Tuesday, 8 April 2014

World Cup 2014: the boos from Brazil

The football showpiece promises the best of the beautiful game – but building work is behind schedule and protests are growing at the amount of public money spent

Protesters in São Paulo demonstrate against the public money spent on the forthcoming World

With just 99 days left until the start of the 2014 World Cup, the host nation Brazil has an image problem. For all the complexities it faces as a developing country, with 200 million people living in vastly differing circumstances, it finds itself reduced frequently to its most famous assets: football, carnival, beaches and women.

There will have been little surprise outside Brazil when sports brand Adidas launched two World Cup T-shirts that focused on the curves of the female form, a laddish nod to the possible benefits of travelling to the tournament this summer – one of them carried the slogan “Lookin’ to Score” next to a cartoon of a bikini-clad girl on a beach; the other read “I love Brazil” with a heart resembling the upside-down buttocks of a woman wearing a thong.

The Brazilian authorities responded indignantly, and the company withdrew the T-shirts from sale last week. Yet there are contradictions in the national image at every turn. While appearing horrified at the sexism perpetuated by Adidas – the government denounced the designs as playing to sexualised stereotypes – the same country celebrated carnival this week with the main TV network, Globo, using a naked female samba dancer as its muse.

The “Globeleza” – based on the network’s name and beleza, meaning beauty – is elected by viewers annually, her modesty protected only by some body paint and glitter. And while the four-day bacchanal was celebrated on the streets of Rio de Janeiro with the usual fervour, stereotypical images of a colourful and vibrant party overshadowed a street cleaners’ strike that left a tide of rubbish across the city.

But holding the World Cup in Brazil ought to be the perfect match, the event that unites the nation and heals the cracks. This is the country that has won the World Cup five times, that gave us the talents of Pele, Zico and Ronaldo, and where football is often described in religious terms.

“Brazil is the mecca of football,” Jérôme Valcke, Fifa secretary general, said last week after a local organising committee (LOC) board meeting.
Moreover, when the decision to make Brazil the host was announced in 2007, the economy was booming, with annual growth of more than five per cent. Under the then president Lula da Silva, the Bolsa Familia welfare programme was lifting millions out of extreme poverty and the country was thriving, grouped with Russia, India and China as one of the fast-developing Bric economies.
But as the World Cup edged closer, the economy stalled, growing by just 2.3 per cent last year. Preparations for the tournament have fallen so far behind schedule that Fifa has considered moving matches away from one of the 12 host cities. Two of the World Cup stadiums are unlikely to be finished until mid-May, a month before the event starts, throwing into chaos plans for test events, and transport projects have been delayed or cancelled.
“From what I hear abroad, they are talking about our very same doubts, delays, demonstrations, security – all this is very natural,” said Ronaldo, the former striker and Brazil’s World Cup poster boy, who is a member of the LOC board. “There was uncertainty around the Winter Olympics and Sochi and we know the event was very successful. We hope the same will happen here, it’s a lot of work. Until the end of the World Cup, I’ll keep on fighting to convince people that it is a wonderful project for all of us in Brazil.”
But for all Ronaldo’s optimism, the World Cup has caused divisions within a rapidly changing and growing country. Last summer’s Confederations Cup, which acted as a dress rehearsal and should have been the starting gun for the countdown to the biggest footballing party in the world, was instead the backdrop to the biggest protest movement in a generation.
The demonstrations that flared in cities across Brazil were sparked by a 20 centavos (six pence) rise in bus fares, which coincided with massive investment in the World Cup, a slowdown in the economy and a rise in the cost of living. The proposed increase would have hit the poor hardest in a country where the minimum wage is less than £200 a month and many of the working classes face long bus commutes to cities from deprived suburbs.
“The protests against the World Cup really bother the government because they want to sell the image abroad that we have no problems,” said Paulo Ventura, a student from São Paulo. “The aim is to show those outside Brazil that while we have many problems in various areas, our illustrious government is spending an absurd amount on the World Cup.”
Among the demands from the protesters were free public transport, greater public spending on education and health care, and better security. And they soon became targeted at the World Cup: banners reading “Fifa Go Home” and “There Won’t Be a World Cup” became a familiar sight.
“People say Brazil is an emerging country, but it’s emerging from nothing,” says Luciano Cardoso, a residents’ association leader. “We’re 88th in the world for education. In my opinion, the World Cup gives no benefits at all because 70 per cent of the spending on works is public money. So why didn’t they do it before if they had so much money to invest, to give to Fifa, as a donation?”
There are concerns within Fifa that protests will start again during the World Cup, testing the £475 million security operation that will see 170,000 troops, police and security staff on the streets. Popular support for hosting the tournament has fallen from almost 80 per cent in November 2008 to around 50 per cent last month, according to figures from the research institute Datafolha – though those in favour of protests during the competition are less than a third.
“Of course we would like the World Cup. Brazil loves football. Some people don’t like football but the majority like it,” says Claudia Favaro, representative of the Popular Committee in Porto Alegre, one of the host cities, which campaigns against abuses linked to the World Cup. Popular Committees were set up in each of the 12 host cities to monitor preparations for the tournament and their impact on human rights, including discrimination against the poor.
Many of the upgrades to transport infrastructure and stadiums have been carried out to meet Fifa standards, a requirement that has annoyed many who believe it comes at the cost of other priorities such as health care and education.
“The problem is the 'Fifa standard’,” Favaro says. “It doesn’t give anything back to the country. The organisation of a country is down to the state, to the government. But they put public money into delivering a standard that Fifa requires. Our stadiums are excellent, but they have to have everyone seated, everything formal.”
Among the grievances are the evictions required to make way for infrastructure, often affecting some of the 11 million people who live in favelas, or informal shanty-type communities. Compensation of £13,000 from the government in Porto Alegre has left many out of pocket, with an equivalent property now costing between £17,500 and £20,000.
“It’s very clear that the human rights legacy was not a real concern,” says Raquel Rolnik, UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing and a professor at the University of Sao Paulo. And the perceived legacy of the World Cup could prove decisive when Brazilians go to the polls in October. President Dilma Rousseff is expected to seek a second term, with her approval rating currently at 55 per cent after dropping to 30 per cent during last summer’s protests.
She has dubbed this year’s event the “Cup of Cups” in the hope of using a successful showpiece as a springboard for election success. “Brazilians are ready to show that they know how to receive tourists and contribute to make this the Cup of Cups,” she said, in a message marking the 100 days milestone.
Meanwhile in Rio, “Imagina na Copa” – which translates as “imagine this during the World Cup” – has become the catchphrase of taxi drivers, directed at all manner of shortcomings, including road works and traffic jams. They will take some persuading that a football tournament can change a nation’s fortunes.

US to soon allow spouse of H-1B visa holder to work in America

US will soon come out with a series of policy initiatives and changes in the existing rules including allowing the spouses of H-1B visas to work in America.

WASHINGTON: Aimed at attracting the world's best and brightest, the US will soon come out with a series of policy initiatives and changes in the existing rules including allowing the spouses of H-1B visas to work in America.

In a statement, the White House said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon publish several proposed rules that will make the US more attractive to talented foreign entrepreneurs and other high-skill immigrants who will contribute substantially to the US economy, create jobs, and enhance American innovative competitiveness.

"These proposed regulations include rules authorizing employment for spouses of certain high-skill workers on H-1B visas, as well as enhancing opportunities for outstanding professors and researchers," it said in a statement.

"These measures build on continuing DHS efforts to streamline, eliminate inefficiency, and increase the transparency of the existing immigration system, such as by the launch of Entrepreneur Pathways, an online resource center that gives immigrant entrepreneurs an intuitive way to navigate opportunities to start and grow a business," it said.

From the statement, it appears that spouses of H-1B visas are unlikely to get a blanket approval to work in the US. Only certain category of spouses of H-1B visa holders - mainly from the science and tech category, are likely to get the nod.

The White House also said the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are launching a new collaboration to empower entrepreneurial scientists and address the critical gap between fundamental research and the development of a commercial entity.

The H-1B work visas for highly skilled professionals have been most beneficial from IT sector professionals from India.

As per the Congressional mandated cap, US Citizenship and Immigration Services can allocate a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visas for the fiscal year 2015 beginning October 1, 2014.

Academic researchers and entrepreneurs who receive Small Business Innovation Research funding from NIH will be eligible to pilot a new version of the NSF Innovation Corps programme that is specially tailored for biomedical technologies.

This intensive, mentor-driven experience is changing the way that NSF-funded researchers think about the commercialization process, the White House said.

NIH will also help scale up I-Corps by augmenting existing NIH-funded programs, such as the NIH Centers for Accelerated Innovation (NCAI), that focus on promising technologies developed by academic researchers.

"Faculty and students who participate in these new I-Corps programs will receive mentorship opportunities, entrepreneurial training, and modest funding to enable them to move their ideas from the lab to the market," it said.

The White House said fostering entrepreneurs and strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems are vital elements of USAID's newly launched US Global Development Lab (The Lab).

A new USAID Research and Innovation Fellowships Program will send more than 60 young US leaders in science and technology to universities, NGOs, and companies in 12 developing countries this year, it added.

Russia Warns Ukraine on Military Action in Eastern Region

Ukrainian authorities sent security forces to Kharkiv to clear the country’s second-biggest city of separatists as Russia traded accusations with the U.S. and warned that its neighbor’s crackdown risks sparking civil war.
An “anti-terrorist operation” was under way in Kharkiv, with the subway closed and the downtown area sealed off in Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page. Russia said 150 specialists from a U.S. private security company were working with Ukraine to put down protests, the Foreign Ministry said after the U.S. accused Russia of instigating unrest in the country’s eastern regions.
“We call for the immediate halt of all military preparations, which risk sparking a civil war,” the ministry in Moscow said in a website statement.
Russia and the U.S. are on a collision course as tensions flared in Ukraine over the weekend and diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis faltered. The U.S. threw its weight behind the contention of Ukrainian officials that some of the pro-Russian separatists who seized administration buildings in the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk were paid provocateurs brought in from outside, White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday in Washington.

Photographer: Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images

Russian Selloff

The Bloomberg index of the biggest Russian stocks traded in New York fell 3 percent yesterday, the most since March 20, the day U.S. President Barack Obama imposed financial sanctions on Russian officials. The measure’s slide halted three straight weeks of gains amid speculation Russia won’t seek further territory after annexing Crimea from Ukraine.
The pro-Russian protesters demanded a referendum on seceding from Ukraine, state-run Rossiya 24 television reported. The mayor of Kharkiv confirmed reports that several dozen other demonstrators seized the regional television transmission mast and demanded that more Russian channels be broadcast, according to Interfax.
The regional government building in Kharkiv was freed of separatists today, with 70 people detained, according to Avakov. The country’s national guard and irregular forces of Pravyi Sektor, an umbrella organization that unites nationalist groups, were gathering in southern and eastern Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Crimean Echoes

The demonstrations have paralleled the actions of pro-Russian protesters who seized Crimea’s assembly and paved the way for Russia to annex the Black Sea province last month. President Vladimir Putin, who’s massed troops on Ukraine’s border, says he has the right to defend Russian speakers from “fascists” after Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster.

Photographer: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. and European officials are increasingly concerned that yesterday’s disturbances, along with Russia’s economic and military pressure, signal the next phase of Putin’s effort to make Ukraine a loose federation allied with Russia.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday to arrange talks among officials from Ukraine, the U.S., the European Union and Russian within 10 days to head off any escalation. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said no time or agenda was set. The U.S. and Russia still differ on what role the interim Ukrainian government should play in any talks.
The U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions against Russian officials and associates of Putin in response to the annexation of Crimea. Obama has said the U.S. will target sectors of Russia’s economy, including energy and finance, if Russia moves deeper into Ukraine.

Slavery, Dictatorship

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in televised remarks from Kiev yesterday that Russia was trying to split his nation and turn part into “a territory of slavery under a Russian dictatorship.”
Russia also may be trying to undermine Ukraine’s planned May elections and encouraging ethnic Russians not to vote.
“If the Kremlin can achieve that, or reach an ‘understanding’ with the winner of those elections, it might be able to achieve its goals short of force,” former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said in The National Interest yesterday. “Only if these steps fail, does Mr. Putin look seriously at further Russian military aggression in Ukraine.”
Carney said there is “strong evidence” that demonstrators included paid outsiders. “That at least suggests that outside forces, not local forces, were participating in the effort to create these provocations,” he said.
Russia has as many as 40,000 soldiers stationed across the frontier, according to officials from the U.S. and NATO. Putin says the forces are conducting military exercises and will withdraw when they end.

Quebec Separatists Trounced as Secession Support Wanes

Photographer: Rogerio Barbosa/AFP/GettyImages

Quebec separatists are running out of time.
The ruling Parti Quebecois was trounced in yesterday’s election, garnering its lowest support in 44 years as voters in the French-speaking province grow increasingly tired of the party’s push to separate from the rest of Canada.
The defeat was so decisive that Premier Pauline Marois lost her seat in the Quebec City region, as the party won just 30 districts and received 25 percent of the popular vote, the least since its inaugural campaign in 1970.
This is the fourth time in the past five elections the separatists have failed to break beyond 35 percent of the popular vote in a steady erosion of support that reflects dwindling interest from older Quebeckers to pursue the cause and the party’s inability to resonate with younger voters.
“Right now what is happening is sovereigntists are dying,” said Claire Durand, a sociologist who has studied the evolution of support for sovereignty, and “there is no renewal for support for sovereignty among the new generation.”
The Liberal Party led by Philippe Couillard won the election with a clear majority of seats in the provincial legislature, taking about 70 of 125 districts with 41 percent of the popular vote, according to Elections Quebec. The vote comes less than two years after the Liberals were removed from power amid a corruption scandal.

Minority Government

The Parti Quebecois returned to power in 2012 elections with a minority in the legislature, ending nine years of rule by the federalist Liberal Party. Marois’s run as Quebec’s first female premier lasted just 18 months and she stepped down as leader.
Marois, 65, began the campaign March 5 with a promise to implement a “Charter of Values”, which would ban the wearing of religious dress and headgear by state employees such as doctors and teachers. Polls at the start of the campaign indicated the separatists were favored to win, and were within striking distance of a majority.
That advantage disappeared after she recruited as a candidate Pierre Karl Peladeau, the former head of Quebecor Inc., the province’s largest media company. Peladeau’s vow to fulfill a dream to make Quebec independent focused the campaign on sovereignty and sparked Marois’ decline.
Marois’s support has been falling ever since, showing that most Quebeckers aren’t ready for another referendum on separation, and are more concerned about the economy and health care.

Past Votes

Voters “decided they wouldn’t go ahead with the government that would promote sovereignty and the idea of another referendum,” Daniel Turp, a former lawmaker for the party who now teaches law at the Universite de Montreal, said in a telephone interview.
Quebec has held two plebiscites on splitting from Canada -- in 1980 and 1995 -- under previous Parti Quebecois majority governments. The separatists lost both votes, though only by a wafer-thin margin the second time.
In both votes, the separatists had the backing of a majority of young voters. In a report published March 19, Durand shows that in 1979 and 1995, more than 63 percent of French-speakers between the ages of 18 and 34 backed sovereignty. Support for the cause today is less than 40 percent among voters in that age group.
“The results clearly demonstrate that Quebecers have rejected the idea of a referendum and want a government that will be focused on the economy and job creation,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement.
Many older Quebeckers who were once sovereigntists are also giving up on the idea of splitting from Canada, Durand’s data show. There is no age cohort with more than 45 percent support for sovereignty.

Young Quebeckers

“People do not necessarily remain sovereigntist all their lives,” said Durand, of the Universite de Montreal.
For many young Quebeckers, the constitutional battles in Canada that helped drive support for independence are also things of the past. English Canada’s rejection in 1992 of constitutional reform in a nation-wide plebiscite that would have given Quebec more power was the trigger for the province’s referendum in 1995, which the separatists lost by a margin of 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent.
The constitutional crises are “ancient history for those of my generation,” said Alexandre Tremblay, a law student at the Universite de Montreal. “No meaningful conflict exists.”
The separatists won their highest share of the vote in 1981 elections, when they received 49 percent of ballots, and won more than 40 percent of the vote twice in the 1990s.

Scottish Support

Quebec has bucked the international trend on referendums. Of the 50 votes worldwide since World War II, 27 have been in favor of secession.
Scotland is next in line with a referendum on Sept. 18 on whether to stay in the U.K. While polls show more Scots want to retain the 307-year-old U.K. than leave it, they also consistently show enough voters remain undecided to sway the referendum. Panelbase found 41 percent in favor of Scottish independence, with 46 percent of respondents planning to vote against and 14 percent undecided, according to results on the pollster’s website.
To be sure, support for sovereignty is still at about 40 percent in Quebec and will continue to be a lasting part of the political debate in the province, said Harold Chorney of Concordia University. While support for the Parti Quebecois has trailed off over the past decade, part of that backing has moved to the left-leaning Quebec Solidaire, which also backs an indepedent Quebec.

Not Ending

“Calling for the end of sovereignty is always premature,” said Chorney.
The poor result for the Parti Quebecois also reflects campaign moves that undermined the party’s support from some of its leftist voters and heightened concern about a referendum, said Alain Gagnon, a political science professor at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
Peladeau’s entry into the campaign both fueled the debate over a referendum and alienated the party’s traditional union supporters. Peladeau oversaw several labor disputes in his time as head of Quebecor.
“With such a weak score, the PQ can count itself lucky that it managed to elect so many legislators,” Gagnon said. “The PQ strayed from its electoral base, from its hard core, and it paid the price.”

No New Possible Pings From Missing Malaysia Flight MH370

Search crews have heard nothing further from whatever was sending possible pings that might be linked to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, search leaders said Tuesday.

Fourteen ships and 14 aircraft were back out over the Indian Ocean, scouring a narrower area — this one about 30,000 square miles 1,400 miles northwest of the Australian port of Perth — for signs of the plane that disappeared March 8 with 239 people aboard.

The search area shrank after a pinger locator on an Australian ship detected signals consistent with transmissions from aircraft black boxes, officials had said Monday in what they called their most promising lead yet.

Missing Plane: Vast, Deep Water Complicates Search for Pings

Australian Defense Minister David Johnston agreed at a news conference Tuesday morning that "this is the most positive lead."

"Rest assured we are pursuing it most vigorously," he said.

But "this an herculean task," he said. "It's over a very, very wide area. The water is extremely deep."

"We have several days of intense action ahead of us," he said.

Retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who's in charge of the overall search, joined Johnston at the news conference and said: "There's still a lot of doubt out there, but I am a lot more optimistic than I was one week ago."

Indian election alarm as BJP raises prospect of nuclear weapons rethink

Bharatiya Janata party leader Narendra Modi, right, and party president Rajnath Singh at the launch of the manifesto for the Indian elections. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

The Hindu nationalist opposition party tipped to win India's election has sparked concern with a manifesto which, though largely devoted to economic development, setss out uncompromising hardline positions on contentious issues and raises the prospect of a revision of the country's policy on use of its nuclear weapons.

The election, a six-week process which is expected to see more than 600 million people vote, started on Monday with millions in the country's remote north-east going to the polls

Surveys predict a big win for the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) – whose prime ministerial candidate is the controversial Narendra Modi – though not an absolute majority in the 545-seat lower house of the national assembly.

The long-awaited BJP manifesto includes hundreds of policy initiatives including bullet trains, investment in job creation, water connections for every household, increased local defence production and funds to boost the practice of yoga.

But it was commitments to draft a "uniform civil code" – legislation that would withdraw the rights of India's 150 million Muslims to follow their religion-based law – and to "explore all possibilities" to build a Hindu temple at the bitterly contested site in the northern town of Ayodhya, which drew most attention internationally.

The BJP also says it would move to end the special autonomous status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan former princedom. The manifesto includes a controversial promise to work for the return of Hindus who left Kashmir when a separatist and then increasingly Islamist insurgency took hold in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

However, it is the prospect of a revision of India's nuclear doctrine, whose central principle is that New Delhi would not be first to use atomic weapons in a conflict, that has worried many in the region and beyond. Party sources involved in drafting the document told Reuters the "no first use" policy introduced would be reconsidered. The policy was introduced after India, then under a BJP government, conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998. Pakistan, India's neighbour responded within weeks with nuclear tests of its own.

"For a long time there has been an assumption that India would not use nuclear weapons first. Given the existing tensions with Pakistan and the fact that those tensions are likely to rise as US troops leave Afghanistan [at the end of this year], this could well cause stress in Pakistan's security establishment which is really not something anyone [in Washington] desires," said Michael Kugelman, of the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

In an interview last month, Rajnath Singh, the BJP president, told the Guardian the party wanted cordial relations with "all countries in the world".

Though Indian elections are unpredictable, most analysts and all polls indicate a significant BJP win. Economic growth faltered three years ago and the Congress party, in power since 2004, has been hit by a series of graft scandals.

Along with its many pledges to improve the living standards of all Indians, the manifesto unequivocally sets out a nationalist agenda. "In a democracy, everyone is not only free, but also encouraged to voice his or her concerns … However, all this should happen within the framework of our constitution and with the spirit of 'India First'. We have to keep the nation at the forefront of our thoughts and actions. Any activity, which disrupts the integrity of the nation, cannot be in the interest of any segment of the society or any region of the country," it says.

One passage refers to the "power" which lies in " the people of India, in the inner sanctum sanctorum of Mother India" and explains that "what is needed is to ignite the spark and Mother India would rise in her full glory."

However, the manifesto also says the "BJP recognises the importance of diversity in Indian society, and the strength and vibrancy it adds to the nation. India constitutes of all its' people, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or sex."

Singh, the party's president, said the manifesto's release was not simply a formality but a "pledge".

The document gives a glimpse into internal tensions within the BJP, which is an offshoot of a broader Hindu nationalist movement which has its roots in the struggle against British colonial rule, and the party's relationship with the vast RSS (National Volunteer Force), an organisation of activists working on a conservative and religious agenda with 40 million members.

Seema Chishti, a journalist with the Indian Express newspaper, said that the inclusion of Ayodhya, Kashmir and then uniform civil code indicated that "the BJP is not in a position to jettison its Hindu identity or issues".

"These are the things they put on the back burner the last time they were in power … but in this manifesto, they have been reintroduced in a significant way," Chishti said.

Though the 50-plus page document acknowledges the "charismatic leadership of Narendra Modi", the promotion of the three-term chief minister of Gujarat on the national stage has been controversial within the BJP.

Modi came from the ranks of the RSS but has distanced himself from the organisation and has caused anger among traditionalist adherents of a vision of India as economically self-sufficient with its emphasis on attracting foreign investment from global firms. Analysts have said that the 63-year-old has sidelined older members of the BJP.

Prof Sumantra Bose of the London School of Economics downplayed any split and said that issues such as Ayodhya, the status of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian civil code were at "the core of the beliefs of Hindu nationalist leaders of both the generations."

One question is the extent to which the nationalist views would define policy when in power.

"There's a religious right in the BJP so they want to acknowledge that without making it the centrepiece of the manifesto," said Ashok Malik, a political columnist. "I don't think the BJP is going to take it forward as a political movement."

One of the most polarising politicians in India for years, Modi is seen by critics as an extremist who, when chief minister in 2002, was accused of allowing or encouraging mobs to attack Muslims in towns across Gujarat after a lethal fire supposedly started by Muslims on a train full of Hindu pilgrims. Modi denied the allegations and investigators found no evidence of any direct involvement in violence.

He is also accused of an authoritarian style of government at odds with India's tradition of political compromise and consensus-building.

Supporters, including some of the most powerful industrialists in India, say Modi is an honest and decisive administrator who has introduced policies that have encouraged development in his state and could be reproduced elsewhere if he were prime minister. "There should be a strong government in Delhi so that the world doesn't threaten us. We need to hold our heads high and match the world," Modi said in Delhi."

'Hungry Huskies' ride Shabazz Napier, free throws to NCAA title

Connecticut fans cheer after the Huskies defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 60-54 in the NCAA Men's Final Four Championship on Monday, April 7, in Arlington, Texas.

HIDE CAPTION

NCAA title game: Best photos

The University of Connecticut players were hungry for another championship. Their impressive defense and their ability to hit clutch shots sated that appetite Monday night.

The Huskies downed the freshmen-laden Kentucky Wildcats 60-54 to win the NCAA men's basketball championship.

Shabazz Napier scored a game-high 22 points to lead the Huskies while Ryan Boatright added 14 points. James Young tallied 20 points for the Wildcats.

The difference came at the free-throw line where Connecticut was 10-for-10 and Kentucky was just 13-for-24.

"We always did it together. It was won as a group," UConn Coach Kevin Ollie said.

The Huskies never trailed in the game as Napier, the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, hit key baskets any time the Wildcats got close. Kentucky drew to within one point on three occasions, the final time with 8:13 remaining in the game. But Napier, a senior who was on the 2011 UConn national championship team, drilled a three-pointer.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at the hungry Huskies," Napier said. "We worked so hard for it."

Fans celebrating the victory uprooted a light post in front of the engineering building on the UConn campus and smashed it through a window, campus police said. They also overturned chairs and tables in the student union, they said.

Officers made 15 arrests, said college spokesman Tom Breen.

Disappointment for Wildcats

It was a disappointing end for the Wildcats, who began the season with a No. 1 ranking and fans dreaming of a highly regarded freshman class leading the team to a perfect record. They struggled through the regular season, but began to play extremely well in the NCAA tournament.

"We had our chances to win ... and we hung in there. These kids never gave up," Kentucky Coach John Calipari said. "We just didn't have enough."

The first half broke true to form for the typically slow-starting Wildcats and Kentucky trailed at intermission 35-31. That was good news considering they were down by 15 -- Kentucky's largest deficit of the tournament -- with just six minutes left in the half.

But the Wildcats switched to a zone defense and UConn went three minutes between Napier baskets. The zone also kept the Wildcats out of foul trouble -- they committed just three in the first 20 minutes. The Wildcats closed the half on a 16-5 run that included three Wildcats three-pointers.

Earlier, it was the tough defense of the Huskies that troubled the Wildcat guards. At one point the Wildcats, who hadn't turned the ball over for the last 18 minutes of their semifinal win against Wisconsin, had as many turnovers (four) baskets against the frenetic Huskies.

In the second half, the Huskies again opened up a nice margin -- nine points at 48-39. But the Wildcats clawed back as Young made a highlight-reel dunk and free throw to start a short-lived comeback. Kentucky missed three of four free throws down the stretch and couldn't hit any of its jump shots.

First for the coach

The Huskies won their fourth national title, all of them achieved since 1999. It was the first championship for Ollie, who replaced longtime coach Jim Calhoun two years ago. Ollie became the second coach to win an NCAA championship in his initial tournament appearance.

The two teams have combined to win seven titles in the past 19 seasons, but neither was even in the tournament a year ago. Kentucky had a group of freshmen that never meshed as a team and went to the National Invitation Tournament, and UConn was ineligible because it didn't meet NCAA graduation requirements.

UConn will have a chance to match its unique accomplishment of both the men's and women's teams winning titles in the same year. The Huskies play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Tuesday night's women's title game. UConn last performed the feat in 2004.