ALGERIA: French football star Zinedine Zidane appears before adoring crowds in Algeria.

French soccer star Zinedine Zidane was visiting hospitals in Algeria on Tuesday (December 12), the second day of his visit to the land of his parents. Zidane was welcomed at medical centres in Thenia, Boumerdes and Algiers where he saw medical facilities provided by charities to which he has contributed. The hospitals have been rebuilt and renovated in the years since the devastating earthquake of 2003 caused widespread damage. In Thenia, 45 kilometres east of Algiers, Zidane inspected a children's hospital, pursued by a crowd of fans who waited outside to see him emerge after the visit. In Boumerdes, 30 kilometres to the east of Algiers, he visited a children's day nursery and rewarded his loyal fans by taking part in a kick-about football match with two teams of children. Political strife remains a danger for Boumerdes, on the edge of the Kabylie region where Zidane's parents originate, because the area remains a bastion for anti-government Islamist rebels. The army and guerrillas clash sporadically in surrounding hills, valleys and forests, albeit at a much lower level than at the height of the bloodshed in the 1990s. Returning to Algiers, Zidane visited a children's ward Mustapha hospital where he was told how donations of medical equipment had contributed to the aid of local people. Zidane, whose parents are Algerian-born, helped raise relief funds from proceeds of a charity football game in France. The 2003 disaster added to the misery of a nation trying to pull itself out of years of Islamist-linked violence that has killed up to 200,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage. French-born Zidane's visit this week has helped raise the morale of a nation that sees him as an icon of success. Widely regarded as the finest footballer of his generation, Zidane retired from soccer after being sent off in July's World Cup final for head-butting Italy's Marco Materazzi. Italy won the final after a penalty shoot-out. Zidane's Algerian parents moved in 1962 to the French city of Marseille, where he grew up. He last visited Algeria in 1986, but he is seen as a hero in a country where the jobless rate among people under 30 is estimated to be about 70 percent.

ITN Source | December 13, 2006

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