Free Republic

<p>Moroccan lawmakers have unanimously approved a bill that confirms the Berber language’s official status, eight years after it was preliminarily recognized in a new constitution.</p> <p>The new law is designed to cement use of Berber – alongside Arabic – by government administration, local authorities, public services, schools and in cultural life.</p>

Prominent French journalist Eric Zemmour was back in the spotlight Saturday after being barred by a news channel for saying Muslims were elbowing French people out of the suburbs, AFP reports. The iTELE channel said late Friday that Zemmour would not be invited back to a chat show he has been appearing in since 2003 following an outcry over his latest remarks. Zemmour, who recently published a best-seller titled "The French Suicide," is no stranger to polemics and has been convicted of inciting racial hatred. The latest controversy erupted after he gave an interview to Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper...

AZERBAIJAN has scored a spectacular first win in the 56th Eurovision Song Contest, Europe's annual pop extravaganza watched by tens of millions of people. Eurovision tradition dictates that Azerbaijan's victory means the 2012 competition will be held in the resource-rich former Soviet republic often criticised by campaign groups for its poor human rights record. "Now Europe will really learn about Azerbaijan," accountant Sakina Akhmedova said yesterday in the republic, a 9.1-million-strong mainly Muslim but officially secular state on the Caspian Sea. "It's a great advertisement for a country like this." Ignoring heavy rain as they danced, chanted and waved flags,...

Moroccans learn to write Berber By Martha Dixon BBC News, Morocco In a village school perched on a hill on the edge of Morocco's Atlas Mountains, Amazigh children are learning in their own language. The Berber script - Tifinagh - is related to Egyptian hieroglyphics Morocco has been dominated by Arabic culture since the seventh century when the Arabs swept across the Middle East and North Africa in the name of Islam. Now the original inhabitants of this country are reasserting their influence. The word Amazigh means free or noble, but the Arabs called the Amazigh people Berbers - or...

Italy Thwarts Basilica Attack Plot Tue Aug 20, 2:43 PM ET A Moroccan man is shown walking in the San Patronio Basilica in Bologna, northern Italy, in this picture taken from a home video seized Monday by Italian authorities and made available Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002, during a press conference. Four Moroccans and an Italian, left, whose names were not made public, were arrested Monday under the suspiscion of terrorism after they filmed themselves near the central altar and the frescoes in the basilica. (AP Photo/Gianfilippo Oggioni, HO) By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer ROME (AP) - Italian police arrested...