Morocco

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. During the last week, Moroccans have clustered on rainy mornings around kiosks along this capital's colonnaded downtown avenues, marveling at the latest newspaper reports on the case.

A Moroccan man detonated explosives he was carrying under his clothes at an Internet cafe in Casablanca, killing himself and wounding three people, security sources and witnesses said today. The blast occurred at night in the city's Sidi Moumen slum, home to several of the suicide bombers who killed 32 people in 2003.

Acting on a tip, Moroccan police surrounded a building in Casablanca where four terrorism suspects were holed up, prompting three to flee and blow themselves up with explosives. The fourth was shot dead by a police sharpshooter while apparently trying to detonate his bomb. A police officer was killed and 10 people were injured. The blasts came nearly a month after a suicide bombing at an Internet cafe in Casablanca that injured three people.

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. Moroccan authorities later arrested at least one man suspected of being linked to the bombings, according to the official MAP news agency. The U.S.

Morocco began counting votes after a record low turnout in parliamentary elections that were expected to show gains for Islamists pressing an anti-corruption message. Political analysts say the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party has a chance of winning Cabinet posts if it emerges as the party with the most seats. The party emphasizes conservative values and ethics, a message popular in lower-income urban suburbs.

Voters deprived an Islamist party of an expected parliamentary victory, handing it instead to a secular conservative party that is a member of the ruling coalition, according to preliminary results. If confirmed, the results would mean continuity for a key U.S. ally in the Arab world. The conservative and secular Istiqlal party won five more seats than the Justice and Development Party, or PJD, whose growing strength has worried its secular rivals.

Morocco's conservative Istiqlal party won the most seats in parliamentary elections, allowing it to form the next government with its current ruling coalition, final results showed. The Istiqlal, or Independence, party won 52 seats, ahead of the opposition Islamist Justice and Development party, which had 46 seats, the Interior Ministry said. When it became clear the Islamist party would only take second place, it accused unnamed opponents of buying votes to skew the results.

Morocco recalled its ambassador to Spain because of a plan by Spain's king and queen to visit two Spanish enclaves in North Africa claimed by Morocco. King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia are to visit Ceuta and Melilla, on Morocco's northern Mediterranean coastline, starting Monday. Spain says the cities have been Spanish for more than 400 years, much longer than Morocco has been a sovereign state.

Fifty women have graduated as Muslim preachers, part of Morocco's effort to promote moderate Islam. An additional 150 men graduated as imams, or prayer leaders. The 50 female religious guides, or \o7m\f7\o7orchidat\f7, won't lead prayers in mosques but will be sent around the country to teach women -- and, occasionally, men -- about Islam. "Your duty ...

You have to wonder whether it's a setup when you're in a Muslim country and someone asks, point-blank, "Are you lot drinkers?" Despite the hooded djellaba he was wearing, John Horne, who was doing the asking, looked as though he had guzzled a few in his time, so I took a calculated risk and confirmed that yes, we lot were drinkers. John is a Brit, a bespectacled, erudite, eccentric and highly amusing Yorkshireman who has spent the last 40 years circumnavigating the globe.