Rousing desert rhythms brought to life the oasis of M'Hamid, last stop in Morocco before the vast empty wastes of the Sahara, as musicians from across the region descended on the dunes.

The Taragalte music festival kicked off in earnest at the weekend under a spectacular star-lit sky, with a list of women's groups, from Morocco, Mauritania and Mali topping the bill.

In a poor but fertile corner of southern Morocco, illiterate Berber women are tapping the surge in global demand for argan oil, a "miracle" product they grind from a special nut, that is helping to lift them out of poverty.

Sometimes known as "liquid gold" or "miracle oil" for its rich cosmetic, culinary and medicinal properties, the exclusively Moroccan export has caused a sensation in the West, where it is touted as a unique hair care and anti-aging skin potion.

Fishing nations meet in Morocco next week to thrash out tuna quotas as experts urge maintaining bluefin catch limits amid promising signs of the decimated species making a comeback.

Hunted to the brink of extinction to feed a burgeoning sushi market, the Atlantic bluefin tuna was placed on the endangered list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The economic crises rocking Spain and Morocco may favor stronger ties between the neighboring kingdoms ahead of a top-level Spanish delegation's visit to Rabat, despite their historic differences.

Prime ministers Abdelilah Benkirane of Morocco and Spain's Mariano Rajoy are to meet on Wednesday in the Moroccan capital for the first such high-level encounter in four years.

Two women and a teenaged boy have died in flooding that has plagued Morocco over the past two days, authorities said on Saturday.

A 50-year-old woman, her daughter-in-law and the 14-year-old boy were swept away by flash flooding on Friday in the western region of Safi.

The U.N. special rapporteur on torture said on Saturday that the inhumane treatment of Moroccan detainees appeared to be "very frequent," and deplored the rise in the use of excessive force to quell protests.

"In ordinary cases (of detainees we investigated) torture, or cruel and inhumane treatment, was very frequent. Whether it is systematic is hard to obtain from the number of samples we took," Juan Mendez told reporters in Rabat at the end of a week-long visit.

Morocco and the Ivory Coast on Friday signed an agreement on the exchange of information in the fight against money laundering and "financing terrorism," the official MAP news agency reported.

The accord was signed by Morocco's Financial Data Processing Unit (UTRF) and CENTIF-CI, the Ivory Coast finance ministry's unit for financial information, the agency said.

Dozens of sub-Saharan Africans expelled from Morocco as immigration policy tightens somehow find their way back into the country, sheltering in makeshift camps on their quest to reach "the other side."

In these camps, located in the Sidi Maafa woods near Morocco's Mediterranean coast, the illegal migrants -- men, women and children -- find themselves tantalisingly close to the narrowest stretch of water separating Africa from mainland Europe.

Hundreds of Salafists burned U.S. flags in Morocco after Friday prayers in protest over a U.S.-made film that mocks Islam and has sparked unrest in several Arab countries, an Agence France Presse photographer reported.

The protest took place after weekly prayers at a mosque in the poor Rahma neighbourhood of Sale, twin town to the Moroccan capital Rabat.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday condemned an amateur anti-Islam film which has sparked violent Middle East protests, stressing the U.S. government had nothing to do with it.

"To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose, to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage," Clinton said.