A police station has been hit by a bomb in Nacria, which is at the north of Algeria and is about 50 km east of the Algerian capital Algiers.

According to reports at least 3 people are dead and at several are injured. Full details have not yet been released. The bomb went off at about 0600 UTC (7 AM local time) today.

It is currently not clear whether the bombing was caused by a car bomb or a suicide attack.

The bombing, although less serious then the December bombings which killed 40 people, is likely to raise suspicions that violence has not ended in Algeria. It is the first bombing to hit Algeria since the bombings in early December.

The bombing was announced in a statement by a spokesman for the Algerian Interior Ministry in which the following was said - "There has been an attack with explosives near a police station in Naciria. The attack left three dead and seven wounded."

Frequent terrorism first hit Algeria after measures were carried out by the government to stop a Muslim Fundamentalist party winning the elections. That party has now been banned.

A police station has been hit by a bomb in Nacria, which is at the north of Algeria and is about 50 km east of the Algerian capital Algiers.

According to reports at least 3 people are dead and at several are injured. Full details have not yet been released. The bomb went off at about 0600 UTC (7 AM local time) today.

It is currently not clear whether the bombing was caused by a car bomb or a suicide attack.

The bombing, although less serious then the December bombings which killed 40 people, is likely to raise suspicions that violence has not ended in Algeria. It is the first bombing to hit Algeria since the bombings in early December.

The bombing was announced in a statement by a spokesman for the Algerian Interior Ministry in which the following was said - "There has been an attack with explosives near a police station in Naciria. The attack left three dead and seven wounded."

Frequent terrorism first hit Algeria after measures were carried out by the government to stop a Muslim Fundamentalist party winning the elections. That party has now been banned.

French police have today confirmed that they are holding five suspects in the December 11 Algiers bombings. The bombings killed at least 37 people, including 17 United Nations staff members.

The men were arrested with three others, who have since been free, in a raids on Tuesday in Paris and Rouen. The men are believed to be part of the support network for Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat), which has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two bombs have exploded in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, killing at least 47 people, most of which were children on their way to school.

The explosion took place in the centre of the city, which is near the constitutional court. The second was near the United Nations offices in the Hydra neighborhood. At least 30 were killed in the first blast, with 15 killed in the second. Both blasts occurred at least 10 minutes apart from each other.

No group has yet to claim responsibility for the blasts, but officials believe that the attacks were carried out by Muslim extremists.

Gambian Athletics competitors will start their preliminaries today Wednesday 18th July at the Olympic stadium in Algiers.

 The Gambia athletics team comprises of Modou Njie and Suwaibou Sanneh as sprinters would be competing in the 100m events whilst Omar Ceesay and Abdoulie Assin will beef up the team for the 4/100m relay.
Modou Njie and Suwaibou will also represent the Gambia at the 200m starting point whilst Ismaila Manga and Momodou Lamin Kujabi will go for the 400m.

In the 4/400m relay, Bakary Jabbi, who joined the team from Kenya, would use his experience together with the Manchester 2002 commonwealth games representative, Ebrima Ceesay, to add the competing spirit of Ismaila Manga and Momodou Lamin Kujabi to defend the Gambian pride.

 Ebrima Ceesay and Bakary Jabbi will also go for the 800m race.

The famous Ansu Sowe, who also came from Kenya, will compete for the 1500 m whilst Fatou Tiyana represents the Gambia in long jump.

The Gambia athletics team is under the supervision of head coach Abdoulie Bamba Njie and assisted by Sulayman Jobe.

The 9th All Africa games, which are currently underway in Algiers, Algeria, started on Wednesday 12th July 2007 with a spectacular display of African culture at the Olympic stadium of Algeria.

 The opening ceremony which was attended by the Algerian president Abdul Aziz Boutaflika was characterised by a wonderful display of fire-works and state of the earth laser light exhibition.

The Gambian team which comprises of athletics, karate and Taekwondo, has since been camped at the COJA Games Village in the heart of Algiers.
The Gambian contingent starts the competition from Monday 16th July with Marshall Art activities, Karate and Taekwondo preliminaries. Athletics competitors will start their preliminaries on Wednesday 18th July at the Olympic stadium in Algiers. The Gambia athletics team is powered by Modou Njie and Suwaibou Sanneh as sprinters competing for the 100 m events whilst Omar Ceesay and Abdoulie Assin will beef up the team for the 4/100m relay.

Modou Njie and suwaibou will also represent the Gambia at the 200m starting point whilst Ismaila Manga and Momodou Lamin Kujabi will go for the 400m.
In the 4/400m relay, Bakary Jabbi who joins the team from Kenya is expected to use his experience together with the Manchester 2002 commonwealth games representative Ebrima Ceesay to add the competing spirit of Ismaila Manga and Momodou Lamin Kujabi to defend the Gambian pride.
 Ebrima Ceesay and Bakary Jabbi will also go for the 800 m races.
The famous Ansu Sowe who is coming from Kenya will compete for the 1500 m whilst Fatou Tiyana represents the Gambia in long jump.

 In Soto can karate Pateh Jobe of the black eagle club will fight for the Gambia. The European based Gibril Jatta who was the taekwondo silver medallist of the 2003 Abuja games is confident to clinch the title this time as he was injured during the final of the Abuja Games.

Another European based taekwondo star Ismaila Jobarteh is also poised to increase the Gambia’s pride in this event as both of them are in Algiers with their European coach who flew in three days ago.
The athletics team is under the supervision of head coach Abdoulie Bamba Njie and his assistant Sulayman Jobe.

 The president of the Gambia karate association Alh. Musa a Coker is also in Algiers to attend the UFAK extra ordinary meeting, the continental body and hold other developmental meetings for the Gambia chapter.
 The entourage is under the chief of mission Donald Sock, Executive Secretary of the national sports council.

A 30 year-old political deadlock in Western Sahara is on the Security Council's agenda this week, but for aid workers working to help civilians caught in the middle, politics is the last thing to be discussed.

"This is a 100 percent pure humanitarian mission," Alessandra Morelli of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) told IRIN from her office in Laayoune, perched on the northern edge of the Sahara desert, in an interview earlier this year.

Indeed, the first thing every visitor to Morelli’s office learns is there can be no talk of politics - only of UNHCR’s work to re-establish contact between the Sahrawi people divided by minefields, army outposts and a manmade wall of sand more than 2,400 km long.

Perceptions are everything and Morelli said UNHCR cannot play favourites in the long-standing dispute that pits the Moroccan government against the Algerian-backed rebel Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro , or Polisario Front.

Since negotiations on control of the territory stalled in 2004 with the resignation of the UN secretary-general’s special envoy James Baker, there has been little dialogue between the two sides and fierce competition for the sympathies of the international community. Yet UNHCR created a programme, also in 2004, which it called "Confidence Building Measures" to provide what Morelli terms "humanitarian diplomacy".

Cooperation elusive

The programme has set up free phone centres for the tens of thousands of refugees living in harsh conditions in camps in the remote southwest desert of Algeria so they can talk to family members back in Western Sahara . UNHCR also runs regular flights between Tindouf, near the camps in Algeria , and the Western Saharan towns of Laayoune, Dakhla and Smara. The flights have allowed families to meet, often for the first time in 30 years, and spend a total of five days together.

A side effect of the service is that the Moroccan government, which controls the territory, and the Polisario, which runs the refugee camps in Algeria, have started cooperating, albeit indirectly. "Except through this programme, the channels for dialogue between the parties are quite limited," Edward Benson, the UNHCR field officer in Laayoune told IRIN.

Cooperation between the two sides has been elusive for the last three decades. The Polisario Front began fighting for independence in the early 1970s when Western Sahara was still a Spanish colony. The violence continued after Morocco came down from the north in 1975 and Spain withdrew.

In 1991, the UN brokered a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario and set up the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), now the longest-serving peacekeeping mission in Africa. The ceasefire has largely held but both sides remain armed and the mission has so far been unable to meet its mandate of organising a referendum on who has the right to rule the territory, mostly because the two sides disagree on who should vote in the referendum.

Each party also accuses the other of human rights abuses.

Confidence building

Morocco is currently preparing a proposal that would give autonomy to the territory, which King Mohammed VI said he would submit to the UN Security Council in the coming months. So far details of the proposal are still sketchy and whether the Polisario leadership will accept it remains far from certain.

Meanwhile UNHCR faces difficulties in maintaining its confidence building measures. It has had to suspend its family-visit flights several times as it tries to meet the often-conflicting requirements of Morocco and the Polisario Front. A five-month hiatus last year ended in November following “very delicate” negotiations.

Financial issues also dog the programme, which depends on voluntary donor contributions. Morelli works on a slim budget, with just two field officers, one in Laayoune and one in the camps. The MINURSO aircraft they use for the flights are old Ukrainian Antonovs.

Yet UN officials see reasons for hope. In the last two years almost 3,000 Sahrawis have been able to fly between refugee camps and the territory. "When you see them being reunited it’s a pretty humbling experience," Benson said.

UNHCR is now also hoping to set up a special postal service and create a series of meetings between Sahrawi people and various experts to discuss cultural and social - but not political - issues.

Maybe down the road these humanitarian actions will help dissipate the tensions, Morelli said. But, in the meantime, "politics are out".

Organised crime is on the rise across the Sahel region of West Africa as traffickers target the ancient trading region’s remote desert routes and cities to move drugs, people and illicit goods across borders and to Europe, officials and analysts warn.

In Niger, where earlier this month twelve men with three container trucks loaded with drugs and guns were arrested, President Mamadou Tandja on Monday evening declared that Niger’s army will step up its policing to stop the country being “entrenched” by drug and arms traffickers who he said pose a “real threat” to Niger.

Meanwhile, in Burkina Faso, the amount of drugs intercepted over the last three months is “astounding”, according to Christophe Compaore, coordinator of the Committee Against Illicit Drug Trafficking in Burkina Faso, who warns of an emerging drug transit road in the west and south west of his country.

49 kg of cocaine worth 5 billion CFA (US $10m) was intercepted by Burkina Faso’s authorities on the border with Mali earlier this month.

And in Mali, Gao, a city in the remote north of Mali, has become a well-known grouping point for migrants hoping to take the overland trans-Sahara route to migrate illegally into Europe. Malian officials last month publicised their interception of 46 boys from Cote d’Ivoire being trafficked to Europe, but experts say thousands more get through unhindered.

The Sahara desert and its fringes from Algeria [in the west] to Mali, Niger and Chad, a vast, desert region that today includes the world's most impoverished countries, have been a major trading route since at least 1000BC.

But according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Dakar that trade today means less of the spices, food and cloth than in the old days than modern vices like cigarettes, arms, drugs and humans.

“In recent months, we have found an increased use of Sahelian countries like Mali and Niger for cocaine trafficking,” said Antonio Razzitelli, West Africa director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Dakar.

According to UNODC, traffickers bring drugs to coastal towns including Guinea Conakry, Dakar, and Lome, then travel to inland capitals like Bamako and Ouagadougou, and continue their trip towards Europe, “in order to divert the attention of law enforcement agencies at the arrivals”.

Highlighting the lawlessness of the region, in another area of Niger also close to the Libyan border news reports recently highlighted groups of wealthy Libyans travelling to Niger to hunt wild animals with automatic weapons. A more light-hearted BBC report this month also noted people collecting precious meteorites in Mauritania, shipping them to the United States and selling the rocks using the online marketplace Ebay.

“The frontiers are impossible to be really controlled because they are in the middle of the desert, so certainly, the geography of the place is a challenge to enforcement,” Razzitelli said.

Burkina Faso’s trafficking expert Compaore said: “There is an urgent need for all national bodies against drug trafficking in the sub-region to meet and cooperate well, to stop this scourge and dismantle the networks,” adding that the weak trans-border cooperation between most Sahelian countries and the poor training of officials in the cash-strapped police and customs forces posed further problems.

Birmingham

Five key first team players of the scorpions will miss the international friendly match against Saudi Arabia on Monday 8th January, in Dammam.

The quartet comprising of captain Jatto Ceesay, Idirissa Sonko, Seyfo Soley, Abdoulie Corr, Simone Badjie and Kamal Ndow will not be traveling to Saudi due to various reasons.

Jatto, who is tied up with club duties could not travel because of fixture congestion. The fact that, the friendly is not a FIFA sanction international weekend means that clubs can hold to their players if necessary.

According to AEK Larnaca coach Marios, losing Jatto would be suicidal. “I cannot loose Jatto right now, he is our most important player and with a game on Wednesday 3rd and Sunday 7th against Olympiacos, I would prefer Jatto to stay. I would like the GFA to understand our position in this matter, I need Jatto” coach marios concluded.

Idrissa Sonko, who joined Greek side Skoda Xanthi couple of weeks ago will make his debut on Sunday against Greek giants Olympiacos in Athens and the former Roda man intends to make his mark with his new club following his recent nightmare with the kerkerade club.

Seyfo Soley, is currently locked in contract talks with Racing Genk and the club seems hell bent on making life lot more difficult for the Gambian international.

Seyfo is refusing to sign an extension to his current deal which ends in June whilst the club wants to keep him until 2009.

Seyfo, who has been holding his ground all along with the intension of leaving the club and become a free agent has felt the wrath of coach Eric Groos, who has long relegated him to the second team but Seyfo has refused to concede defeat and is reluctant to release him.

Simone Badjie is reported to be suffering from a knee injury whilst Abdoulie Corr and Dawda Bah travel plans were not in place to enable them to link up with the rest of the squad in Frankfurt.

However, Coach Tony Hey has also drafted in some new faces as replacements and see some of the lads for the first time in action. The new members are Babacarr Ndiaye of German 2nd division side Unterhaching, Pa Malick Joof of Wolfsburg, Musa Bajaha of Virko FC is called in as a cover for Pa Dembo Touray, Pa Saikou Kujabi for the injured Simone Badjie, Aziz Corr Nyang is also given a lifeline in of place Idi Sonko.

Two newcomers Muhammed camara and Tijan Ceesay are also given the chance to impress.

The trip which was supposed to be led by Secretary of state for Youth, Sports and Religious Affairs Sheikh Omar Faye will now be headed by president GFA.

The trip which was almost called off due financial reasons is sponsored by the Saudi FA thanks to the intervention and hard work put in by the coach.

The match is scheduled to be played on Monday 8th January at the Prince Muhammed Bin Fahad Stadium in Dammam at 7.00 PM.

This would have been an ideal preparation for the new head coach who is yet to see some of his first team players in action ahead of the Scorpions next Africa Nations Cup qualifier against Sylli national of Guinea in March but a fixture congestion and club commitment by members of his squad means he is yet to see some of his key players in action.

Amongst the group, the Gambia played the least number of games and remains the lowest rank according to FIFA.

The Gambia has only played three matches from December 2003 to date and going by the data supplied by Fifa, there remains a 12 match difference with our nearest rival In Cape Verde who played a staggering 15 matches whilst Algeria played 27 and Guinea 29 matches respectively.

This friendly preparatory against twice World Cup finalist and giants of the gulf peninsula should go a long way in gauging how far we want to go as a footballing nations. We cannot play down the need for friendliest in our quest for progress in football.

Fail to prepare and prepare to fail woefully.

The list of selected players:

Pa Dembo Touray
Mathew Mendy
Kemo Ceesay
Ebrima Sillah
Abou Njie
Momar Njie
Modou Jagne
Assan Jatta
Mustapha Jarju
Babacarr Ndiaye
Pa Malick Joof
Musa Bajaha
Aziz Corr Nyang
Pa Saikou Kujabi
Muhammed Camara
Tijan Ceesay
Njogu Demba

Antoine Hey is the coach for The Gambia’s senior national team. Aged, 36, Antoine Hey played professional football in Germany, Switzerland and England for 14 years before retiring from active football at the age of 31 to pursue a coaching career.

He is a holder of the highest coaching license worldwide -the UEFA/FIFA Pro-license, having attended a UEFA coaching instructor course.

Antoine Hey had a successful sting with a second division club in Germany for nine months before he was grasped by Lesotho for 13 months. Hey made his presence felt in Lesotho by qualifying the South-African nation to the 2005 CAF U-20 Youth Championship finals in Benin 2005 -the same tourney The Gambia have just qualified for.

In this encounter with Nanama Keita, the Sports Editor, Daily Observer, the young-looking and seasoned German-born coach talked about his career as a player and a coach, what compelled him to accept The Gambia’s offer and his objective to qualify The Gambia to their first-ever Nations Cup finals in Ghana 2008.

Tell me who Antoine Hey is?

First of all, I am the new coach for the senior national team. If you ask me what I have done before - I was a professional football player for 14 years. I played in Germany, Switzerland and in England. My first club was Grasshoppers Zurich in Switzerland.

I also played for Schalke 04 and Fortuna Dusseldort in the Germany first division Bunders league.

I moved to Birmingham City in 1996 for 3 years playing in the championship. After this, I went back to Germany and played for several one or two clubs in the second bunders league division. I stopped playing at the age of 31 in Bristol City, England before I made up for a coaching license up to UEFA Pro-license. I coached a second division club in Germany for 9 months before I signed for Lesotho for 13 months.
We qualified for the African U-20 finals in Benin 2005. Unfortunately, we couldn’t qualify for the world cup after we finished 3rd in the group of four. We needed to finish second in order to qualify for the World Cup. Now I am in The Gambia hoping to qualify with the team for the Nations Cup finals.

We are told that you only agreed with The Gambia on principles, thus nothing has yet been inked. What is your reaction to that? Yea....basically things take time in Africa..this is my experience. But all relevant parts have been agreed on and we’re working together for the next two years. The government is very helpful and has assured me its full-backing for the senior national team because they realise that the national team is a national interest. Therefore everybody is involved.

You had your first assignment for The Gambia on October 7th, 2006, when The Gambia lost to Algeria. What is your reaction to that? First we can be very proud of the performance of the players who did very well away from home. It was a brilliant performance away from home, despite the fact that we lost some of our key players.
If not for the doubtful penalty in the 77th minute, we would have taken away the point that we were looking for. But we’re still second in the Group on 3 points so we have everything in our own hands.
We are playing against the leading team, Algeria, in September at home and I am expecting this to be finally where it will be decided as to which team goes to the finals. We’re trying to get ready for the next task ahead, this is Guinea at home in March and other two away games.

What is your assessment of Gambian players - both foreign and home based players?

We have lots of talented players playing in top European clubs. Unfortunately not all of them are playing regularly in their respective clubs and this reflects on their performance.

This is something that makes it difficult to get the players ready for such a huge game against Algeria but equally we managed and I am very proud of what I have seen. I am absolutely convinced and optimistic that we have a brilliant chance of qualifying from the group.

Some players overseas may claim to be playing active football when in the real sense they’re not. What mechanism will you employ to monitor Gambian foreign-based players to know whether they are playing or not?

I have a contract on the table and in it, I have a budget for travel expenses to observe Gambian foreign-based players, to talk to their clubs and see how they are performing. And also their problems -fitness wise and injury wise. This is the main task in the next few weeks or months.

Also we have some players that have not featured in the national team before but we have them in the list and I want to see them, speak to some of them personally. We also have some promising talents in the U-20 and U-23 teams!.

During your short stay in The Gambia, how would you describe the environment - I mean your impression about the football association among other things.

This is the third time I have been here and I have realised the huge support from the public for all national teams. The Gambia is hungry for success and we’ll make sure we achieve the goals that the public expect.
In every football association, there are constraints but we’re working harder to improve on all areas - both on and off the football pitch.

The Gambia chose you as coach, but what motivated you to accept the offer?

A lot of things. First the teamhas a strong chance of qualifying and I know some few good players in Europe and I realise that the team has a chance to not only qualify but to claim top spots in the African continent.
Also in my discussion with the Sports Ministry and relevant parties of the football association, I was assured of full backing. They promised to do everything possible to achieve the desired goal and target and this really motivated me to accept the offer on the table.

Do you have any assistant yet... and if any who is your assistant?

Not yet but we have a list of possible candidates, five of them with the clear picture of the requirement we’re looking for.
In our next meeting with the team together with some experienced players, we will discuss these candidates before we make a final selection of who is going to work with us. I want to see to it that our senior players are involved in the process.

During Gambia’s game against Mali on Saturday, you were spotted in the dressing room before and during the interval - what was the purpose of being there?

First... the team and the coach did a brilliant job. I was there to show my support and interest in the game and the players. To encourage them and to show them that the national senior team coach is behind them.

Any final word for The Gambian public?

I can assure them that we will do everything possible and we’re really trying hard to achieve what is expect of us. I am optimistic that with the support of everyone the football association, the government and the general public, we will have a brilliant chance of qualifying for Ghana 2008