The majority of applicants come from war zones in Iraq and Syria, getting to Morocco after a long trip across the continent, but in recent months there has been a surge in Moroccan applicants from Alhucemas, the Moroccan city at the epicenter of upheavals in the Rif region, about 100km from Melilla.

Morocco demands `clear signal' from EU on future relations

The department Ajanuch heads on Tuesday (7 February) issued a statement in which it warned of the "serious consequences" that will arise from "obstacles" the EU puts in the way of the agricultural agreement signed in 2012. The agreement was partly annulled by a court in December 2015, for including Western Sahara, but the European Court of Justice overturned the ruling last December.

Beyond the preamble to the judgement, which distinguished between Morocco and Western Sahara, "there is now a very clear verdict initiating the agreement". Morocco will now "not accept others trying to apply their own interpretations. [...] The EU's attitude is confusing," the minister added.

The commemoration for Nazi collaborator Philippe Pétain in the Canyon of Heroes will be one of the first we remove. https://t.co/hAnGmkCdtg

— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) August 16, 2017

A state-run Chinese media agency faces growing backlash over its propaganda video demeaning India's Sikh community, the latest development in what's fast becoming a volatile border dispute between the two nuclear powers.

Titled "7 Sins of India," the video features a Chinese actor, dressed in a turban and phony beard, reciting monosyllabic lines in English but in a manner Indians "are perceived to speak," as the Hindustan Times characterized it.

Critics in India, China and elsewhere have condemned the video as flagrantly racist.

The three-minute clip was published Wednesday on several verified social media channels operated by Xinhua News, an English-language outlet headquartered in Beijing and overseen by China's State Council. It's available internationally on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In China, however, another English-language news site appears to have been censored after criticizing the video.

"They genuinely seem to think there is going to be a red, white and blue Brexit - when you ask them how the hell they are going to get there, they don't have a clue.

"One of their ministers suggested the way of replacing open skies between the UK and Europe is an open skies agreement with Pakistan.

"There will be a lot of Pakistanis wanting to travel to the UK, but I'm not quite sure those Brits, who like to holiday in Spain, Portugal and Greece fancy Karachi for their summer holidays."

he court:  Juror Number 47, please come up.

juror no. 47: He's the most hated man in America. In my opinion, he equates with Bernie Madoff with the drugs for pregnant women going from $15 to $750. My parents are in their eighties. They're struggling to pay for their medication. My mother was telling me yesterday how my father's cancer drug is $9,000 a month.

the court: The case is going to come before you on evidence that you must consider fairly and with an open mind.

juror no. 47: I would find that difficult.

the court: And that's based on your parents' experience with medication?

juror no. 47: It's based on people working very hard for their money. He defrauded his company and his investors, and that's not right.

the court: Ma'am, we're going to excuse you

[...]

juror no. 52: When I walked in here today I looked at him, and in my head, that's a snake -- not knowing who he was. I just walked in and looked right at him and that's a snake.

brafman: So much for the presumption of innocence.

the court: We will excuse Juror Number 52.

[...]

The court: Juror Number 10, please come forward.

juror no. 10: The only thing I'd be impartial about is what prison this guy goes to.

the court: Okay. We will excuse you.

[...]

juror no. 59: Your Honor, totally he is guilty and in no way can I let him slide out of anything because --

the court: Okay. Is that your attitude toward anyone charged with a crime who has not been proven guilty?

juror no. 59: It's my attitude toward his entire demeanor, what he has done to people.

the court: All right. We are going to excuse you, sir.

juror no. 59: And he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan.

How Steve Bannon became the face of a political movement with roots in Los Angeles

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Anyone who votes in party primaries before a general election automatically would be counted as voting for that party in a general election, according to a bill submitted Monday by Likud MK Yoav Kisch.

Kisch's bill is intended to target the so-called "New Likudniks," a group of centrists who want the party to become less extreme and return to the values they say existed when Likud was led by Menachem Begin and are no longer prevalent in the party.

The Lebanese Armed Forces have been trained and equipped by numerous Western countries, but mainly the United States and the United Kingdom. On the first day of the Fajr al-Joroud offensive, Lebanese Armed Forces spokesman Ali Qanso pronounced, "The Lebanese army is not coordinating with Hezbollah and the Syrian army, either directly or indirectly." That said, images and sources on the ground suggest a different reality, indicating close coordination between the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah and the Syrian army. This led to mockery on social media and the posting of pictures of Hezbollah fighters and Lebanese army soldiers side by side in the offensive accompanied by a hashtag in Arabic that loosely translates, "Oh what a coincidence!" Meanwhile, British and US officials have both confirmed their forces' active presence among the Lebanese Armed Forces in the previous and ongoing border operations, resulting in an incredibly awkward reality on the ground.

[...]

The United States and the United Kingdom cannot be seen as having any association, even indirect, with Hezbollah and the Syrian army, essentially forcing all parties concerned to participate in what can only be described as an international charade for the sake of plausible deniability. According to the source close to Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces, "US Central Command called the Lebanese army chief and asked him to deny any cooperation, telling him that while they are aware of cooperation, it has to be denied publicly."