Spain says Morocco fiasco over Spain says it accepts Morocco's explanation of violence that left two Spanish activists injured during a protest in the disputed Western Sahara. Deputy Foreign Minister Juan Pablo de la Iglesia says Morocco is right: the activists were beat up Saturday not by plainclothes police, as the protesters contend, but by Moroccan citizens angry over the demonstration being staged in favor of independence for the Saharawi people. De la Iglesia said in a radio interview Tuesday that the 14 Spanish protesters involved were taking part in an illegal protest because they did not have permission from Moroccan authorities. Algeria to value Orascom Algeria's government appointed a company to assess the value the local unit of Orascom Telecom Holding SAE as part of its plan to acquire it, Al Khabar newspaper reported, citing a senior government official it didn't identify. The valuation of the unit, Djezzy, will begin in the second week of September and will take no longer than two months, it said. Three desalination plants to be built in Tunisia The Tunisian Water Distribution Utility (SONEDE) will build three desalination plants in the southern region of Gabes, Tunisian Press Agency TAP reported on Monday. The project which will be launched in 2011, will cost an estimated 14 million Tunisian dinars (about 11. 5 million U.S. dollars) and will supply Zarrat, Matmata and Menzel Habib with drinking water. Earlier this month, SONEDE awarded a 70-million-euro ( around 89 U.S. dollars) contract for the building of a second reverse osmosis desalination plant on the island of Djerba to the Tunisian- Spanish Group Princesse Befesa. The plant will supply 250,000 people and is expected to be the country's largest desalination facility. Former Islamists walk free in Libya Libya was set to free 37 Islamists on Tuesday, including a former driver of Osama bin Laden and members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, according to the executive direction of the Kadhafi Foundation. “Thirty-seven Islamists are going to be freed tonight, including an ex-chauffeur of (Al-Qaeda founder) Osama bin Laden who was detained at Guantanamo,” said Yussef Sawan. 3 Russians kidnapped in Darfur freed Three Russians abducted by gunmen in Sudan's restive Darfur region were freed by security forces after a clash with their kidnappers, a Sudanese news website reported Tuesday. Security forces fought with the kidnappers Monday night before freeing the men, who worked for a company transporting food for the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, the Sudan Media Center reported, quoting provincial Governor Abdel-Hameed Moussa Kasha. BM
