Morocco is looking to maintain its position atop the North African mobile phone market and Maroc Telecom seeks to remain the largest operator in the country, it said in a press statement Monday.

“Maroc Telecom will maintain its position as the biggest mobile operator in Morocco over the next several years, but we expect that, in terms of market shares, Maroc Telecom’s share will be decreasing. Our model predicts that Maroc Telecom’s subscriber market share will fall from 57% in 2009 to 50.8% in 2014,” said Nizar Assanie, Vice President (Research) at IEMR. “In contrast, we expect that Meditel’s subscriber market share will be increasing to reach 37.5% in 2014 and Wana’s market share will reach 11.6% in 2014.”

US: Al-Qaeda growing in strength in Algeria

Al-Qaida’s terror network in North Africa is growing more active and attracting new recruits, threatening to further destabilize the continent’s already vulnerable Sahara region, according to U.S. defense and counterterrorism officials.

The North African faction, which calls itself Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), is still small and largely isolated, numbering a couple hundred militants based mostly in the vast desert of northern Mali. But signs of stepped-up activity and the group’s advancing potential for growth worry analysts familiar with the region.

More dinosaur fossils discovered in Tunisia

Tunisian and foreign geologists have recently discovered fossils of herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs on a mountain near the southern villages of Chenini and Douiret in the governorate of Tataouine.

At present, teeth, a femur and vertebra of dinosaurs which lived 90 million years ago are displayed at the Tataouine-based “Musée de la mémoire de la terre.”

The first discovery of fossils of dinosaurs in the area dates back to 1995.

Gaddafi’s son visits jailed Swiss man

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal paid a visit on Monday to a Swiss businessman detained in Tripoli since 2008 when a diplomatic row broke out between the two countries.

Libya withdrew over $5 billion from Swiss bank accounts, cut oil supplies to Switzerland and detained two Swiss businessmen working in Libya after Hannibal Gaddafi was arrested briefly in Geneva on charges of mistreating two domestic servants.

Sudan rebel groups may sign deal in Qatar

After the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), there is also another new group of Darfur rebels who may sign the ceasefire agreement and a framework peace agreement, like the ones signed on February 23 in Doha, Qatar.

The signature has pushed the other two rebel groups present in Doha, the Sudan Liberation Movement – Revolutionary Forces (RF-SLM) and the group of Addis Ababa to unite, forming a new group called the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM). The two groups had previously refused to converge with the JEM.

Lebanon arrests man for Israeli spying

Lebanese paper reports suspect from Tripoli held several passports, aircraft radio communication device. Twenty three similar cells uncovered since 2009, say Beirut authorities.

According to the report, the man’s arrest was made possible following information obtained from other suspects, who were detained in the past on suspicion of cooperating with Israel and pointed to Jawdat H.’s involvement. The suspect was under surveillance until he was finally arrested Sunday by the Lebanese military intelligence.

Iran says Israel to do “something crazy”

Israel was weakened by its recent battles with Islamist militant groups in the Middle East, the Iranian foreign minister said Monday. “The Zionist regime is not in a position to somehow wage another war in the region,” Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Geneva.

He said the war in Lebanon in 2006 with Hezbollah and the intense fighting in the Gaza Strip in 2008-09, mainly with Hamas, had weakened Israel.

However, “it is possible they will do something crazy,” Mottaki said, after addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council, which was in session.

BM