Morocco is determined to protect its children from potentially harmful online activities. Thanks to a new public-private partnership from UNESCO, Microsoft Maroc, and Morocco's National Children’s Rights Observatory (ONDE), parents and educators are getting help catching up to their children's web sophistication in order to better protect them.

Freak weather conditions continue to cause devastation in Morocco as authorities struggle to address the humanitarian crisis. A number of people have lost their lives, mainly in the countryside and in mountainous regions and areas near rivers and dams.

Married female medical doctors in Morocco continued their protest this week, with a sit-in that began Monday (January 26th) in front of the Health Ministry headquarters, against a policy that allows them to be assigned to jobs far away from their families. The demonstration – scheduled to run through Friday – also protests the ministry's non-payment of the doctors' salaries since last November.

With a domestic violence bill currently under review by the government, Morocco continues to lead the Arab world in its defence of women's rights. In addition, the Union of Women's Action (UAF) organised forums across Casablanca on Saturday (January 17th) to raise public awareness of violence and to lobby local groups to protect victimised women.

Khadija's baby Noha is almost one year old and is her mother's greatest joy. But in deeply religious and conservative Morocco, Noha is also Khadija's greatest problem. Khadija was not married to her child's father - and Moroccan society finds it very difficult to accept children born out of wedlock.

Morocco has retracted its reservations on the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), King Mohammed VI announced during a speech on Wednesday (December 10th), the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Moroccan Ministry of Health called on all artists to help raise public awareness about AIDS, in an effort to curb the spread of the disease. A large number of artists signed the "Artists' AIDS Pact" on World AIDS Day (December 1st).

A groundbreaking study published in mid-November by the Morocco section of the Pan-African Organisation for the Fight Against AIDS (OPALS) focused on an activity that is a major source of sexually transmitted diseases – prostitution. "Prostitution is closely linked with the economic, social and mental situation of those who are involved in it," the November 13th report said.

Meriem and her friends, while washing their families' clothes in a stream near their rural homes, used to dream and giggle about having a romantic wedding someday. Her fairy tale would turn into a nightmare when she was 14 years old, however, when her father decided to give her away in marriage.

National Press Day in Morocco, observed on Saturday (November 15th), launched a fresh campaign by journalists discontented with what they see as an environment hostile to the conduct of free press. Among the various targets of their scrutiny was the March 2008 ruling against independent newspaper Al Massae, which was ordered to pay 6m dirhams for libel against four deputy royal prosecutors who the court said the newspaper accused of homosexuality.

Morocco's proposed 2009 budget, currently awaiting parliamentary approval, was released on October 20th amid speculation about the impact the global financial crisis may have on the Moroccan economy. Talking about the bill, Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar told the press last week that "the unfavourable international economic situation, marked in particular by dizzying price rises in raw materials and the financial crisis, will have negative repercussions on growth worldwide".

The controversial fatwa concerning underage marriage issued in Morocco by Cheikh Mohamed Ben Abderrahman Al Maghraoui will be the target of a new government inquiry, following a decision by the king's prosecutor in Rabat.

The Blogoma, or Moroccan blogosphere, was buzzing over news of Moroccan blogger Mohammed Erraji's acquittal. Erraji was arrested last week for writing on his blog that the King or Morocco's charity toward his people encourages them to remain helpless rather than work hard. Under local media laws, it is illegal to criticize the monarchy.

Moroccans and rights groups are speaking out against a recent fatwa that would allow parents to marry off their underage daughters. Opponents to Cheikh Mohammed Maghraoui's fatwa say the marriage of nine-year-old girls is a violation of human rights in general, and children's rights in particular.

On Monday 8 September, a Moroccan man became the first blogger to be sentenced to two years imprisonment. Mohamed Erraji was also fined 5,000 dirhams (US$625) for “lack of respect due to the King”. He is not the first Moroccan to be jailed for peacefully expressing his views on the monarchy, which is still a “taboo” subject in Morocco.

Despite a series of stalled talks in New York, Morocco remains committed to the process of negotiations with the Polisario, in pursuit of a lasting solution to the dispute over Western Sahara. That was the message conveyed by King Mohammed VI in a royal address last Wednesday (July 30th) in Fez. "The relentless efforts of our bold diplomacy have resulted in substantial positive development," said the king.

Moroccan politician Fouad Ali El Himma has long been a media sensation, thanks to his close association with King Mohammed VI. His announcement that he will lead a new political party is widely seen as a direct challenge to Islamist opposition party, the PJD.

According to press reports in Spain, the government and army of Morocco are making preparations for a military attack on the territories controlled by Western Sahara's Polisario Front since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991. The alleged "preparations" are to be a reaction to the increased civilian activities by Polisario in its "liberated territories".

Qatari satellite TV news channel Aljazeera was ordered by Moroccan officials on Tuesday (May 6th) to cease broadcast operations from its Rabat studios. The pan-Arab news station aired daily news bulletins on the Maghreb.

Citing "lack of evidence," Moroccan authorities closed an investigation into police abuse allegations made by two human rights defenders whose testimony the prosecutor refused to solicit, Human Rights Watch has said. The two Sahrawi human rights advocates, Dahha Rahmouni and Brahim al-Ansari, say that, in December 2007, police in the city of El-Ayoun, in the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, arbitrarily arrested and beat them before releasing them without charge.