Casablanca

CASABLANCA - A showdown looms this week over the 25-year ban on commercial whaling: Should it be eased, which might mean fewer whales are killed? Or should it remain - leaving Japan, Norway and Iceland to hunt down as many whales as they want? The International Whaling Commission begins a five-day meeting Monday in Morocco's Atlantic Ocean resort of Agadir - arguably its most important gathering since 1986, when a moratorium on commercial whaling halted the factory-style slaughter of tens of thousands of animals every year.

RABAT, Morocco - Volcanic ash from Iceland wound its way south to North Africa and curled eastward on Tuesday, forcing authorities for the first time to shut down airports in Morocco, as well as in Spain and, briefly, in Turkey.