TANGIERS, Morocco (AFP) - Heavy rains and gale force winds battered parts of Morocco, killing at least five people and flooding large parts of the northern city of Tangiers, local authorities said on Thursday.

Torrential rains lashed the Agadir region, where three people were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in was swept away by flood waters close to the the Tazentout river, officials said.

In Casablanca, western Morocco, two buildings collapsed in the city's old quarter, killing two people and injuring 19, media reports said on Thursday.

Several roads were blocked and rail traffic around Tangiers was suspended, the rail service said.

Winds of up to 80 kilometres an hour (50 miles an hour) hit the Strait of Gibraltar, creating seven-metre high waves.

Traditional ferry services between Morocco and Spain are so far unaffected, said Ahmed Atmani, regional director for the North African country's national port authority.

Atmani added, however, that high-speed catamaran links had been suspended until weather conditions improve.

Meteorologists said the amount of rainfall reached 23.3 millimetres (one inch), causing flooding in several parts of Tangiers.

Officials shut schools and called for companies in the affected areas to send their employees home earlier than expected.

In Tetouan, northern Morocco, rains and gusty winds saw civil protection officers stepping in to evacuate people from their homes.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa stressed that the government was equipped and ready to help those areas affected by the bad weather.

"The authorities remain mobilised to respond to any emergency," he said on Thursday.

Source: AFP / Yahoo New 

WASHINGTON: Lockheed Martin is being awarded an $841.9 million contract to produce 24 F-16 aircraft for Morocco, which ordered the jets in 2008, the Pentagon said Dec. 22.

Lockheed also won contracts to supply the Pentagon with "advanced counter measure system electronic warfare system, along with associated support equipment, alternate mission equipment and support elements," the Pentagon said in a statement.

The total value of the contract between the United States and Morocco is estimated about $2.4 billion, not all of which will be handled by Lockheed.

Other firms that manufacture or supply parts and equipment or can train technicians will share in the contract.

The Rafale jet produced by France's Dassault was among those that competed for the Moroccan contract.

Dassault has yet to sell any of the aircraft abroad, but French Defense Minister Herve Morin said last week he remained "resolutely optimistic" about the possibilities of exporting Rafale, Dassault Aviation's "multirole" combat jet.

"We are having advanced discussion with the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and also other partners," Morin told France's La Tribune newspaper.

A cousin of Morocco's King Mohammed dropped a court case against a newspaper that published a cartoon caricature of his wedding to a German woman, a lawyer in the case said Tuesday. Skip related content
Prince Moulay Ismael spared Akhbar Al Youm's editor Taoufiq Bouachrine and cartoonist Khalid Gueddar from paying a fine of more than 3 million dirhams (239,000 pounds) that was awarded to him by a court, lawyer Ali Kettani told state news agency MAP.

Press freedom campaigners had said the case was proof of a crackdown against journalists after 10 years of steady progress that made Morocco's press among the boldest in the Arab world.

The government said Gueddar's front-page cartoon was an attack on the monarchy and contained a Star of David that showed blatant anti-Semitism and insulted Morocco's national flag.

It shut the newspaper's offices and in October a court handed Bouachrine and Gueddar three-year suspended prison terms and fines for showing a lack of respect for the prince.

Bouachrine insisted the cartoon was a display of affection for the prince and said his trial was part of an "ongoing massacre of press freedom."

An appeal court Tuesday upheld the judgement by the court of first instance but Kettani then said the prince decided to drop the case after the two journalists apologised, MAP reported.

It did not say if the prince also spared Bouachrine and Gueddar a separate court judgement in which they were handed further one-year prison terms and fines of 100,000 dirhams.

The government says recent trials have nothing to do with freedom of expression but are simply a natural response to bad journalism and slander. Press freedom activists say the progress of the last 10 years is under threat.

(Reporting by Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091229/tpl-oukoe-uk-morocco-press-4b8df73.html