4.0311VOANEWS.doc

4.03 2011 VOA NEWSBasketball Fans Flock to Houston for the College Final FourGreg Flakus | Houston | April 02, 2011The National Collegiate Athletic Association, better known as the NCAA, is holding its final four games for this years mens basketball season in Houston, Texas. More than 70,000 fans are expected for the games, the first two of which are held on Saturday, with the winners from those games going on to the final match Monday. There is a lot of excitement in and around Reliant stadium, where the games take place.Part of the thrill for basketball fans at this years Final Four is that some lower-ranked teams managed to win some crucial games and get into the final competition.One of them was 11th ranked Virginia Commonwealth University, or VCU.Fans from VCUs home city of Richmond, Virginia stalk the players for autographs and even the coach, Shaka Smart, has become a celebrity.Patti made the long trip from Richmond to support the team. You know the town has just gone in total mayhem (excited and happy). They just love the boys and we are here to support them and show them that we are rooting for them, she said.Of course, many of the people attending the events here are from Houston and nearby areas, but they have their favorites as well.Sasha Richards coaches basketball in Tyler, Texas. I like Kentucky. I like coach John Calipari. I think he is a great coach. I like what he has done with his young basketball team, so I am interested in seeing them practice, he said.Another lower-ranked team, Butler University of Indianapolis, Indiana, called the Bulldogs, brought its mascot to cheer the players on.Mascot caretaker Tiffany came from Indianapolis with her baby, Everett. Everybody is pretty excited. I think the whole city has rallied around and they are excited and ready for the game, she said.Why people support one team or another is sometimes hard to figure. Natalie is from Indiana, but she is not here for Butler. I have been a UConn fan for a long time. I mean, I like Butler, but I like Uconn a little bit more, she said.UConn is short for University of Connecticut, at three, it has the highest ranking of any of the teams in the Final Four, in large part because of star player Kemba Walker.But the really big guy on the team is 213-centimeter tall Charles Okwandu, who was born and raised in Nigeria.The 24-year-old senior says this is like a dream. Every basketball player hopes and dreams to go to the Final Four and win the championship and I am from Nigeria and I am here right now. It is like a dream come true. I feel great and I am really happy to be here, he said.Okwandu has been playing for Uconn since his sophomore year and has become a model for aspiring players back in Africa.Assistant Coach Kevin Ollie says Charles Okwandu could help build sports programs for youth in his country. Basketball has done wonders for my life and I know it has for Charles life as well and, hopefully, he can be an ambassador when he goes back home and shows the fruit of the labor of playing basketball and teaching basketball to the students or young people back in Nigeria, he said. The Final Four games also provide events for young people here to practice their skills throwing a ball through a hoop.And when they tire of that, there are plenty of other events including free concerts, parties and dance performances.There is a lot of excitement and a lot of entertainment available here in Houston for fans of the Final Four, but, in the end, it all comes down to the games and which team will emerge as this years champion.Gbagbo Army Calls for Reinforcements in Battle for AbidjanScott Stearns | Dakar | April 02, 2011Soldiers backing Ivory Coasts incumbent president are calling for reinforcements in their battle against fighters supporting the countrys internationally-recognized president. In the third day of combat for control of the commercial capital, Abidjan, Human Rights Watch is calling on both sides to respect the rights of civilians.Supporters of incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo used state-run television to call for reinforcements in their battle against forces backing Ivory Coasts internationally-recognized president Alassane Ouattara.Gbagbo militant Damane Picasse says they are fighting against foreign powers, the United Nations, mercenaries, and the West African regional alliance. He is calling on everyone in the Abidjan neighborhoods of Cocody and Yopougon - men, women, and children - to defend the Gbagbo presidency.Gbagbo supporters regained control of state-run television after if was briefly forced off the air and used it to call on all members of the armed forces to join what they say are five units still fighting in Abidjan.Many of those troops have already defected to Ouattaras side. Gbagbos army chief of staff took his wife and children to seek refuge in the home of the South African ambassador.While pro-Ouattara fighters met little resistance in taking the political capital Yamoussoukro and the port of San Pedro, Gbagbo clearly has far-more-determined defenders in Abidjan. As the fight breaks down into neighborhood-by-neighborhood combat, Human Rights Watch is calling on both sides to protect the rights of civilians.Corinne Dufka heads the Human Rights Watch West Africa office. The potential for reprisals is quite high, so we are asking that Mr. Ouattaras coalition of forces respect international humanitarian law, ensure that any prisoners that are taken are not summarily executed that they are put in a proper detention facility, and that there are no reprisal killing against civilians who they believe or who did support Laurent Gbagbo, she said.Dufka says ensuring overall discipline may be complicated by the amalgam of fighters coalescing behind Mr. Ouattara.The military forces fighting with Alassane Ouattara are made up of a loose coalition that includes Force Nouvelle rebels who were formerly based in the north, she said. They include police, gendarmes, and soldiers who have recently defected from Gbagbos side over to Ouattaras side. And they include as well neighborhood-based civil defense forces which have sprung up over the last couple months. So we are asking that he take proactive measures to ensure that those forces are disciplined, to make sure they have the proper directives to respect international humanitarian law and human rights. Dufka says pro-Gbagbo forces must also respect those rights. Yesterday we documented a number of cases in two neighborhoods in which Gbagbos military were firing out at the civilian population, she said. That is in Treichville and near the airport in the Port-Bouet neighborhood. In Treichville, that is the base of the Republican Guard, they were firing into the population probably to prevent an advance by Ouattaras forces. The same thing in Port-Bouet. That kind of reckless fire and firing out into the population must be avoided. If there is to be fighting, it needs to be between armed men from one side and armed men from the other side, she added.The United Nations mission in Ivory Coast says more than 400 people were killed in fighting in western provinces last week, most of them by forces backing Ouattara. The International Committee of the Red Cross says at least 800 people were killed last Tuesday alone.Libyan Rebels Claim to Retake Key Oil Port TownEdward Yeranian | Cairo | April 02, 2011Libyan rebels are claiming to have captured the strategic oil port town of Brega Saturday as fighting continues against forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Popular protests are also continuing across the region, especially in Yemen and Syria.News that the key oil port town of Brega had fallen to rebel fighters Saturday appeared to reverse the recent trend by pro-Gadhafi forces, which had pushed slowly eastward toward the rebel-held town of Ajdabiya.NATO warplanes bombed targets in and around Brega overnight, accidentally striking a pickup truck manned by rebel fighters. A Libyan doctor told al Jazeera TV that NATO planes also blew up a Gadhafi arms cache hidden among houses, causing civilian casualties.A rebel spokesman Mustafa Ghariani indicated that the rebels considered the strikes accidental, and considered that the air campaign would ultimately shorten the war on the ground.Libyan state TV claimed that civilians were hit by another NATO airstrike over the Gadhafi stronghold of Sabha, which houses an important government airbase. The TV showed doctors treating civilians it says were wounded in the airstrike. The claims were impossible to verify.Pro-Gadhafi supporters also chanted slogans in favor of their embattled leader, denouncing NATO intervention. A pro-Gadhafi announcer on government TV insisted that Libyan media was one million percent objective. while complaining that outside channels were biased.Eyewitnesses in the besieged western Libyan city of Misrata told Arab satellite channels that pro-Gadhafi forces continued to fire tank shells, mortar rounds and field artillery into the city. On Friday, an opposition leader in Benghazi, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, demanded that Gadhafi withdraw his forces from Misrata and other government-controlled cities before the opposition would accept a ceasefire.Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, however, denied that the rebels had agreed to a ceasefire, insisting that it was a ploy. You are not offering peace if you are making impossible demands. Its a trick. We are the ones who offered peace, weeks ago, when we said were going to talk and lets sit down and everything, he said.YemenElsewhere, ongoing protests continued in the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other cities across the country Saturday. In the southern port city of Aden, army forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired into the air as thousands of protesters hurled stones at them and blocked a key roadway by setting tires on fire.SyriaIn Syria, where unrest shook at least five cities Friday, human rights activists warned that dozens of protesters had been arrested by state security forces. Syrian government TV denounced Fridays violence, complaining it was the work of armed gangs.Papua New Guinea Makes Gains in AIDS Battle but Faces ChallengesRon Corben | Bangkok | April 02, 2011Papua New Guinea, with one of the worlds highest rates of new HIV infections, has made gains in reducing the spread of AIDS. However, AIDS advocates and counselors, meeting at a UNAIDS conference in Bangkok, say changing male behaviors and ensuring more HIV positive pregnant women have access to antiretroviral drugs remain challenges.Papua New Guinea, facing a general AIDS epidemic, has slowed the virus spread as education programs and a marked increase in health facilities conducting HIV tests among pregnant women have had an impact.The stepped up surveillance has allowed for a downward revision in new AIDS cases to around one per cent of the population, or about 35,000, with most cases in urban areas of this country which occupies the eastern half of the Pacific island of New Guinea.In 2009 the AIDS death toll stood at 1,300. A combination of drug and alcohol abuse as well as multiple sex partners and gender-based violence has contributed to the diseases spread.UNAIDS, a joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS, says the evidence points to a leveling off in new cases in Papua New Guinea, marking substantial progress over recent years.But Murray Proctor, HIV/AIDS ambassador from the Australian Agency for International Development, says the challenge for Papua New Guinea is ensuring prevention programs are sustained.The challenge is still though to get the prevention message across to high risk groups and differently in different places. In Papua New Guinea you have 1.0 per cent prevalence and its mainly heterosexual, said Proctor. In other parts of East Asia its injecting drug users and increasingly men who have sex with men.But concerns remain. Rising numbers of babies are being born HIV positive. Linda John, an AIDS advocate diagnosed with HIV in 2004, says too many pregnant women refuse to take prenatal HIV tests. A woman found to be HIV positive can access antiretroviral medications and prevent mother to child transmission.Mothers are given choices to do the HIV test or not, she said. Some mothers refuse to do the test. But its important to consider the child that is in the mothers womb because the child also has the right. What if the mother is infecte