UN hails Morocco's efforts in housing field The United Nations hailed, on Monday in Shanghai, Morocco's efforts in the field of housing, particularly in terms of reducing slums. “Morocco's efforts in the field of housing have contributed to reducing the number of slums and improving the living conditions of citizens,” the UN Deputy Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of the UN-Habitat, Inga Bjork-Klevby, underlined on the sidelines of the 2010 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour awards, organized as part of the celebration of the World Habitat Day. Morocco received the 2010 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor award for its national program to fight indecent housing, which aims notably to eradicate slums in cities and urban centers. Vimpelcom in $6.6 bil deal to buy Orascom, Wind Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom will buy Italian mobile group Wind and control of Egyptian operator Orascom Telecom for USD 6.6 billion, and seek a deal with Algeria to keep Orascom's Djezzy unit. The cash and shares deal, with Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris' Weather Investments, will create the world's fifth-largest mobile operator, worth around USD 23 billion and with 174 million mobile subscribers. OMV Finds Gas In Two Tunisian Wells In Nawara Concession Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG (OMV.VI) Monday announced two new gas condensate discoveries in Tunisia, a result which it said bodes well for future exploration and production in the area. The Khouloud-1 and Benefsej-1 wells, where the discoveries were made, are both based within the Nawara Production Concession in Southern Tunisia. With the two latest discoveries, OMV and its 50% concession-partner, national Tunisian oil and gas company ETAP, have now made nine consecutive discoveries within the concession, OMV said. The new wells have both been cased and suspended for future testing and production, OMV said. Brussels in talks with Tripoli over €5bn request Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's request for €5 billion a year from the EU to stop Africans crossing over to Europe illegally is under discussion at high-level talks in Tripoli. Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström's visit to the Libyan capital is aimed at boosting ongoing discussions on the possibility of signing the first cooperation framework agreement between the EU and Libya, the European Commission said yesterday. The agreement would cover various areas but primarily the fight against illegal immigration. The meetings will run until tomorrow. Sudan VP says Abyei referendum may be in doubt Sudan's vice-president said a referendum on the future of the disputed Abyei area might not go ahead unless leaders settled differences over the vote, raising the stakes in troubled north-south territorial talks. Sudan is about three months away from the scheduled start of the vote on whether oil-producing Abyei should join north or south Sudan — a plebiscite promised as part of the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war. BM
