High-speed train on track in Morocco

Morocco’s plan to construct a high-speed rail network is drawing mixed reviews, with some legislators and ordinary citizens saying the money is needed to meet other goals.

The project will cut travel times between Tangier and Casablanca from more than five hours to just over two. By 2016, some 8 million passengers per year are expected to use the new line, which is the first step in a master plan aimed at building over 1,500km of new tracks by 2035.

Two Algerians to referee World Cup

Algeria’s Mohamed Benouza and Maamar Chaabane are among the 30 referees appointed by the Referees Committee of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) for the World Cup scheduled from 11th June to 11th July in South Africa.

“Overall, the world football’s governing body has selected a group of 30 trios of referees and assistant referees for a training seminar scheduled for 25th February,” Mohamed Benouza told the Algerian Radio. “I am pleased to represent the Arab world in the World Cup and I will do my best to be the worthy ambassador of Algerian referees,” said Benouza, who refereed the quarterfinals of the 27th African Cup of Nations in Angola between Ghana (finalist) and the host country.

Tunisia promotes golf tourism

The Tunisian travel trade magazine « Tourism info » organized a round table on Friday in Tunis on “the Tunisian golf tourism” which aims at establishing a coherent strategy to promote golf tourism in Tunisia.

According to statistics recently released, the number of European licensed golfers is expected to reach 8 million in 2020 against only 3 million currently.

Libya fines Swiss businessmen

A Libyan court on Saturday ordered one of two Swiss men entangled in a diplomatic row to pay an 800-dollar fine for illegal business activities, his lawyer said.

“Max Goeldi has been fined 1,000 dinars (around 800 dollars),” lawyer Salah Zahaf told AFP, describing the decision as “positive” but cautioning the attorney general could yet launch an appeal.

Goeldi and fellow Swiss businessman Rashid Hamdani were barred from leaving Libya and have been holed up for most of the past year and a half at the Swiss embassy in Tripoli.

16 dead in south Sudan fighting

Sixteen people have been killed in clashes between south Sudan troops and cattle herders from the northern Messeria tribe in the southern Unity state, officials said on Saturday.

On Thursday, “the Messeria attacked at 6:00 pm a garrison of the SPLA,” the former southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army, in a village near Bentiu, capital of Unity, southern army spokesman Kuol Deim Kuom told AFP.

“On our side there are eight killed, including one civilian and 11 injured … We have found eight bodies of Messeria on the battlefield ground,” he said.

Lebanon to support Syria in war or peace

Lebanese lawmaker Walid Jumblatt on Friday expressed the support “to the people and the leaders of Syria.”

The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) said in a statement that “as the Israeli madness and continuous threats hit its peak, I tell Syria and the Syrian leadership that we are with you above all considerations.”

A round of verbal battle between Syria and Israel started when Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted by Jerusalem daily Ha’aretz as speaking to senior military officers on Monday that ” in the absence of an agreement with Syria, we are liable to enter a belligerent clash with it that could reach the point of an all- out regional war.”

BM

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