Morocco

The stretch of Albany Street where South End Pita sits is forlorn - until you walk inside the charming little restaurant. Warm mustard-colored walls hold a row of sconces, a mural of a Moroccan city is facing you above the counter, and the Arabic pop with a reggae beat is turned up. In May, Fez native Rod Ouassaidi opened the 20-seat spot in the former Albany Sandwich Shop. His sister, Wasaa, works with him. One or the other is there every day, making almost everything from scratch.

An Algerian Islamist died in a Moroccan jail after a two-month hunger strike protesting torture and his living conditions, rights activists said Sunday. Ahmed Ben Miloud was one of nearly 160 Islamist prisoners hunger striking for better conditions in prisons across this North African monarchy. He was serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in December of using a firearm in the Algerian consulate in the Moroccan border town of Oujda. He died on Thursday after 60 days of not eating in the Sale prison, near the capital Rabat.

RABAT, Morocco — King Mohammed VI announced a series of constitutional reforms in a speech last night that he said will turn Morocco into a constitutional monarchy, though prodemocracy activists remain skeptical. The new constitution elevates the prime minister to the “head of government’’ and ensures he is selected from the party that received the most votes, rather than just chosen by the king. The prime minister also will have the new powers of choosing and dismissing Cabinet members and will be able to fill a number of other government positions, though the selection of the...

PorchFest, a funky, eclectic day of public music and dancing, is coming back Saturday for its second installment. The music festival is expected to feature about 85 acts performing on porticoes around the city from noon until 6 p.m. Passersby will be feted to melodic stylings from as far away as Morocco and Bollywood. PorchFest was started last year by resident Nancy Goodman, with help from the Somerville Arts Council, based on a similar event held in Ithaca, N.Y. Look out for the return of old-time clawhammer banjo, porch-i-oke singalongs, blues ensembles, and American space rock, with performances...

Mogador Restaurant & Lounge 126 Merrimack St., Methuen 978-258-6497 www.mogadorrestaurant.com Hours: Monday-Sunday, 11 a.m. -10 p.m. Major charge cards accepted Handicapped-accessible If you can get over the setting - a charmless strip mall hard off Interstate 495 in Methuen - then the Mogador Restaurant & Lounge is a gratifying experience. Mediterranean by way of Africa, the tastes it features are worlds away from the red-sauce-Italian eateries dotting this business district.

NEW YORK - Rabbi Shlomo Matusof, a leader of Chabad-Lubavitch educational activities in Morocco for decades, died Saturday during a visit to New York, according to the Jewish movement's website. Rabbi Matusof, who was 91, died of liver failure, a Chabad spokesman said. He was buried Sunday in Queens. Rabbi Matusof and his sons were among thousands attending the five-day International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Emissaries in Brooklyn. The annual conference features workshops and discussions.

Tingis, subtitled "A Moroccan-American Magazine of Ideas and Culture," doesn't presume to be a travel journal, but its first issue has plenty to interest a visitorto the top of Africa. The quarterly, billed as the world's only English-language periodical about Morocco, debuted last year. It's a joint venture between Connecticut publisher Khalid Gourad and Maine editor Anouar Majid, who is also chairman of the English department at the University of New England in Biddeford. They met when Majid was interviewed on wafin.com, an Internet portal for Moroccan-Americans owned by Gourad.

RABAT, Morocco -- Morocco defended its use of force in preventing Africans from crossing into two Spanish enclaves on its northern coast as it started deporting some of those caught storming border fences in recent weeks. In an interview yesterday, the communications minister, Nabil Benabdallah, also accused neighboring Algeria, with whom Morocco has tense relations, of leaving its borders "completely open" and allowing immigrants through "without any surveillance. " Morocco has been criticized for its handling of attempts by thousands of Africans...

THE FOOD OF MOROCCO By Paula Wolfert Ecco, 528 pp., $45 Veteran cookbook author Paula Wolfert is one of those gurus whose passion can either daunt or inspire a home cook. Her domain is Mediterranean cooking, and in that vast culinary territory it would be hard to find a region she has not explored. Wolfert has made a special art of writing classic, authoritative books on her subject. In this case, the country is Morocco. She wrote her first book 38 years ago and is now returning to this cuisine decades later to fashion a volume with the benefit of wisdom,...

AL HOCEIMA, Morocco -- A powerful earthquake devastated an isolated, picturesque region of northern Morocco yesterday, killing more than 560 people as they slept, injuring hundreds, and laying ruin to villages that suffered for decades from government neglect. Rescuers with pick axes and trained dogs were searching for survivors trapped under the rubble of their fragile mud-and-stone homes, which crumbled in the 6.5-magnitude temblor. Victims were most likely women, children, and the elderly because the men in the region tend to immigrate to the Netherlands and...

One of Said Lakenizaa's two remaining cows fell sick and died last year as he led it down the steep dirt track from his village in Morocco's Atlas mountains to the rest of the world. It was the second time he'd lost a cow because the lack of paved roads hampered access to health care, for animals and humans. But now, after enduring their lot for years, the 40 Berber families in Azdine have started protesting for better services. They demonstrated in front of local government offices four times in the past year.

Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens won her first WTA title by defeating Spaniard Laura Pous-Tio 7-5, 6-0 in the Grand Prix SAR final on Saturday. The 20-year-old Bertens dropped serve twice but used her superior returns to break Pous-Tio three times in each set. Bertens ran away with the second set, conceding only two points on her serve. Pous-Tio managed to win only 41 percent of her first-serve points.

Bernd Wiesberger of Austria shot a second straight 7-under 65 Saturday to open up a five-shot lead after the third round of the Ballantine's Championship. He equaled the Blackstone Golf Club course record he had set the previous day to reach 14-under 202. Marcus Fraser of Australia was in second after a third-round 69, with England's Oliver Fisher (67) and Chile's Felipe Aguilar (68) one shot back in a tie for third. The 26-year-old Wiesberger led by one shot after the second round and he extended his advantage with a 15-foot birdie putt on the fourth green and another...

WATERTOWN – As Anwar Souini describes it, he was browsing the North African section in a Central Square record store in Cambridge one day in 2006, when he came across a CD that intrigued him, by a group called Atlas Soul. That the shop even had a North African section was refreshing for Souini, who left Morocco to study in the United States in 2001, arriving at the University of Wyoming, of all places, a few weeks before 9/11. "I wasn't lucky," Souini says of the timing.

Mogador Restaurant & Lounge 126 Merrimack St., Methuen 978-258-6497 www.mogadorrestaurant.com Hours: Monday-Sunday, 11 a.m. -10 p.m. Major charge cards accepted Handicapped-accessible If you can get over the setting - a charmless strip mall hard off Interstate 495 in Methuen - then the Mogador Restaurant & Lounge is a gratifying experience. Mediterranean by way of Africa, the tastes it features are worlds away from the red-sauce-Italian eateries dotting this business district.

Phillip Price of Wales shot a 6-under 66 Friday to lead the Hassan II Trophy by a stroke after strong wind and thunder delayed the start of the second round by 5 ½ hours. Price's last victory came at the 2003 European Open in Ireland. He had six birdies for the day, making three straight starting with his sixth hole, and was at 10-under 134. Spain's Jose Manuel Lara was at 9 under after a 65. Sweden's Joakim Sjolholm had a 66, leaving him at 8 under. Matteo Manassero kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the Masters after a 70 put him at 5 under.

For 60-year-old Jacqueline Stewart of Braintree, it’s difficult to imagine a woman 20 years her junior being her “mom.’’ But that’s what Bouchra Tambouche has been to her and her husband, James . The Stewarts have been serving with the Peace Corps in Sefrou, Morocco, since September, living with Tambouche and her family. “Being an older volunteer, it was hard, and still is, to think of Bouchra as my host mom,’’ Jacqueline Stewart said. “She was my friend, my sister, my daughter, and yes, I admit, sometimes my mother during those first few months.

Julien Quesne tied the course record with an 8-under 64 on Sunday to win the Andalucian Open for his first European Tour victory. The 31-year-old birdied four of his final five holes to finish at 17 under, winning by two strokes ahead of Matteo Manassero of Italy (68). "This is the best day of my life. I have been dreaming of this moment since I was 10," said Quesne, who set up the victory by hitting a 4-iron 220 yards to seven feet for birdie on No. 18. "It was not easy, you know.