. A sizable majority of Moroccans approved the new Constitution, which calls for King Mohammed VI to cede half his power to a prime minister appointed from...

The February 20th movement, a pro-reform group, had called for a boycott of the vote, denouncing the new constitution as a superficial gesture that would leave the king's power intact and stave off real change. "The numbers the government is using have nothing to do with reality," insisted Amal Albaghdadi, a Rabat native and organiser with the February 20th movement. "I have come out to say enough with poverty, discrimination, and lack of freedoms. We want real democracy." "We were never allowed to express our concerns about the constitution," said protester Lekbari Mohammed, Rabat native. "These are false results because...

SNIPPET: "Shanti was arrested by u.s. Customs and Border Protection in Blaine, Wash. ..." SNIPPET: "Both were from Morocco. It's unclear why Shanti would need to jump the border so often. But a LinkedIn account listed in Shanti's name lists a string of jobs in Canada, Dubai, and Jordan, so it may have been work-related."

(CNN) -- Coalition forces in Afghanistan say that a recent security operation in the southeast part of the country suggests an influx of foreign fighters may be underway, just as the Taliban begins its "fighting season" against NATO troops. And intelligence analysts say it seems a growing number of Europeans are among them. On the night of May 8, a joint NATO-Afghan force encountered a group of militants in a place called Qalat, a district in Zabul province in southeastern Afghanistan. Ten militants were killed, according to a statement Tuesday from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The combined force...

SNIPPET: “A second man has been charged in connection with threats made last year against the producers of the Comedy Central program “South Park.” Jesse Curtis Morton, (aka Younus Abdullah Mohammad) is charged with communicating threats. Morton helped run a website, RevolutionMuslim, with Zachary Chesser. Chesser is serving a 25-year prison term after pleading guilty to a similar charge and to trying to provide material support to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab.” SNIPPET: “In an interview on CNN before the “South Park” controversy, Morton said Islam commands Muslims to terrorize disbelievers. “The Koran says very clearly in the Arabic language...