Morocco

WASHINGTON -- Marc C. Ginsberg, a Washington lawyer who served as a campaign spokesman for President Clinton, has been nominated as ambassador to Morocco in what is believed to be the first appointment of a Jewish envoy to an Arab state.Mr. Ginsberg, 43, who lives in Bethesda, was born in New York but spent 1960 to 1968 in Israel, where his mother and two brothers still live. They hold dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship; he elected to hold only his U.S. citizenship.He was involved in the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt while working at the State Department and the White House under President Jimmy Carter.

A 22-year-old student from Parkville who planned a career in foreign service died Friday in a car accident in Morocco near Rabat, her family said. Kelly DallaTezza, who was born in Baltimore, was in northern Africa and had recently participated in a Fulbright conference on women's political roles in Bahrain. Her family said she had been accepted for graduate study at Harvard University and the Johns Hopkins University, among other schools. She was the daughter of Chester and Meg Doxzen DallaTezza and had been salutatorian of her 2007 class at Towson High School.

A 22-year-old student from Parkville who planned a career in foreign service died Friday in a car accident in Morocco near Rabat, her family said. Kelly DallaTezza, who was born in Baltimore, was in northern Africa and had recently participated in a Fulbright conference on women's political roles in Bahrain. Her family said she had been accepted for graduate study at Harvard University and the Johns Hopkins University, among other schools. She was the daughter of Chester and Meg Doxzen DallaTezza and had been salutatorian of her 2007 class at Towson High School.

Moroccan runners returned. Megan DiGregorio repeated. And a massive crowd ran Sunday in the 31st annual Bel Air Town Run. Mouhcine Outaleb, a 33-year-old restaurant worker from Morocco via Westchester, Pa., won the men's race in 14:47. He matched strides with 2010 winner Dave Berdan over much of the 5K route before pulling away in the final half mile to win by 40 meters. Berdan, of Baltimore, finished second in 14:54. Rachid Ait-Bensalem, also from Morocco, finished third in 15:48.

Fifteen blue stairs to Morocco Cafe,an Israeli garden of chairs, neat arrayof white tables and napkins,the green-aproned girl who walks homeafter closing.The green-aproned girl came here fromTashkent through the Turkestan mountains.Her brother the chemist still calls herMiss Shtern, his Galina, but hereshe is Galit and here speaks no Russian.At Morocco Cafe once she liftedher lashes and the green awningslifted their lashes widefor one moment of billowing clothhigh on the hips of this townof BeershevaHer hands on her apron,her eyes, her face shy as the roofrose to bosom the warm-chested sky:ripple of western canvasand breeze, for Galina onewidening ripple of canvas and breeze.

JERUSALEM -- Israel and Morocco established low-level diplomatic relations yesterday, making the North African kingdom the second Arab nation after Egypt to have formal ties with the Jewish state.After 20 years of contacts that began clandestinely and grew to open visits to Morocco by Israeli ministers, the two countries agreed to establish liaison offices, and Israeli officials predicted a rapid broadening of ties, including expanded trade, direct airline service and increased tourism."It's a first step, an opening of the door, and I imagine there will be a continuation," said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who as prime minister had visited Morocco's King Hassan II in 1986 and who negotiated the agreement over the past three months.

CASABLANCA, Morocco -- More than 500 years before Alexis de Tocqueville memorialized his impressions of American society in his celebrated Democracy in America, a Berber traveler from Morocco set off from Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca that would last 30 years. Thereafter known as the "Traveler of Islam," Ibn Battuta authored a travel chronicle that would have a profound effect on Islam for centuries. Unlike Democracy in America, which was concerned with demystifying American life for a French audience, Mr. Battuta orchestrated his own cultural exchange program, taking tidbits from the lands he visited during his trek and sharing them with his rapturous Islamic audience.

RABAT, Morocco -- Secretary of State James A. Baker IIIurged King Hassan II yesterday to join a Middle East peace conference as an observer and to use his influence with Palestinian leaders to persuade them not to block it.The king withheld a decision on whether to join the conference, to send an observer or to involve Morocco in multilateral talks with Israel, saying that he needed to consult other Arab leaders first.He also gave no direct answer on the request that he use his influence with the Palestinians, instead asking a series of factual questions, a senior State Department official said.

Tangier, Morocco. -- The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the countries of the southern Mediterranean littoral follows the abject failure of the nationalist governments formed in the 1950s and 1960s. The nationalist movements ended colonialism, but the people they liberated mostly are worse off than before.Morocco has largely been spared the fundamentalist reaction because it was never colonized. The Moroccans have possessed unbroken national sovereignty since the 11th Century, under the present dynasty since the 16th Century.

Westinghouse will play a large role in "rewiring" the kingdom of Morocco under a joint venture agreement with a leading Moroccan industrialist.Westinghouse Electronic Systems Co. said that its partner in the joint venture is the Othman Benjelloun Group. Othman Benjelloun "is a leading industrialist in Morocco, who is very well connected with the royal family, and his companies are extremely wide-ranging," Bryan Wiggins, a Westinghouse spokesman, said.A Westinghouse press release pegged the potential of the venture at between $500 million and $1 billion during the '90s.

The current revolutionary mood sweeping the Middle East is looking very much like another real-life example of philosopher Auguste Comte's observation, "Demography is destiny. " At the turn of the 19th century, Westerners made up roughly 30 percent of the people on this planet. By the middle of this century, extrapolating present trends, Muslims will be about 30 percent of a much more crowded human population and Westerners reduced to less than 10 percent. This has all sorts of implications, laid out thoroughly by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin in their book, "Financial Reckoning Day. " But I want to focus on just one: how a population explosion in the Arab world, stretching from Morocco through the Levant, has set the stage for the revolutionary fervor we've seen on the streets of Tunis, Cairo, Amman and elsewhere in the last couple of weeks.

Barbara Ann Griffith, who owned Imperial Egyptian Stud Farm in Parkton, died of heart disease Oct. 21 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She was 77 and lived on Mount Carmel Road. Born Barbara Ann Boone in Baltimore, she was raised in East Baltimore and was a 1951 Patterson Park High School graduate. She married Douglas Warner Griffith, an automobile dealership owner who went on to have Chrysler, Plymouth, Corvette, Honda and BMW agencies in Baltimore, Westminster and York, Pa. The couple purchased a Brooklandville farm and began raising purebred Arabian horses.

In the small town of Missour in eastern Morocco, Erin Sullivan asked her English class last fall to break into small groups. Stand up, why do we need to move? they said. Cooperative, or group learning, is a foreign concept to students at the Lycee Mixte de Missour, said Sullivan, who teaches English to speakers of other languages at Glen Burnie High School. It was one of the lessons she learned while spending six weeks in the small mountain town on a teacher exchange. Now Sullivan's host on that trip is in the same position of learning and teaching.

A Glen Burnie High School teacher will spend six weeks in Morocco this fall, learning how students who speak French and Arabic soak up the nuances of yet another language -- English. Erin Sullivan, 32, was awarded an all-expenses-paid trip last month as part of the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange program operated by the U.S. State Department. She said she applied because she wanted to learn where her students in the school's rapidly expanding English for Speakers of Other Languages program get their drive and discipline.

FLORENCE, Italy -- Two of Europe's most prominent counterterrorism officials criticized the United States yesterday for not being fully cooperative in the global fight against Islamist extremism, saying that its unwillingness to share information and evidence in a timely manner has compromised important investigations and prosecutions. The remarks were made by senior investigative magistrates Armando Spataro of Italy and Baltasar Garzon of Spain at a counterterrorism conference that was also attended by senior U.S. officials.

MARRAKECH, Morocco -- Morocco sits at the northwest tip of the African continent, stretching within just 9 miles of Europe. But, as our train between the cities of Rabat and Marrakech passes a dusty, ancient-looking village that seems as if it could crumble in an instant, I think that culturally, this country and Spain, its nearest neighbor on the Continent, might as well be 9,000 miles apart. Or not. Step off the ferry in Tangier, Morocco, and you might at first think you're still in Algeciras, Spain, where the ferry left an hour and a half ago. Though you'll see a few residents in the port wearing the traditional garb of long, flowing djellaba and perhaps a tight-fitting cap for men and a head covering for women, most are running around in jeans, sweaters or shirts, cell phones pasted to their ears.

King Hassan II, who ruled Morocco for 38 years, prolonging the life of a 300-year-old dynasty in an era when monarchies in Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Iran fell to socialist revolutions or the force of militant Islam, died yesterday in Rabat, Morocco. He was 70.The cause of death was a heart attack, Crown Prince Sidi Mohammed, the king's 36-year-old son and successor, announced. The king, who had been in fragile health since he was hospitalized in the United States four years ago for lung problems, had been admitted earlier in the day to a Rabat hospital for an acute lung infection, according to a palace statement.

AMMAN, Jordan -- King Hassan II of Morocco called yesterday for an emergency Arab summit meeting to avert a war in the Persian Gulf.In a speech broadcast on the Moroccan radio, King Hassan, whose deployment of 1,200 troops was among the first Arab commitments to defend Saudi Arabia, warned that conflict was drawing near and that he was willing to be the host of an Arab summit within the next week "to give peace a last chance."In its initial reaction, Iraq's official press agency criticized Morocco for failing to consult Baghdad before making its proposal.

CASABLANCA, Morocco -- More than 500 years before Alexis de Tocqueville memorialized his impressions of American society in his celebrated Democracy in America, a Berber traveler from Morocco set off from Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca that would last 30 years. Thereafter known as the "Traveler of Islam," Ibn Battuta authored a travel chronicle that would have a profound effect on Islam for centuries. Unlike Democracy in America, which was concerned with demystifying American life for a French audience, Mr. Battuta orchestrated his own cultural exchange program, taking tidbits from the lands he visited during his trek and sharing them with his rapturous Islamic audience.