front page regions does not appear in administer>>site building>>blocks

on template.php, i defined the region frontNews via the code below. I had intended the region to appear only on the front page.

function mysite_regions() {

return array(

   'left' => t('left sidebar'),

   'right' => t('right sidebar'),

   'content_top' => t('content top'),

   'content_bottom' => t('content bottom'),

   'header' => t('header'),

  'user01' => t('user01'),

  'frontNews' => t('frontNews')

);

}

On page.tpl.php, I entered the folowing code inside the body rags:

    
<?php
 endif; 
?>

If I click on the logo, I get the home page and see the text entered in the table tags. If I go to a node content, the table text does not appear. So far, I got the results I wanted.

The only thing I need to do is to place a block on the region frontNews; but lo and behold, the administer>>site building>>blocks does not display the region in the list. Is it because the administer is not the home page? How am I now to enter a block on the front page region if such is the case?

Many thanks, Jun D!