After a long pause to bask in his unexpectedly comfortable victory in November's presidential election (AC Vol 37 No 2), President Lamine Zeroual has moved to consolidate his polit...

'The book is closed definitively' on the Front Islamique du Salut, President Lamine Zeroual has told other participants in his political dialogue. The 'eradication' policy favoured...

The price of cannabis has soared this summer in Britain and other European markets. Smokers can lay much of the blame on Driss Basri, Interior Minister of Morocco, which is thought...

The discovery of a gigantic oil and gas field that could more than double national output greatly strengthens a government which has looked besieged by Islamists. It allows Preside...

Political change is in the air. The heavy-handed and apparently politically motivated crack down on drug smugglers pitted the government, led by Interior Minister Driss Basri, agai...

Democratisation is the slogan but the soldiers are not letting go. On 12 May, President Lamine Zeroual unveiled a political reform package which looks forward to a 'national confer...

Egypt has two goals for its African policy: the prestige of leading the continent and the defence of the Nile waters. The aspiration to leadership stems largely from nostalgia for ...

Zine el Abidine Ben Ali showed off his self-confidence by spending 20 March, the 40th anniversary of Independence, being filmed on a visit to Habib Bourguiba, the President-for-Lif...

The King is better. After a painful recovery from bronchial pneumonia, he attended the Sharm el Sheikh terrorism summit in March and means to visit his old friend Jacques Chirac in...

A run of bad luck has hit Morocco. Even the recent heavy rains, which ended two years of drought in the Maghreb and brought the promise of good harvests to Algeria and Tunisia, cau...