Morocco

Bombings in Algeria and Morocco and other militant activity across North Africa have put U.S. and European authorities on alert that their interests in the region may be targeted for attack, officials say. On Saturday, two brothers with explosives-laden belts blew themselves up in Morocco's largest city, Casablanca, injuring one woman.

THERE won't be a sign, and every doorway will look the same. The street won't appear on a map. The taxi driver won't know how to get there. But somewhere near the guesthouse in the heart of the Marrakech medina where you booked a room, a gaggle of children will be sitting on a stoop, watching you in your confusion.

The women, some pregnant, others toting their children, risk the slippery, rugged cliffs here to cross from Africa into Europe without leaving the continent.

Fallout from the Persian Gulf War has hit Morocco's vital tourist industry. Vacationers, except for small groups of Japanese, are simply staying away.

They are politicians and businessmen, bureaucrats and pharmacists, a police commander and a TV journalist. Police arrested them and seized an arsenal in nationwide raids this month, the biggest crackdown in Morocco since suicide bombings killed 45 people, including the 12 bombers, in Casablanca five years ago.

Before I made it to the Sahara, I believed in the movies. Marlene Dietrich tossing her shoes off and disappearing forever into creamy folds of sand.