NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 03, 2014

Q: Desperate migrants from sub-Saharan Africa last month stormed into Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish cities on the coast of Morocco. Where is Morocco?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Melilla and Ceuta are surrounded by high fences to deter the migrants seeking work or asylum in Europe. Morocco claims sovereignty over the cities, but for more than 500 years they have been controlled by Spain or its western neighbor . . .

A. Britain

B. France

C. Italy

D. Portugal

D. Spain and Portugal share the Iberian Peninsula and once shared the same kings. Portugal captured Ceuta in 1415 and ceded it to Spain in 1668. The Spanish seized Melilla from the Berbers in 1497 and have controlled ever since.

Q: Ceuta has been strategically important since ancient times because of its location on the . . .

A. Atlantic Ocean

B. Mediterranean Sea

C. Strait of Gibraltar

D. All of the above

D. Ceuta lies along the boundary between the Atlantic and Mediterranean and is separated from the Iberian Peninsula by the nine-mile-wide Strait of Gibraltar.

Q: Morocco has compared its claims to Melilla and Ceuta to Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar. Who controls Gibraltar at southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula?

A. Britain

B. France

C. Italy

D. Portugal

A. Gibraltar is a 2.3-square-mile British Overseas Territory which was captured from Spain in 1704 and ceded to Britain "in perpetuity" in a 1713 treaty. The residents of Gibraltar don't want to become part of Spain, while the people of Melilla and Ceuta don't want to become part of Morocco.

Q: Many of the African migrants that surged into Melilla and Ceuta are expected to be expelled from the enclaves. As Spanish territory, the cities are also part of . . .

A. European Union

B. Eurozone

C. NATO

D. All of the above

D. Spain is a member of the European Union and it uses the euro as a common currency with the other 17 nations in the eurozone. It also is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a defensive alliance of 28 nations in North America and Europe.