Lawmakers urge Bush to put U.S. support behind Moroccan offer in Western Sahara conflict

WASHINGTON: Almost half the members of the U.S. House of Representatives appealed to President George W. Bush on Thursday to support Morocco's proposed settlement of its long struggle with Polisario guerrillas over the Western Sahara.

In a letter to Bush, 180 of the 435 members described the long-festering dispute over the former Spanish territory as having major national security ramifications for the United States.

Morocco offered two weeks ago a plan that would give autonomy to the Sarawis, as residents of the desert are known, while ensuring that Moroccan sovereignty is guaranteed. Since the offer, Morocco has said the plan is open for negotiation.

"The United States has a major national security interest in the stablity and economic prosperity of North Africa," the letter said. "With al-Qaida and other terrorist groups expanding their presence into North Africa, we are concerned that the failure to resolve this conflict of more than 30 years poses a danger to U.S. and regional security."

It said the Moroccan offer "is a breakthrough opportunity to find an enduring political solution, and U.S. support is critical to its successful implementation."

Moroccan Initiative to Solve Western sahara Problem

The initiative is the product of a year long internal and foreign Moroccan consultation process. All sectors of the Sahrawi population were included in the consultations and the views of foreign governments and expert international authorities were sought before the plan was finalized for presentation to the United Nations.

This information has been produced by The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP), a registered agent of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C.

The plan itself represents an outline for a political solution that traces what Morocco considers to be the broad scope of an autonomy arrangement for the Western Sahara. It does not go into extensive detail on its various aspects on the assumption that such specific arrangements should be the result of direct negotiations rather than the imposition of only one of the parties to the dispute.

The plan provides for a local elected legislature that would subsequently elect an executive authority. It also would establish a separate judiciary for the autonomous region with competence to render justice on matters specific to the autonomous status of the region. The legislature would elect a chief executive.

The formula proposed by Morocco would ensure majority representation in the legislature for Sahrawi inhabitants of the autonomous region, while also ensuring credible legislative representation for non-Sahrawis who have been long-time residents in the territory. Residents of the autonomous region would also continue to elect representatives to the national legislature.

The government of the autonomous region would have exclusive authorities on some issues, shared authority with the central government of Morocco on others and consultative rights on authorities that remain reserved to the central government and that effect the region.

The autonomous government would control local administration, local police, education, cultural development, economic development, regional planning, tourism, investment, trade, public works and transportation, housing, health, sports and social welfare. It would have taxing authorities to support these functions and would continue to receive funding from the central budget as well. It would be able to establish foreign regional trade relations offices and would have consultative rights on other sovereign foreign agreements affecting the region.

The central government would retain exclusive jurisdiction over the normal elements of sovereign authority: national defense, currency, postal, and foreign affairs and religion, over which the Monarchy has a special status in Morocco.

The chief executive of the autonomous region would be elected by the legislature, but would be invested by and serve in the name of the Monarchy.

The initiative also envisages transitional bodies to guide the central government and the autonomous authority through the initial stages of implementation of the plan.

All individual rights guaranteed under the Moroccan Constitution would continue to apply to all residents of the autonomous region.

Visa Bulletin Jumps Forward for Some in Employment-Based Third Preference Category

The May 2007 Visa Bulletin shows priority dates will move forward a full year, from August 1, 2002 to August 1, 2003 in the employment-bases third preference category for all countries other than China, India and Mexico. The State Department, in advancing the priority dates, explained that that both the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and the US Department of Labor have a significant amount of backlogged cases. The Department of Labor alone recently announced it has over 96,000 labor certification cases pending As such, demand for visas was not as great as anticipated and the State Department moved up its current processing dates.

To file for adjustment of status in the US or to consular process, the visa bulletin must show the priority date for the individual as current. Therefore, an I-485 can not be filed until May 1, 2007 for those whose priority date will become current. The priority date must be current at the time an adjustment of status case is filed and at the time the USCIS or Consul adjudicates the case.

Priority dates in the Family based preference categories have moved forward slightly or remained the same, except for FB 1 and FB 2A for Mexico, which retrogressed significantly.

Here is a link to the current Visa Bulletin. http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3219.html
Those with current priority dates should contact their attorney about proceeding to the next step of their case, either adjustment of status or consular processing.

Fnaire- Touches pas a mon pays

Arab World Competitiveness

Morocco has improved its position in the Global Competitiveness Index from 76th to the 70th rank in the last edition of the Global Competitiveness Report. Reasons behind this improvement are reflected in its macroeconomic indicators. One of Morocco’s advantages lies in its infrastructure facilities, particularly
the supply of energy, transport, and telecommunications. The liberalization policies adopted since the 1980s contribute to these positive results—in particular, the telecommunications provider was privatized and the distribution of electricity was delegated to private companies. The fairly dynamic private sector
benefits from high demand resulting from demographic growth and the increase in the number of households where members are employed or entrepreneurs in either the formal or the—very efficient— informal economy.
You can read more view interviews about this here:

http://www.weforum.org/en/media/Latest%20Press%20Releases/Doha2007

Un deuxième terroriste se fait exploser au quartier El Fida à Casablanca

Un deuxième terroriste s'est fait exploser mardi après-midi au quartier El Fida à Casablanca, sur les lieux où la police avait engagé , quelques heures plus tôt, une course poursuite contre un groupe de trois terroristes, en possession d'explosifs, dont l'un s'était fait exploser, le deuxième avait été blessé, avant de succomber à ses blessures, alors que le troisième avait pris la fuite.

Les services de sécurité avaient encerclé le quartier El Fida, dans la matinée, et procédé à une opération de ratissage pour retrouver le troisième terroriste.

Les investigations menées par la police ont permis l'identification du terroriste qui s'était fait exploser le matin. Il s'agit de Mohamed Rachidi. L'identification du troisième terroriste est en cours.

La nouvelle déflagration a provoqué la mort d'un policier et touché légèrement un autre.
L'inspecteur de police, Zindiba Mohamed, grièvement blessé a succombé à ses blessures lors de son transfert à l'hôpital.
Le deuxième policier a été évacué à l'hôpital.

H-1B Cap Reached

The U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced today that it has reached the 2008 fiscal year 65,000 H-1B cap.

As of late Monday, April 2, the Service received approximately 150,000 cap-subject petitions. Pursuant to its regulations, when the H-1B cap is reached the first day, the Service must include filings on the “final receipt date” and the following day.
All cap-subject filings received on April 2, 2007, and April 3, 2007, will be subject to a computer-generated random selection process by USCIS. Those petitions that are not randomly selected will be rejected and returned with applicable filing fees. All petitions received on or after Wednesday, April 4, 2007, will be rejected.

For all filings received April 2nd and 3rd, USCIS must perform data entry before the random selection process is conducted. The Service has announced that because of the high volume of filings, they will not be able to conduct the random selection for several weeks.
At this time, USCIS does not know how many of the 20,000 cap-exempt H-1B petitions filed on behalf of aliens with U.S. Masters or higher degrees have been received as these cases are mixed with the cap-subject cases. A later announcement from USCIS will follow concerning the final receipt date for these petitions.

Centres d’appels: L’offshoring en vogue au Maroc

Bel engouement. Les centres d’appels continuent sur leur lancée. Près de 200 centres sont opérationnels dans de nombreuses villes du Maroc. Cette activité génère 22.000 emplois et est appelée à se développer encore plus. D’autant plus que l’offre offshoring crée un environnement propice, a indiqué Mohamed El Ouahdoudi, directeur général de Maghreb Centres de contacts et organisateur de l’événement, lors d’une conférence le 30 mars dernier à Casablanca.
Hormis les opérateurs nationaux, le Maroc est devenu en moins de six ans une destination privilégiée de l’offshoring. Le marché marocain occuperait ainsi la première place en Afrique et au sud de la Méditerranée. Chaque année, plus de 25 nouveaux sites sont ouverts en moyenne par des opérateurs locaux ou internationaux. A préciser que l’activité des centres d’appels s’est structurée en quatre catégories: industriels, semi-industriels, de type PME ou encore à taille humaine (cf. www.leconomiste.com).