King Mohammed VI yesterday appointed Abdellatif Hammouchi to the position of head of the Direction Générale de la Surveillance du Territoire - DGST.Hammouchi replaced Ahmed Harrari who served in this post since July 2003. The DGST, (the equivalent of the British MI5), is the security service responsible for protecting Morocco against threats to national security.
King Mohammed VI called on Moroccans who are about to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca to be "worth ambassadors" of their country.
"Try to be worthy ambassadors for your country, and to act in a way that commands other people's esteem and fondness for this nation, which deserves special affection and consideration, as well as strong support for its causes and its aspirations", the monarch who bears the name of the "Commander of the faithful"
Addressing the first delegation bound for Hajj (pilgrimage), King Mohammed VI quoted the holy Koran as saying: "Addressing His servant and Prophet Abraham, Almighty God said: "And proclaim the Pilgrimage among men: they will come to you on foot and (mounted) on every kind of camel, lean on account of journeys through deep and distant mountain highways, that they may witness the benefits provided for them, and celebrate the name of Allah, through the Days appointed"."
He reminded the pilgrims that, according to the Holy Book and the Sunna, "that the harder an act of devotion and its requirements, the greater the reward."
The monarch also quoted Prophet Sidna Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him, as saying: "He who comes to this House and refrains from obscene or immoral acts will be cleansed of his sins, and be as pure as a newborn child". He also said: "There is but one reward for a valid pilgrimage, and that is Paradise".
Every year, up to 30,000 Moroccans perform the pilgrimage which is one of the five pillars of Islam that include, the Chahada (testimony of faith), the Salaat (daily five-time prayer), Sawm (one month fasting during the holy month of Ramadan) and the Zakat (almsgiving to the needy).
Speaking at the presentation of the 2006 report on children's situation in the world, UNICEF Representative in Morocco, Maie Ayyoub said that 300,000 babies suffer from iodine deficiency, notably due to malnutrition and shortage of drinking water.
She noted that 7% of Moroccan children under the age of 11 (250,000) are unschooled and 10% (60,000) are not vaccinated.
State Secretary in charge of Family, Children and Disabled, Yasmina Baddou (pictured left) noted that the government has set up an action plan to fight AIDS, promote a qualitative education and protect children against all forms of exploitation and violence.The government has also launched a project to build children protection units to follow up children victims of violence and exploitation, she noted.
The project, baptized SAMU Social, also includes to offer judicial, listening, diagnosis and integration services. Two pilot units will be operational starting early 2006 in Casablanca and Marrakech, targeting for the first six months children under 18 and girls under 25 living in the streets.
The first project, worth USD 525,000, will allow persons living in the streets to benefit from free and professional medical, psychological and preventive care.
Following up on our story about the unrest in Fès. A court in Fès sentenced ten students of the city's Mohamed Ben Abdallah University to a four-month suspended sentence.
The students were sued mainly for unauthorized assembly in the public way, belonging to an unauthorized association, and damaging public property.
The court had on Monday acquitted five students arrested on December 5, with the same group following a demonstration to protest against the urban transport company that wanted to raise the price of the monthly subscription to its services.
Moroccan authorities have arrested some 261 candidates to illegal emigration during operations conducted from December 8 to 14 in different regions of the country.
211 of those arrested are Moroccans while the remaining 50 others are from different nationalities, according to a press release of the Ministry of the Interior. Thousands of wannabe emigrants risk their lives every year attempting to cross to the northern shore of the Mediterranean for a better life. Over 26,000 attempts of illegal migration were aborted in 2004, including 4,989 in southern Morocco. 423 human smuggling networks were also dismantled during the same year.
Tags: Morocco, Fès, travel, news
1 comment:
Thanks Hale,
The iodised salt issue is world wide. Tibet has a real problem, but an Australian doctor has been spending several years and a lot of his own money showing people how to use "good salt". Maybe Morocco needs to subsidise iodised salt and mount a promotion campaign.
Post a Comment