First Independent Mena Newspaper
Only two candidates have submitted their applications for the July 4 presidential elections that most likely would not take place as political forces shunned the process. The Constitutional Council Saturday announced that it received two candidacies for the July presidential elections to mark the end of the 90-day transition that followed the resignation of the […]
Moroccan police nabbed two Spaniards and two Moroccans in the city of Casablanca for illegal possession of 78 gold bars weighing 11.7 kg. The men were nabbed in a car with a foreign license plate in the city of Casablanca on friday, on tip-off from the national security directorate (DGSN). Police discovered in the […]
The head of Sudan’s ruling military council, Lt-Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the weekend, a day after he visited neighboring Egypt. Al-Burhan on Sunday met Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, who expressed the UAE’s support for Sudan as it navigates a transition after the overthrow of autocrat Omar al-Bashir, […]
Botswana’s state-owned utility has cancelled a tender in which it was seeking private investor partners to build a 100 MW solar power plant in the Southern African nation. According to the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), the project, which was initially structured as a joint venture between BPC and private producers, will now be implemented through […]
North Africa boasts the world’s richest phosphate reserves, most of which is located in Morocco but Algerian and Tunisian soil have significant untapped potential. Algeria has long dreamt to develop phosphates-related industries through the setting up of fertilizers plants in Annaba and developing the eastern phosphate cluster in the Tebassa region. However due to multiple […]
Morocco is set to create 12 special economic zones in its 12 regions offering tax incentives and other advantages to attract foreign industrial investors. The special zones are also meant to boost exports and curb imports in order to ease the country’s trade deficit. The decision was made in 2016 in a business charter that […]
France regretted Friday the resignation of the UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for the Sahara Horst Köhler, who explained his decision by health reasons, and reiterated its full support to the UN process. “France has learned with regret the resignation of the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara,” said the spokesperson of […]
Two years after taking office, UN Special Envoy to the Sahara Horst Köhler submitted his resignation citing health reasons, a decision that analysts say could bring negotiations over the Sahara issue to square one. After years of stalemate, the former German president managed to bring the four parties Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario back […]
Moroccan rapper Issam Harris, best known as Issam, has signed a contact with Universal France in what appears as the biggest deal ever signed by an Arab artist. The size of the contact has not been disclosed, but a source close to the artist said it is the biggest ever signed by an Arab musician, […]
King Mohammed VI handed over to top women laureates of the 2017-2018 literacy program the Mohammed VI Prize at a ceremony in a Casablanca mosque following the Friday noon prayers. The prize winners are: Fatema Laâdam (Salé), Yamna Abjaou (Tantan), Mina Esskouri (Nouaceur), Hayat Sennoun (Oujda) and El Hassania Mennouna (Zagora). In an address during […]