More than 100 migrants on Tuesday managed to scale the six-metre fence surrounding the Spanish exclave of Melilla to enter the territory while around 40 remained perched on the barrier, officials said.
Some 200 people tried to storm into the territory that lies in northern Morocco -- which together with the nearby exclave of Ceuta have Europe's only land borders with Africa -- in the early morning hours, Melilla police said in a statement.
Full StoryThe United Arab Emirates said Tuesday that it will not allow screening of Hollywood's Biblical epic "Exodus: Gods and Kings," mirroring similar bans by Egypt and Morocco.
The National Media Council, charged with vetting films for release in the UAE, said the Ridley Scott movie about Moses's escape from pharaonic Egypt contained "religious and historical mistakes."
Full StoryMorocco has indicted five people on charges of plotting "terrorist acts" and belonging to an illegal religious group, the official MAP news agency said on Monday.
The suspects were referred to the prosecutor who leveled the charges against them ahead of their trial, it said without adding when the first hearing will be held.
Full StoryJust across the sea from the sunny tourist beaches of southern Spain where many Europeans spend their Christmas holidays, a violent crisis is intensifying on Europe's borders with Africa.
Every week, hundreds of Africans try to scramble over the high fences that encircle Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish-ruled enclaves on the northern tip of Morocco.
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Three babies were among nine illegal migrants who died on Friday after their inflatable vessel capsized off the coast of Morocco, police said.
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Seven people were arrested in Spain and Morocco on Tuesday for allegedly recruiting young women via the Internet to join the jihadist Islamic State group fighting in Iraq and Syria.
Full StoryFour people have died in house collapses as new storms swept across Morocco at the weekend, a month after flooding killed nearly 50, the authorities said on Monday.
Wind and torrential rain battered a large part of the North African nation, with two people killed when three homes were destroyed in commercial capital Casablanca.
Full StorySpain's proposed new public security law, which introduces hefty fines for unauthorized protests and allows for the summary expulsion of migrants that try to enter the country illegally, has sparked fierce opposition from human rights activists.
The lower house of parliament approved the law -- dubbed the "Ley Mordaza" or "Gag Law" by its critics -- on Thursday with the votes of the ruling conservative Popular Party which has a majority in the assembly. All opposition parties voted against the bill.
Full StoryAn appeals court in the Moroccan city of Casablanca on Monday upheld a four-month jail sentence imposed on pro-reform rapper Mouad Belghawat for assaulting police, a judicial source said.
On his release in September after serving the full term, the 26-year-old known as Lhaqed -- The Rancorous One in Arabic -- said he planned to appeal to prove his innocence and that he had been the victim of assault.
Full StorySome 600 African migrants charged at the border fence separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco on Tuesday and 30 managed to climb over, Spain's government said.
They were the latest in a flow of thousands of migrants trying to reach Melilla and the other Spanish north African territory of Ceuta, which together have Europe's only borders with Africa.
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