Morocco blames referee for Algeria defeat “We were stunned by Algeria's early penalty. The players tried to made a comeback but it was so difficult because of the refereeing and some other circumstances that prevented us from playing our game,” Gerets told a press conference. Morocco lost 1-0 to Algeria in Annaba on day three of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, courtesy of a well-taken penalty kick from midfielder Hassan Yebda in the seventh minute. “I can't blame the players, they did their best. The Algerians had a penalty and they scored. Afterwards they defended well and managed to keep their advantage till the end. “We will start again from zero in the African qualifiers and we will fight hard over the next games to maintain our chances,” the Belgian coach added. Algeria teachers take demands to president's doorstep For nearly two weeks Algerian schoolteacher Hamou Benhamou has spent his days protesting outside the presidential administration and his nights sleeping on a strip of cardboard on the pavement. The sit-in that Benhamou is holding with about 200 other teachers is one of dozens of protests around the Algerian capital which have unsettled a government wary that unrest elsewhere in the Arab world will spread to Algiers. The government's tactic so far has been to promise political reform, but also to give handouts to groups who strike or protest, usually over pay and conditions. This has encouraged more demonstrations. International conference in London plots Libya future With the U.S. handing off responsibility for military action in Libya, scores of diplomats and international officials gathered in London to start plotting the country's future and declared their resolve to maintain pressure on Moammar Kadafi until he stops attacking his own people. But there were no Libyans included in the blue-ribbon guest list Tuesday. Nor was there a consensus among NATO countries taking command of the military action on its ultimate goal, or whether it would be enough for Kadafi to flee to another country rather than face prosecution. The conference was an attempt to forge greater unity of purpose among officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, leaders of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, representatives of the Arab League and the African Union, and about three dozen foreign ministers. Besides agreeing to keep the pressure on Kadafi, they announced the formation of a “contact group” on Libya, a kind of steering committee to coordinate their political efforts, with the first meeting to be held in Qatar. Sudanese president issues Republican decree on referendum on Darfur status Sudanese President Omar al- Bashir on Tuesday issued a Republican Decree on conducting a referendum to decide the permanent administrative status of Sudan' s Darfur region, reported official SUNA news agency. The decree stated that “the permanent status for Darfur will be decided via a referendum to be conducted simultaneously in three Darfur states. The referendum will be on two options whether the region should remain on its current status or should it be united as one Darfur region,” the report said. The decree mandated the National Elections Commission to conduct and supervise the referendum and set its regulating procedures. The decree, however, did not mention the date of the referendum. BM
