Morocco arrests Christians On Feb. 4, Moroccan troops authorities raided a Christian assembly and arrested 18 people. The authorities also confiscated Bibles and personal belongings, according to The Voice of a Martyrs contacts. “We were astounded by some-more than 60 Moroccan Gendarmes aggressive a residence [where we had only started a Bible study],” a VOM hit said. “Eleven believers (including an American), dual non-believers and 5 children… were [held] by a Moroccan supervision for 14 hours.” After 14 hours in detention, a American was deported and a others were released. Authorities kept a American's laptop computer, along with Bibles, books, a laptop, a digital print camera and a dungeon phone that belonged to a others arrested. Algeria Celebrates International Mountain Day Saturday Algeria will celebrate the International Mountain Day Saturday through different activities relating to the theme of “Rural revival in the service of populations in mountainous areas,” said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Algerian news agency, APS, reported that the official celebrations will be held in the province of Tizi-Ouzou (around 103-km south of capital Algiers), while a rich program of activities has been prepared throughout the 48 forest conservations, in collaboration with institutions and associations involved in the development of mountainous areas, the source added. Tunisia gets 297 mln euro loans for rail project Tunisia got 297 million euro loans from European investment Bank (EIB), French Development Agency and German Agency KFW to finance part of a rail network project. The EIB provided a 177 million euro loan while the German agency lent 70 million euro for the rail scheme, the bank and KFW said. The French agency also said it has awarded Tunisia a 50 million euro loan for the same project of which total cost is 1.8 billion euro. Irish credit rating cut to level of Libya and SA Ireland's credit rating was cut yesterday to the same level as Libya and South Africa, and three steps above “junk” status which would force investors to dump Irish bonds. The downgrade came amid concerns about the increased cost of saving the banks. Rating agency Fitch downgraded Ireland for the second time in two months, citing the higher cost of propping up the banks, weaker economic prospects due to the deepening banking crisis and the loss of access to affordable funding in the financial markets. Cables Suggest US Knew Of Sudan Arms Shipments Among the cables in this week's dump of WikiLeaks documents are memos concerning shipments of arms through Kenya to Sudan. The cables suggest that the US turned a blind eye to the situation until Somali pirates brought it to public attention by seizing a tanker carrying 32 Soviet-made Ukrainian tanks, apparently bound for Sudan's south. BM
