Morocco moves to new millennium without Y2K gitch

Morocco has successfully moved into the year 2000 without major problems, the Moroccan secretary of state in charge of posts and new information technologies, Larbi Aajoul, said.

The strategic sectors of energy and telecommunications made a smooth transition into the new millenium, the official said, calling for more vigilance until all possible problems are totally discarded.

People around the globe feared that January 1st, 2000 would be a dark day, as the world would wake up on a computer apocalypse that would spare no sector of activity except in the countries that would have reprogrammed their artificial intelligence.

Millions of computers-- some of which are central to running financial markets, air-traffic control systems and even elevators in office buildings-- do not distinguish between the year 1900 and the year 2000 because an old programming practice expressed years in two digits.

The bug attracted high-level attention in both government offices and corporate boardrooms around the world.