BEIJING, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - China welcomed Wednesday the first appointment of a Chinese national to head a United Nations peacekeeping mission, saying it was a recognition of the nation's commitment to the world body.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday appointed Major General Zhao Jingmin as the new Force Commander for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara.

It was the first time a Chinese has been chosen to steer a UN mission.

RABAT, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - Police in Morocco detained two Scandinavian women for four hours in the chief town of the Western Sahara, after they witnessed a police raid on a house, a Norwegian embassy official said Wednesday.

Andrea Gustavsson, a member of the Socialist Youth League of Norway, and her Swedish friend Kamilla Eidsvik, who also belongs to the movement, were arrested on Wednesday in Laayoune, where they were staying with a Sahrawi friend Amidane Rabab, 22.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11, 2007 (AFP) - Morocco and the Polisario independence movement concluded a second day of UN-brokered talks on Saturday and agreed to meet again for more negotiations.

The talks about their 32-year-long dispute over Western Sahara ended with no breakthroughs.

'The parties acknowledge that the current status quo is unacceptable and they have committed to continue these negotiations in good faith,' read a UN statement signed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon's envoy for Western Sahara, Peter Van Walsum.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11, 2007 (AFP) - Morocco and the Polisario independence movement concluded a second day of UN-brokered talks on Saturday and agreed to meet again for more negotiations, a UN official said.

The talks about their 32-year-long dispute over Western Sahara ended with no breakthroughs.

'The parties acknowledge that the current status quo is unacceptable and they have committed to continue these negotiations in good faith,' read a UN statement signed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon's envoy for Western Sahara, Peter Van Walsum.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11, 2007 (AFP) - Morocco and the Polisario independence movement met Saturday outside New York for a second day of UN-brokered talks on their 32-year-long dispute over Western Sahara, a UN source said.

The two sides held their first face-to-face talks in at least seven years in June, but the meeting failed to provide a breakthrough in their long-standing disagreements and ended with both sides calling for the other to compromise.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11, 2007 (AFP) - Morocco and the Polisario independence movement met Saturday outside New York for a second day of UN-brokered talks on their 32-year-long dispute over Western Sahara, a UN source said.

'The negotiations resumed around 9 o'clock (1300 GMT) this morning' the source said of the talks in Manhasseet, just east of New York City.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10, 2007 (AFP) - Morocco and the Polisario independence movement met for a second round of negotiations on their 32-year-long dispute over Western Sahara on Friday, two months after resuming landmark talks.

The two sides held their first face-to-face talks in at least seven years in June, but the meeting failed to provide a breakthrough in their long-standing disagreements and ended with both sides calling for the other to compromise.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10, 2007 (AFP) - Morocco and the Polisario independence movement met for a second round of negotiations on their 32-year-long dispute over Western Sahara on Friday, two months after resuming landmark talks.

The two sides held their first face-to-face talks in at least seven years in June, but the meeting failed to provide a breakthrough in their long-standing disagreements and ended with both sides calling for the other to compromise.

BRUSSELS, Aug 8, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission on Wednesday announced a 10 million euro (13.75 million dollar) humanitarian aid package for the Saharan refugees living in camps in western Algeria.

The funds, channeled through the EU executive's humanitarian aid department ECHO, 'will help to meet the refugees' basic needs for food aid, healthcare, clean water and proper sanitation as well as providing tents and basic household items,' the Commission said in a statement.

RABAT, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Friday warned against 'balkanisation' on the African continent due to separatist movements, as his country faces an independence push in Western Sahara.

In a message to participants at a meeting on Europe-Africa relations in the northern city of Asilah, the king said problems such as poverty, illiteracy, disease and bad governance were limiting Africa's development.

But he said there were other factors that could be more dangerous.

TANGIERS, Morocco, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Monday said he would work to improve living conditions in the north African country to combat terrorism.

Speaking on the eighth anniversary of his coronation, he said his 'supreme objective is to raise living conditions for those who suffer the torments of poverty, illiteracy, marginalisation and exclusion to protect them against the temptations of extremism, ostracism and terrorism'.