Hundreds of Muslims protested on Wednesday outside the U.S. consulate in Morocco's largest city Casablanca to decry a film deemed insulting to Islam that already sparked deadly violence in Libya, an Agence France Presse photographer reported.

The protesters, numbering between 300 and 400 mostly young activists, gathered around 200 meters (yards) from the consulate amid a heavy police presence.

A Casablanca court on Wednesday sentenced five members of Morocco's February 20 opposition movement to between eight and 10 months in jail for holding an "unauthorized demonstration," their lawyer said.

"Three were condemned to 10 months in prison, two to eight months and a young woman, who appeared in the court freely, got a six-month suspended sentence," Omar Benjelloun told Agence France Presse.

The World Bank on Friday described the problem of youth unemployment in Morocco as "very serious," with similarities to other countries in the region where youth-led protests brought about regime change.

"It is a very serious problem," Inger Andersen, the bank's vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, told Agence France Presse, speaking in Rabat at the end of a two-day visit to Morocco.

At least 42 people were killed Tuesday when a bus travelling between Marrakesh and Ouarzazate in southern Morocco plunged into a ravine, a security official said.

All the victims were Moroccan, a local official told Agence France Presse. "But we are still in the process of identifying the bodies, as well as the injured," he added.

Spanish security forces launched a night time operation lasting into the early hours Tuesday to evict 73 immigrants from a tiny islet just off Morocco, officials said.

Spain's Guardia Civil police acted after scores of immigrants landed in the past week on the bare, rocky surface of Isla de Tierra, which lies an easy swim off the beach and is as long as two football pitches.

Nearly four tons of cannabis with a street value of around 1.6 million euros ($2 million) have been seized in Algeria near border with Morocco, customs officials said on Sunday.

The seizure came overnight after customs officers pursued a vehicle that was then abandoned outside the town of Tlemcen, Algeria's APS state news agency reported, citing officials.

Moroccan authorities banned the closing ceremony of the ruling party's youth conference that was due to be held on Saturday, citing "security concerns," a party official told Agence France Presse.

"At around 10 pm (on Friday), a local official sent us a document banning the ceremony" due to take place in the northern city of Tangiers, the Justice and Development Party's (PJD) Khalid Bougueri told AFP by telephone.

Thousands of Morocco's unemployed slum-dwellers head to the Atlantic coast every morning to scrape a living as illegal mussel pickers. But experts say they threaten the health of the marine ecosystem.

The stretch of coast between Rabat and Casablanca, Morocco's economic capital renowned for its sprawling slums, or "bidonvilles," is the most popular destination for these unlicensed fishermen, who flock to the area at low tide.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Saturday told Morocco's monarch he would not give in to demands to change his peace envoy on the Western Sahara conflict, diplomats said.

Morocco announced in May that it no longer has confidence in U.N. envoy

King Mohammed VI has granted partial or full pardons to 562 prisoners to mark the Muslim feast of Eid which follows the Ramadan holy month, the justice ministry announced on Sunday.

It said that among the 191 women on the list were 66 who are accompanied by their children and have obtained degrees for studies while in jail, others with chronic illnesses and foreign nationals.