• The scent of orange blossoms is bringing the world to a spring tradition in Morocco
• This Moroccan startup is growing crops in the desert
• ''World's first off-road solar SUV'' just drove across Morocco powered only by the sun

• Two beautiful sites offer ideal setting for Maharishi's programmes in Morocco

• Powerful quake in Morocco kills more than 2,000 people and damages historic buildings in Marrakech
• Climate change threatens centuries-old oases in Morocco
• Western Sahara dispute dims Morocco's solar dreams

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

The scent of orange blossoms is bringing the world to a spring tradition in Morocco
25 March 2024 - Orange blossoms are among Morocco's quintessential fragrances. Moroccan women are welcoming spring by collecting the waxy white blossoms in copper pots used to distill the scent that's folded into honey-laden pastries, sprinkled on mint tea, and used in religious ceremonies as an ode to paradise. (more)

This Moroccan startup is growing crops in the desert
19 November 2023 - Sand to Green is a Moroccan startup that can transform a patch of desert into a sustainable and profitable plantation in five years, according to Wissal Ben Moussa, its co-founder and chief agricultural officer. Sand to Green says its techniques could be used in countries including Mauritania, Senegal, Namibia, Egypt, in the Arabian peninsula, some parts of the United States, and on the Mexican coast. (more)

''World's first off-road solar SUV'' just drove across Morocco powered only by the sun
26 October 2023 - Zero-emission cars are soaring in popularity but running an electric vehicle is next to impossible in places with limited charging infrastructure. Stella Terra could change that. The khaki-green SUV uses solar panels on its sloping roof to charge its electric battery, meaning it can drive long distances powered entirely by the sun. Built by a team of students at Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), ''the world's first off-road solar-powered vehicle'' could help connect remote areas ''where roads are less developed and energy grids are not as reliable,'' and assist with emergency aid and deliveries, says Thieme Bosman, events manager for the team. (more)

How Morocco went big on solar energy
18 November 2021 - Morocco has become famous for its vast, world-leading solar arrays. ... The country has been praised for using money saved from fossil fuel subsidies to increase funds for education and to implement a health insurance scheme. (more)

Morocco: Organic farming sector still expanding
23 March 2021 - Morocco's organic farming sector has seen rapid growth in the last years, and there are no indications it is slowing. Besides the Green Morocco Plan, the country has made serious efforts to promote organic farming. ... As Morocco developed its agrobiological sector, produce exports experienced significant growth, from 7,230 tonnes in 2007 to 17,000 tonnes in 2019. (more)

Africa's 'first fully solar-powered village' wants to be a model for a renewable future
13 December 2019 - Near Morocco's sunny Atlantic coast, the tiny community of Id Mjahdi is being touted as Africa's first completely solar-powered village. Solar power has the potential to become one of Africa's top energy sources, according to the International Energy Agency, but more infrastructure needs to be installed ... Morocco is leading efforts to fulfill that potential. (more)

Morocco turns the Sahara desert into a solar energy oasis
20 February 2018 - Morocco says it wants to be the Saudi Arabia of solar energy. Its flagship project is a first-of-its-kind, 9-billion dollar energy plant called Noor, meaning 'light' in Arabic, and is the size of the city of Paris. Today, the planet Earth meets over 80 percent of its energy needs with either coal, oil, or gas. But ... Morocco is taking advantage of an abundant natural resource, unobstructed sunlight, to power part of the North African nation. (more)

Struggling Moroccan youth find hope in cooking school
7 July 2017 - A retired French chef is working to solve Morocco's youth unemployment crisis. Robert Labat, a former chef, is founder of Agape, an informal cooking school. The goal of the non-profit program is to train students for the work force, and its graduates are already finding solid work in Moroccan restaurants. (more)

Morocco rejoins African Union after more than 30 years
2 February 2017 - Morocco has been readmitted to the African Union more than three decades after it left when the continental body recognised the independence of the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Hopes that the move could pave the way for peace-building were bolstered after Western Sahara - regarded by Morocco as part of its historic territory - welcomed the readmission. Morocco's King Mohammed VI, who had been campaigning since last year to join the bloc, told African leaders at the AU summit in Addis Ababa: 'Africa is my home, and I am coming back home.' (more)

Olive business roots young farmers in drying rural Morocco
24 November 2016 - Standing amid rows of healthy fava bean plants, El Badaoui Abdelatif explains how his team of young technicians has helped farmers in rural Sidi Badhaj, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, grow more olives -- and earn more money -- despite a drying climate. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Two beautiful sites offer ideal setting for Maharishi's programmes in Morocco
4 December 2008 - Dr Paul Gelderloos, National Director of Invincible Netherlands for the Global Country of World Peace, recently reported that there are two beautiful pieces of land in Morocco, which could potentially serve as ideal locations for Maharishi's programmes in that nation. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Powerful quake in Morocco kills more than 2,000 people and damages historic buildings in Marrakech
9 September 2023 - A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco, sending people racing from their beds into the streets and toppling buildings in mountainous villages and ancient cities not built to withstand such force. More than 2,000 people were killed, and the toll was expected to rise as rescuers struggled Saturday [9 September] to reach hard-hit remote areas. (more)

Climate change threatens centuries-old oases in Morocco
24 December 2022 - Residents of the oasis of Alnif say they can't remember a drought this bad: The land is dry. Some wells are empty. Palm groves that date back more than 100 years are barren. Home to centuries-old oases that have been a trademark of Morocco, this region about 170 miles southeast of Marrakesh is reeling from the effects of climate change, which has created an emergency for the kingdom's agriculture. (more)

Western Sahara dispute dims Morocco's solar dreams
4 January 2014 - A Moroccan solar project worth some $9 billion (6.6 billion euros) aimed at turning desert sun into lucrative power exports to Europe could be at risk as international lenders balk at plants planned for the disputed Western Sahara. Morocco drew up plans in 2009 to build solar plants and wind farms to generate 4 gigawatts of power by 2020 but much of that output is to come from sites planned in Western Sahara, the focus of a decades-old territorial dispute. Morocco has controlled most of Western Sahara since 1975 and claims the sparsely populated stretch of desert, which has offshore fishing, phosphate reserves, and oilfield potential, as its own. However, the Algeria-backed Polisario Front seeks independence and a United Nations mission was formed more than 20 years ago ahead of an expected referendum on Western Sahara's political future which has never taken place. The dispute was rekindled in October when Morocco recalled its ambassador from Algeria after that country's president upset Rabat by calling for human rights monitors to be sent to the region. (more)

Morocco activist arrests up since charter
27 May 2013 - Since Morocco's adoption of more democratic constitution during the Arab Spring, the arrest of political activists has increased, the country's main human rights group said Monday. Morocco prided itself for avoiding the turmoil of the Arab Spring by enacting reforms and amending the constitution, but activists say at least 70 members of their pro-democracy 20 February movement remain in prison. 'The arrests of activists have increased since the adoption of a new constitution in July 2011,' Mohammed Sadkou of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights said. 'The most worrying is that they are prosecuting political activists for ordinary criminal offenses... we are returning to the Tunisian model.' King Mohammed VI defused popular anger by amending the constitution to give more power to elected officials and then holding early elections that were won by an Islamist opposition party. Activists from the 20 February movement, named for the day in 2011 their protests began, maintain the reforms are illusory and the corruption and despotism of the system persists. (more)

Drought, falling tourism threaten Morocco economy
14 April 2012 - Morocco's new Islamist government finally passed its 2012 budget last week -- four months late -- while outside parliament hundreds of unemployed protesters demanding government jobs clashed with police. Long seen as a haven of stability and relative prosperity in North Africa, this close US ally has a rough year ahead. Its budget is overstretched, its farm fields drought-stricken, its credit rating is wobbly, and economic crisis is hobbling its closest trading partners in Europe, even as protests by disgruntled Moroccans are on the rise. Morocco escaped much of the unrest linked to the Arab Spring elsewhere in North Africa, where the governments of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt all fell, but it could face new troubles this year. The Islamist government elected in November has to pay off a heavy bill of salary increases and promised new government jobs made by its predecessors. Meanwhile, the skies and Morocco's northern neighbours have made things even worse than originally expected. (more)

Many wounded as Moroccan police beat protestors
23 May 2011 - Moroccan police beat protesters who defied a ban on demonstrations across the country on Sunday, leading to arrests and dozens of injuries, some of them life threatening, witnesses said. The violence appears to signal a tougher government line against the protest movement, which has become more defiant after festive demonstrations starting in February, but has yet to attract mass public support. Morocco has the lowest per capita GDP in the Maghreb region that also includes Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria. Many live in poverty and nearly half of the population is illiterate. (more)

Morocco: Terrorist attack hits cafe leaving 14 dead
28 April 2011 - A massive terrorist bombing tore through a tourist cafe in the bustling heart of Marrakech's old quarter, killing at least 11 foreigners and three Moroccans in the country's deadliest attack in eight years. At least 23 people were wounded in the Thursday blast a few minutes before noon in Djemma el-Fna square, one of the top attractions in a country that depends heavily on tourism, Moroccan Interior Minister Taib Chergaoui said. Government spokesman Khalid Naciri told the AP it was too soon to lay blame for what he called a terrorist attack but he noted that Morocco regularly dismantles cells linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and says it has disrupted several plots. (more)

New violence reported in Western Sahara
9 November 2010 - New clashes erupted in the Western Sahara between Moroccan security forces and local people seeking independence for the region. People used rocks and sticks in street battles with Moroccan police conducting house-to-house searches on Tuesday. Violence exploded Monday after Moroccan forces using tear-gas and high-pressure water cannons tore down a tent camp set up by some 20,000 Saharawi outside of the territory's main city, Laayoune, to protest discrimination and deprivation at the hands of the Moroccan government. The camp dwellers fought the government forces and both sides reported casualties, although the figures were conflicting could not be independently confirmed. Despite the clashes, informal talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front went ahead as scheduled in the US, but each party 'continues to reject the proposal of the other as a basis for future negotiations.' (more)

Deadly clashes as Morocco storms Western Sahara camp
8 November 2010 - Clashes between security forces and protesters in Western Sahara killed several people on Monday after Moroccan authorities stormed the site of the disputed territory's biggest anti-government protest in decades. Morocco said four of its police officers and a firefighter were killed by protesters, while the pro-independence Polisario Front said Moroccan security forces killed a 26-year-old activist during a raid on a protest camp in the desert. The violence was some of the worst in years in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that was annexed by Morocco in 1975 and ever since has been the subject of a bitter dispute between Rabat and independence campaigners. (more)

Morocco blames Algiers for Western Sahara 'truce breach'
12 April 2009 - Morocco blamed Algeria on Saturday for a 'serious and blatant' violation by the Polisario Front of an 18-year-long ceasefire in the disputed Western Sahara and urged the United Nations to intervene. Some 1,400 supporters of the Algeria-backed Polisario Front independence movement, including foreigners, crossed the border from Algeria into a closed military zone where they uprooted barbed wire and fired shots in the air, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. (more)