owner and manager of a mattress factory in Casablanca were detained Sunday after at least 55 people were killed in a fire which broke out

The owner and manager of a mattress factory in Casablanca were detained Sunday after at least 55 people were killed in a fire which broke out in the factory, Morocco's official news agency MAP reported.Firefighters evacuate a victim of a fire that broke out in a mattress factory Saturday, April 26, 2008 in Casablanca, Morocco. Factory owner Adil Moufareh and his son Abdelali, the factory's manager, have been detained for questioning. Poor safety measures and locked doors which trapped workers were blamed for the tragedy, during which at least 55 people have been confirmed dead and six others were hospitalized, local police said. The blaze broke out in the morning at 10 a.m. (1000 GMT) on Saturday in the first floor of the Rosamor Ameublements factory in the Hay Hassani neighborhood of the North African country's economic capital as well as the largest city, the report said. About 60 of the 150 workers, recruited by the factory, were on site when the fire erupted, according to MAP. Some 100 fire fighters were deployed to control the blaze, believed to be the deadliest in the country since 2002 when a fire in a prison left 50 people dead.

Mohamed Kharraz aka Cherif Bin Louidane jailed for eight years

Casablanca court jailed Mohamed Kharraz, better known as Cherif Bin Louidane, for eight years, the government said on Thursday. It ordered 5.2 million dirhams of his fortune to be seized and fined him 500,000 dirhams.Moroccan drug baron was jailed along with the former head of Tangier's judicial police after a lengthy trial that pitted the Rabat authorities against powerful interests in the kingdom's northern cannabis growing regionJudicial police officers grabbed Kharraz in August 2006 at the Al Ghouroub (Sunset) cafe near the northern port city of Tangier, acting on a warrant issued after a separate drugs trial years earlier, newspapers said.
The arrest surprised locals for whom Kharraz had seemed virtually immune from the law and benefited from a reputation for generosity among the poor of a region neglected for decades by the central government, the papers said.He named over 30 members of the security services as being implicated in the drugs trade including Abdelaziz Izzou, head of the Tangier judicial police from 1996 to 2003, who was suspended from his job as head of security at Morocco's royal palaces.
Izzou was imprisoned for 18 months and had 700,000 dirhams seized by the state. Two others were jailed including Kharraz's brother while nine people were acquitted including another top former Tangier police official, the government said.
Those imprisoned were found guilty of offences including international drug trafficking, abuse of power, incitement to illegal immigration and failing to report crimes.Morocco had aimed to erase its cannabis industry by this year, a campaign given added momentum by suspicions that hashish was used to partly pay for dynamite that blew up trains in Madrid in 2004, killing 191 people.But the north African country is still the world's biggest hashish producer.The dark green fern-like plant grows well in poor soil of the northern Rif mountains and has come to be known as "green gold" because it staves off grinding poverty for thousands of local families.Smugglers hide the drug in containers and trucks or use powerful speedboats to ship it to Barcelona in Spain or Marseille in France.Moroccan customs said drugs with a value of 30 million dirhams were seized at the port of Tetouan near Tangier last year, up six times from a year earlier.But catching the top criminals and keeping them behind bars is still proving difficult.
Last year drug lord Mohamed El Ouazzani, known as El Nene, was allowed to stroll out of prison and probably fled to Spain to avoid serving the rest of an eight-year prison sentence. Six prison guards were jailed for allowing him to escape