Morocco to Construct Record-breaking Skyscraper

King Mohmmed VI at the launching ceremony of the tower, in Sale, near Rabat. MAP
King Mohmmed VI at the launching ceremony of the tower, in Sale, near Rabat. MAP
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Morocco to Construct Record-breaking Skyscraper

King Mohmmed VI at the launching ceremony of the tower, in Sale, near Rabat. MAP
King Mohmmed VI at the launching ceremony of the tower, in Sale, near Rabat. MAP

The construction process of Morocco's tallest skyscraper on the banks of the Bouregreg river in Sale near the capital Rabat, has been launched, the country announced this week.

The Bank of Africa tower will stand at 250 meters tall and rise to 55 floors in a project that would cost around 4 billion Moroccan dirham (around $400 million).

The skyscraper is being built by Belgian construction firm BESIX Group, which has worked on the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and Morocco’s Travaux Generaux de Construction de Casablanca (TGCC). The building process will also be supported by China Railway Construction Corporation International.

Johan Beerlandt, Chairman of BESIX, spoke about his company’s international expertise in tower construction.

Beerlandt said at the ceremony attended by King Mohammed VI on Thursday that BESIX respects all safety, quality and environmental standards in its projects.

The tower, which will be named after the King, will host a luxury hotel, apartments, office space and a viewing terrace at the top. It is due to be completed on May 30, 2022.

It is at the center of a wider Bouregreg Valley Development project, part of Rabat's modernization program called Rabat Ville Lumière, Capitale Marocaine de la Culture (Rabat, City of Light, Moroccan Capital of Culture).

This includes other major urban developments, including the Maison des Arts et de la Culture (House of Arts and Culture) and Le Grand Théâtre de Rabat.



Stolen Shoe Mystery Solved at Japanese Kindergarten When Security Camera Catches Weasel in the Act

This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
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Stolen Shoe Mystery Solved at Japanese Kindergarten When Security Camera Catches Weasel in the Act

This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)

Police thought a shoe thief was on the loose at a kindergarten in southwestern Japan, until a security camera caught the furry culprit in action.

A weasel with a tiny shoe in its mouth was spotted on the video footage after police installed three cameras in the school in the prefecture of Fukuoka.

“It’s great it turned out not to be a human being,” Deputy Police Chief Hiroaki Inada told The Associated Press Sunday. Teachers and parents had feared it could be a disturbed person with a shoe fetish.

Japanese customarily take their shoes off before entering homes. The vanished shoes were all slip-ons the children wore indoors, stored in cubbyholes near the door.

Weasels are known to stash items and people who keep weasels as pets give them toys so they can hide them.

The weasel scattered shoes around and took 15 of them before police were called. Six more were taken the following day. The weasel returned Nov. 11 to steal one more shoe. The camera footage of that theft was seen the next day.

The shoe-loving weasel only took the white indoor shoes made of canvas, likely because they’re light to carry.

“We were so relieved,” Gosho Kodomo-en kindergarten director Yoshihide Saito told Japanese broadcaster RKB Mainichi Broadcasting.

The children got a good laugh when they saw the weasel in the video.

Although the stolen shoes were never found, the remaining shoes are now safe at the kindergarten with nets installed over the cubbyholes.

The weasel, which is believed to be wild, is still on the loose.