The News Review:

- INTERVIEW-nly military reform can save Guinea-Bissau
- Senegal leads in volleyball qualifiers
- Mauritania Military and Politicians Agree to Postpone Saturday’s …
- Insecurity Taxes Hurting Senegal Tourism
- Putting Faith in His Music
- Search Continues For Air France Wreckage
- Senegal’s president inaugurates gold mine

INTERVIEW-nly military reform can save Guinea-Bissau
Reuters
Aristide Gomes head of government in the former Portuguese colony from 2005-07 told Reuters politicians were so dependent on the support of powerful factions within the armed forces to survive that the country had become impossible to govern. Gomes who fled to neighbouring Senegal after soldiers assassinated President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira in March was speaking a day after military police killed a candidate in upcoming presidential elections and a former minister. "The army occupies the central space in Guinea-Bissau’s political system. It is not a national army in the true sense.
Related from Siera-leone: Thousands mourn Guinea dictator

Senegal leads in volleyball qualifiers
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He said: “We want to qualify and that’s why we are here and spent so much money to participate in the tournament. We spent two weeks in Italy to prepare the team before coming to Nigeria. Senegal started on a right note by beating Botswana 3-0 in the first match of the tournament which was played on Wednesday. The team will be playing hosts Nigeria in its second game on Friday. Speaking of his expectations he said: “We won our first game and we hope to win the rest in order to qualify. Nigeria has an excellent team but we have a young team and they are motivated to qualify. “The score is not very important; the most important thing is just to win and qualify and be among the two teams that will represent Africa”.

Mauritania Military and Politicians Agree to Postpone Saturday’s …
Voice of America
0pt;font-family:”Calibri”"sans-serif”;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}Representatives ofMauritania?s opposition political parties and the country?s military governmentare expected to Wednesday officially sign an agreement to delay the presidentialelection that was been scheduled for this week. The elections were to takeplace this Saturday but opposition parties had said they would boycott thepoll to protest the military government’s election timetable. The new agreementwhich was brokered by Senegal?s President Abdoulaye Wade paves the way for oppositionparties to participate in the July 18 vote. Mohamed Fal Sidatt is a former vice president of theMauritanian community in the United States and a member of the main oppositionNational Front for the Defense of Democracy. He told VA the agreement was made possible through strong international community in put. “Themilitary had to make real compromise. They had to postpone because they alreadyscheduled and started their campaign almost 13 days ago.

Insecurity Taxes Hurting Senegal Tourism
Voice of America
Local dancers entertain European tourists at one of the big hotels along Senegal’s southern coast. While the global economic crisis has slowed business there it has been hardest on smaller village-based guest houses farther inland where a simmering rebellion against the government in Dakar has helped give Casamance a bad name. Bakary Denis Sane chairs the organization of small hotel operators in Casamance. In the more than 20 years since the start of the security crisis brought on by the rebellion Sane says many of the small hotels in Casamance have declined.

Putting Faith in His Music
Wall Street Journal
“And he has always sung about what he believes in—it’s kind of like the way Bob Marley was. N’Dour who was born in Dakar Senegal in 1959 comes from a clan of griot singers with a family history of preserving cultural memory in song. He burst onto the music scene in the 1970s with a genre of music known as mbalax—a hard-driving form of pop that draws on traditional Senegalese rhythms Cuban music and jazz. N’Dour’s lyrics captured the everyday lives of people in Senegal while also offering up themes of solidarity and cultural pride.

Search Continues For Air France Wreckage
WIBW
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Senegal’s president inaugurates gold mine
AFP
“Senegal has entered the circle of gold-producing countries with the making of the first ingot from the Sabodala mine” said Wade at Wednesday’s event in the south-eastern Kedougou region the scene of violent riots five months ago. He was formally opening a mine operated by Mineral Deposits Limited (MDL) more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the capital Dakar and in an area where most of the country’s mineral wealth is concentrated. The Sabodala mine will have an average production of 4. 2 tonnes a year for the next 10 years according to APS agency.