Morocco's Prince Moulay Hicham, King Mohammed VI's first cousin, has said in a television interview the spirit of a new constitution adopted last year in a bid to stifle Arab Spring protests remains 'frozen'. The constitutional changes, introduced by the king to curb his near-absolute powers, followed mass protests in the north African country, and as similar unrest toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

'I don't want to die of hunger and cold,' says Patrick, one of many sub-Saharan migrants in Morocco desperate to reach Spanish shores and start a new life in Europe as winter approaches. More than 90 of them, including women and children, have died in the past two weeks as they braved the perilous crossing, according to a toll calculated from reports by Spanish and Moroccan authorities and members of the African migrant community.

Spain's maritime rescue service has found 14 bodies in the sea and rescued 17 people after a boat carrying migrants from Morocco began to sink in the Mediterranean. Search operations are continuing because one of the migrants said about 70 people had been on the boat, a rescue official told the Associated Press.

A Moroccan court has jailed an activist with the February 20 protest movement for 12 years for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration, a human rights group said, slamming the ruling as an act of vengeance. The charges against Bashir Benshaib, 32, who was sentenced by an appeals court in Al-Hoceima, included blocking a road, theft, aggression and drug dealing, Faisal Ousser of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) told AFP.