Moroccan rapper Mouad Belghouat, a voice of the February 20 pro-reform movement jailed for defaming the police, was freed on Friday after serving a one-year sentence.

Belghouat, 25, was arrested in March last year and convicted over a song he wrote called "Dogs of the State," which denounced police corruption and was deemed an affront to Morocco's entire police force.

The U.N. children's fund on Thursday called for "major mobilization" in Morocco against the phenomenon of child labor after a young house maid died from burns in the southern coastal resort of Agadir.

The Moroccan teenager died after suffering serious burns to her hands and face, an NGO said on Tuesday, adding that her employer is in police custody.

Moroccan police violently dispersed a protest by separatists in the Western Sahara, Algerian TV and rights activists reported on Monday, during a visit to the disputed territory by U.N. envoy Christopher Ross.

The independent Ennahar TV channel broadcast images of plainclothes Moroccan police beating Sahrawi men and women in Laayoune, chasing them through the streets and dragging some of them along the ground.

French President Francois Hollande's office confirmed Saturday that one of the key leaders of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, had been killed in fighting with French-led forces in northern Mali.

Hollande "confirms Abdelhamid Abou Zeid's death with certainty during fighting led by the French army in the Ifoghas mountains in northern Mali in late February," the Elysee palace said in a statement.

"I don't have anything," said Asmaa with a sigh as she stepped out of the mobile clinic offering free AIDS tests in Sale, a conservative city in Morocco where the veiled young woman lives.

Around 29,000 people are infected with HIV in a country of 33 million, according to estimates by the Pan African AIDS Organisation (OPALS), a relatively low figure compared with other Arab countries.

Three U.N. human rights experts Tuesday urged Saudi Arabia to halt the imminent execution of seven men sentenced to death for armed robbery, saying their case had breached international standards of justice.

In a joint statement, the United Nations monitors said the men, due to face the death penalty Wednesday, allegedly had been convicted on the basis of trumped-up charges and flawed trails.

Moroccan authorities suspended a judge after he forced a mechanic who had not repaired his car on time to kiss his shoes, Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid told Agence France Presse on Friday.

"After the prosecutor in Meknes (central Morocco) prepared a detailed report, we decided to suspend the magistrate," Ramid said. The judiciary council will continue the investigation and then decide" whether to take further action.

Defenders of women's rights in Morocco are inching closer to a long-awaited goal as the kingdom's parliament works to amend a law that allows a rapist to escape prison by marrying his victim.

Morocco was shocked in March 2012 by the suicide of Amina Filali, 16, who was forced to marry the man who had raped her. He remained a free man under Article 475 of the kingdom's penal code.

A Moroccan rights group is calling for an end to civilians being tried in military court, as part of a drive to bring the law in line with a new constitution, its president said on Tuesday.

The call by the official National Council of Human Rights (CNDH) comes after a military court last month jailed 25 Sahrawis implicated in deadly violence in the Western Sahara.

King Mohammed hailed the "spiritual wealth and diversity" of Morocco at a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the end of the restoration of a 17th century synagogue in the city of Fez.

The ceremony was held in the medina, the Old City, of Fez, a UNESCO world heritage site, before more than 200 people including the country's Islamist prime minister and German parliament speaker Norbert Lammert.