De Gea Used Real Madrid to Get New Deal: Fans React on Twitter

Rabat – Following David De Gea’s decision to sign a new contract with Manchester United, the Red Devils took to Twitter in order to troll Real Madrid for failing to sign the Spain international.

David De Gea signed a new four-year contract with Manchester United, completing an incredible U-turn. After having been on the verge of joining Real Madrid last, now he’s on course for four more years at the Old Trafford.

Following this epic U-turn, thousands of the Red Devils’ fans took to Twitter to taunt Real Madrid, with one user writing that the goalkeeper had used Real to land a lucrative new deal.

David De Gea used Real Madrid to get a new deal at Manchester United. I’m lovin it… ???????? #WoodwardThat

— Der Fußballgott™ (@Schweinmaster) September 10, 2015

#DaveStays http://pic.twitter.com/PRSN7xIZdW — Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 11, 2015

Another said: “Epic news: David de Gea signs new Manchester United contract. Real Madrid’s side of the story looking weaker each day.”

Epic news: David de Gea signs new Manchester United contract. Real Madrid’s side of the story looking weaker each day. #Mufc

— Paul Backhouse (@BackmanBegins) September 11, 2015

Real Madrid fans right now ???? #DAVESTAYS #Daviddegea http://pic.twitter.com/Pc3A4Tbbmf

— Saud – ?????? (@Saud_Barcaa) September 11, 2015

British media outlets referred to David De Gea’s new contact as a “win” for Manchester United. Daily Telegraph said: “The Spain goalkeeper’s decision to sign a four-year deal is a victory for the club and the player.”

Real Madrid’s pursuit of David De Gea http://pic.twitter.com/pxNl2sCk64 — Mallenahalli (@SemperFiUnited) September 11, 2015

On the other hand, Real Madrid are reported to be the big losers, and are feeling let down by De Gea’ decision to snub them.

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Morocco to Acquire 60 Russian BMP-3 Infantry Fighting Vehicles: Source

Rabat – Morocco will buy approximately 60 BMP-3 amphibious infantry fighting vehicles from Russia, Russian Sputnik news agency reported on Friday.

According to the same source, the model’s manufacturer, Tractor Plants, received requests from Morocco for the acquisition of the BMP-3 model. The Russian company also received requests from Myanmar to purchase the anti-infantry vehicles.

“As of today, we have received requests for the acquisition of the BMP-3 [model] from Myanmar and Morocco,” a representative of Tractor Plants told RIA Novosti. “I cannot disclose the exact amount, but we are talking about somewhere in the region of two battalions”.

The Russian company’s spokesperson added that negotiations on the purchase of the BMP-3 model had not formally commenced between the two parties.

The BMP-3 fighting vehicles are manufactured by the Kurganmashzavod company, part of the Tractor Plants machine-building consortium.

Morocco is also seeking to acquire the Russian-made Amur 1650 submarine during King Mohammed VI’s forthcoming visit to Moscow by the end of 2015.

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David De Gea Signs Four-Year Contract With Manchester United

Rabat –Spanish international David De Gea has signed a new contract with Manchester United, according to the British Express on Friday.

The 24-year-old goalkeeper, who was set to leave the club to Real Madrid before the collapse of the move, has signed a new four-year contract with the Old-Trafford club.

“I am delighted to be starting this new chapter in my united career,” De Gea said. “I have always enjoyed playing with these great players in front of our fantastic fans.

Manchester United is a special club and Old Trafford is an ideal place for me to continue to develop my career. I’m looking forward to putting a difficult summer behind me and concentrating on working hard to improve and help my teammates to be successful.”

The Manchester United manager, Louis van Gaal, said: “I am absolutely delighted David has signed a new contract. He is one of the best goalkeepers in world football. I am very pleased that he will be part of the team for many years to come.”

De Gea is yet to play this season. However, it is expected that the former Atlético Madrid man will start Saturday’s Premier League game against Liverpool following the extension.

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Morocco Pushes New Anti-Trafficking Law

Miami – Morocco has been long known as a transit country for human trafficking but the real problem of exploitation is also experienced in the Kingdom for which the government believes a new anti-trafficking law will regulate such acts of human rights violations.

According to the UN Women’s website, a seminar was conducted last May that exposed the results of a “study on the trafficking of women and children in Morocco”. The study was done by the UN Women, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of Switzerland and Morocco’s Ministry of Justice and Liberties.

The current Penal Law definition of “crime” in Morocco is considered ambiguous by the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, which has caused a recurring problem in the prosecution of human exploitation in the Kingdom.

The study found that Morocco is more than a transit country, it is also in fact a country of origin and destination for human trafficking. Due to the inadequacy of addressing the problem, it is defined as “legally invisible” in domestic law making it unreliable to properly estimate the number of violations associated with it.

A bigger problem raised by UN Women due to the Kingdom’s vague crime law is the impossibility of “Moroccan officials to intervene across borders” when Moroccan nationals undergo human trafficking abroad.

Since 2013, the UN Special Rapporteur has been raising the need for more concrete anti-trafficking laws to “simplify the processes of investigation, data collection and prosecution”. The Moroccan Government has approved such new law earlier this year and it is expected to be in effect by October.

For example, in the current law, “the police do not consider instances of trafficking as cases. They treat women as prostitutes, they think they can be forced [to have sex]. It is difficult to prove. The man will lie; he will say he does not know that his wife does that, even if he forced her into prostitution. She can even be accused of adultery,” shared an anonymous source dedicated to help women survivors of violence.

Leila Rhiwi, UN Women’s Maghreb’s Representative said Morocco has made great advancements in recognizing the problematic and assisting its victims but much more needs to be done. She is hopeful the new anti-trafficking law will help adopt better measures.

In order to aid victims of trafficking in persons violations, UN Women has opened “counseling rooms within courts of justice in eight Moroccan cities”.

According to the US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report 2015, “human trafficking, trafficking in persons and modern slavery have been used as umbrella terms for the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, coercion.”

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Two Moroccan Museums Among Nominees for Leading Culture Destinations awards

Rabat – Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat and the Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts are among the nominees for the leading Culture Destinations awards.

The awards celebrate the best-not-for-profit visual arts institutions around the world.

The two Moroccan museums are competing in the best new culture destination in Africa category, along with the Ouidah Museum of History (Benin) and Senegal’s thread arts museum of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.

The other categories are: Leading Culture Destination, Leading Culture Destination for Exhibitions & Programming, leading culture destination for architecture & Spatial Design, leading Culture Destination for Eating & Drinking, Leading Culture Destination for Shop, Leading Culture Destination for Digital Experience, Best City for Culture (Jury award), Best New Culture Destination (Jury award), and the Best Art Experience in a Hotel (Jury award).

The Leading Culture Destinations awards ceremony will be held on October 9 at the Jumeirah Hotel in London.

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Canada: Moroccan Appointed Head of Young Chambers of Commerce Group

Rabat – Monsef Derraji of Morocco was appointed Thursday the CEO of the Regroupement des jeunes chambres de commerce du Québec (RJCCQ), an organization that includes Chinese, French, Latin-American, African and Maghreb youth chambers of commerce in Canada.

The appointment of Derradji is an “important step in our growth,” said Alain Brophy, president of the RJCCQ. “In addition to the knowledge and impressive skills Moncef brings to his new role, he also brings an especially ambitious vision that is in line with the goals of the RJCCQ,” he added.

Nicolas Duvernois, executive vice president of the RJCCQ, said that “the future (…) has never been so exciting for the grouping with the appointment of Derradji”.

Founded in 1991, the RJCCQ supports the network of young chambers of commerce and other youth branches across Quebec, representing over 7,000 young entrepreneurs, business people, professionals and executives aged 18 to 40 years old.

The RJCCQ counts among its ranks nine cultural community organizations. It is also the sole representative of la relève d’affaires au Québec.

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Morocco to Benefit from 26 Projects Funded by the Union for the Mediterranean

Miami – The Union for the Mediterranean (UpM) has recently announced the allocation of 26 development projects designed to benefit Morocco.

The Euro-Mediterranean multilateral partnership created to foster the integration of the region has incurred a reported budget of nearly EUR 600 million (6.5 MMDH) in the new Moroccan projects.

According to the French daily Les Eco, UpM held a press conference at Union headquarters in Barcelona September 8-10, which was attended by members of the Moroccan press. UpM informed the media of the organization’s several action plans and future endeavors.

The 26 projects were allegedly designed to benefit Morocco’s youth, promote women’s skills, support sustainable development as well as the environment, said the UpM.

The Union for the Mediterranean’s Director Fatallah Sijilmassi said they aim to “reinforce the complementary capacity” among Euro-Mediterranean countries, where UpM represents 43 nations.

According to UpM’s official website, their priority focus areas are:

• Business Development
• Transport & Urban Development
• Energy
• Water & Environment
• Higher Education & Research
• Social & Civil Affairs

At the Wednesday press conference, the French daily reports UpM revealed its Moroccan plan in detail, in which 37% will deal with youth and employment, 15% will be on women’s issues, 19% on the environment, and 18% will target Morocco’s SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises).

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Picture: Miss Morocco Contest in 1960’s

Taroudant – The appreciation of beauty is something characteristic of every human, but organizing beauty contests officially became part of Moroccan society in the 1960s.

Zamane, a Facebook page of a website dedicated to Moroccan history, posted a photo allegedly of a beauty pageant in 1960.

The photo in black and white features eight beautiful girls lined up for a group photo, probably after crowning the 1960 Miss Morocco.

In the same photo, there is an old Moroccan man wearing traditional jellaba and a turban – probably one of the organizers – standing behind the contestants.

The photo of 1960 Miss Morocco collected more than 1222 likes and 313 shares on Facebook.

The comments vary between those who expressed nostalgic feelings towards “those golden days,” while other comments denounce the Beauty Contest, claiming it was one of “the negative legacies of the colonialists” that had “a bad impact on Moroccan society.”

“Interesting contrast between the candidates with short dresses and the traditional dress of the man in the background,” reads one comment.

“They are those fateful years in which the colonialists were gone, leaving behind them a deviant nation,” reads another comment.

Most of the comments were statements of mockery or funny jokes about the contestants, particularly making fun of the man in the background.

Morocco’s largest city, Casablanca, hosted Miss Bikini contests and other beach parties where men and women pose for photographs in bikinis and swimsuits.

Last January, photos of Miss Casablanca in 1980s displayed the lifestyle of some Moroccans living in Casablanca during that time, and went viral on social media.

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De Gea Close to Sign a New Contact with Manchester United

Rabat – After his attempted move to Real Madrid collapsed last month, David De Gea is allegedly considering signing a new contract with Manchester United, in a dramatic turnaround.

On Thursday, the goalkeeper’s agent Jorge Mendes was spotted at Manchester United’s training ground for talks with Louis van Gaal and club officials.

De Gea and some of his family members were also seen at Carrington Training Centre along with Mendes, his entourage and United’s Secretary, John Alexander, at around 2:45 pm local time.

This meeting has been regarded by British media as a “remarkable coup” from the club just days after he seemed set to join Real Madrid.

A report by the Mirror said the Spanish international is now keen on signing a new deal at Old Trafford as his current one expires at the end of the season.

The goalkeeper saw the £29 million move to Real Madrid fail at the last moment after the required paperwork was not submitted before the Spanish transfer deadline.

Multiple media reports suggest a new contract between De Gea and Manchester United is likely to happen, especially since Real Madrid denied interest in signing the goalkeeper during the upcoming winter transfer window.

The white team’s President Florentino Perez said his club would not be back in for De Gea in January.

“We will certainly not sign De Gea in January,” Perez told radio station Cadena COPE.

In a separate report, the Spanish publication El Confidencial said De Gea is ready to extend his stay at the British club which will see his £35,000-a-week wages increase dramatically.

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Diesel Prices in Morocco Are Lower than Worldwide Average: Report

Rabat – A new report released on Monday by Global Petrol Prices ranks Morocco among countries where the price of diesel is below the worldwide average (US $0.92 per liter).

The report noted that drivers pay on average $0.84 a liter for diesel in Morocco, which is considerably less than the price paid by drivers in Norway’s capital Oslo, at $1.59 a liter, placing Norway among the top three most expensive countries in the world for the said fuel.

UK leads the list of world’s most expensive diesel at $1.67 a liter, followed by Israel ($1.60).

According to the report, the average diesel price around the world is $0.92 per liter. Yet, there is a substantial difference in prices among the countries studied.

As a general rule, wealthier countries have higher prices while underprivileged countries as well as those that produce and export oil, have significantly lower prices.

Venezuela is considered the least expensive country in the world to fill up diesel, with $0.01 per liter. Venezuela’s government even subsidizes the fuel and therefore Venezuelans pay close to nothing to drive their vehicles.

Libya has the lowest diesel price in the Arab World as it ranked second worldwide with $0.14 per liter, ahead of Saudi Arabia which ranked third with $0.16 per liter.

Saudi Arabia is estimated to account for 20-25% of the world’s oil reserves, topping the charts It is also the highest exporter of oil. Kuwait, which has the world’s fifth largest oil reserves landed fourth with an average of $0.21 a liter. It is followed by Algeria, which despite its inexpensive diesel prices, with an average of $0.22 a liter, has suffered from fuel shortages in recent months as traffickers have been smuggling petrol to crisis-torn Libya.

Qatar came fifth in the ranking, with an average of $0.26 per liter. The Middle Eastern country has the world’s largest per capita production and proven reserves of natural gas.

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