Syrian Deadline Passes, Violence Continues

The U.N. and Arab League envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, said Tuesday the next 48 hours must "bring visible signs of immediate and indisputable change in the military posture of the government forces" in Syria.

Photo: AP

In this image from an amateur video and released by the Syrian Media Council, smoke rises following purported shelling in Homs, Syria, April 10, 2012.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Mr. Annan disputed Damascus' assertion that it is withdrawing its military from several cities, saying the Syrian army is pulling back from some areas but moving to others not previously targeted.

Watch a related report by Henry Ridgwell

The letter also urged the opposition to keep its commitment to stop fighting under the six-point peace plan, which demands an end to all hostilities by 6 a.m., Damascus time, on Thursday.

But despite continued violence, Mr. Annan said the peace plan is "still on the table."

He said: "So let me again appeal to the Syrian government and the Syrian parties to cease violence in accordance with the plan.  And I believe there should be no preconditions for stopping violence.  There is something we need to do for the people and for the country concerned."

Kofi Annan's Six-Point Peace Plan:

• A Syrian-led political process to address the aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people.
• A U.N. supervised end to armed violence by all parties in Syria.
• Timely humanitarian assistance in all areas affected by fighting.
• Increasing the pace and scale of release of arbitrarily detained people.
• Ensuring freedom of movement for journalists.
• Respecting freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully.

Members of the Security Council, meanwhile, expressed deep concern about the level of commitment to a cease-fire the Syrian government has demonstrated so far.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, who holds the council presidency this month, said that if Syria fails to fulfill its obligations, then the international community and the Security Council will have to decide whether to remain unified and take the next step.  She said that would be to increase pressure on the Assad regime through collective action.

On the ground, however, violence continued.  Syrian rights groups said at least 31 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the government shelling Tuesday - mainly in the central Hama region and the northwestern town of Mareh.

"Annan's peace plan all but dead"

Middle East expert Salman Shaikh says Mr. Annan's peace plan has virtually collapsed.

"His six-point plan is dead on arrival. It is not working," he said. "What is not dead is diplomacy. But, I think we need to now look very seriously at what other parts diplomacy can take. In my view, it has to be a much more coercive effort which tries to pull the international community to do something in Syria."

Shaikh, the director of the Brookings Doha Center, says the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, sees force as his only option.

"I'm afraid what Assad has determined is that only a security approach will manage to keep the lid on the protests which have now spread through the length and breadth of his country," he said.  "In fact, if he was to withdraw his forces in any credible fashion, he would be facing hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of Syria, something he cannot afford any longer."

Give peace a chance

Representatives of Syria's main opposition alliance, the Syrian National Council, said Tuesday at least 1,000 people have been killed by government forces in the last eight days.

SNC spokeswoman Basma Kodmani said there were no indications that President Assad was honoring terms of the cease-fire, and stressed the opposition group could not accept a partial withdrawal of government forces.

Kodmani added that despite the killings, the opposition alliance is still willing to give peace a chance, but that it will explore other options if diplomatic efforts to end the crisis fail.

Deep skepticism among Syrian refugees

Mr. Annan's efforts to end the ongoing bloodshed in Syria have been met with deep skepticism by Syrian refugees, many of whom are calling for direct intervention by the international community against the government's crackdown.

Mr. Annan visited the Yayladagi refugee camp in Turkey Tuesday.

"I have had the chance to meet men and women who have been uprooted from their homes and are now here," he said. "I hope it is not going to be for long.  But to hear their stories, to hear how they came across, how they were shot at, some with their children, was heart-wrenching."

Mr. Annan praised Turkish authorities for the facilities they have provided, saying the camps were better than most he has visited.

But observers say Mr. Annan is aware the Turkish government is increasingly concerned about the deteriorating situation in Syria and the fear the country could be faced with a humanitarian disaster.

Ankara has warned it could intervene in Syria if the numbers of refugees markedly increased.  Due to the situation, Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan cut short a visit to China and is to visit Saudi Arabia on Friday to discuss the issue.

Also Tuesday, U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman and John McCain visited the camp and issued a statement accusing the Syrian president of having no interest in complying with the Annan plan.  The senators said Mr. Assad is buying time to intensify his crackdown.

"Make no mistake: the situation in Syria is an armed conflict. This is a war," the statement said.

Dorian Jones in Istanbul and Lisa Schlein in Geneva contributed to this report.

Join the conversation on our social journalism site - Middle East Voices . Follow our Middle East reports on Twitter and discuss them on our Facebook page.

Theo www.voanews.com

Physicist Hunts Lost da Vinci Mural

Argonne National Laboratory Senior Physicist Robert Smither has irons in many different fires.

"I get into astrophysics, I get into biology, I've actually worked with America's Cup team to make their boat go faster," he says.

He's also an expert in "crystal diffraction," a precision x-ray process which filters neutron radiation through a lens to help create an image, just like a camera. The technique has given the human eye a new perspective on distant star systems, radioactivity hotpots around the world and cancerous tumors in the human body.

But now Smither has joined a research team that is trying to shed light on one of the art world's oldest mysteries.

In 1505, Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci reportedly produced a large painting, known as the "Battle of Anghiari," on a wall in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. But to the naked eye, no such artwork can be seen there. The location of the mural, which depicts four horsemen in battle, has perplexed art lovers for more than five-hundred years.

Those still searching for the lost masterpiece looked to Smithers: Could his 21st-century technology help solve the puzzle?

"'Can you look through a brick wall?'[they asked], and I said 'yes.'"

Researchers believe a late-16th century brick wall constructed by the artist Vasari, who painted the frescoes now visible in halls of Palazzo Vecchio, stands in front of the lost mural.

To find out, an international research team first used traditional methods.

"They made a hole in the fresco, and they thought they saw some paint, and then they made a bigger hole," says Smither. "The Italian government has been very hesitant to let people start putting more holes in different places, so that's why we've been asked to try to do this without touching the wall."

According to Terry Garcia, executive vice president of Mission Programs for the National Geographic Society, which supports conservation efforts, the holes produced evidence of organic materials consistent with paint used by da Vinci, leading researchers to believe the lost mural is there.

"All of the work, all of the holes that were put into the mural, were either in areas that had been previously restored or fissures, so the original Vasari was not touched," says Garcia.

And now one big question is pressing: Even if Smither can safely determine the mural is there, would da Vinci's "Battle of Anghiari" ever see light of day without damaging the Vasari fresco standing in front of it?

Smither says it will take time and money to do it properly.

"This is a long time ago -- 1505, 1565 when it was covered up -- [so] we don't know what shape it's in," he says.

Either way, he hopes his crystal diffraction method will be able to peek behind the masterpiece and penetrate a mystery that has confounded art historians for centuries.

Theo www.voanews.com

MSF Alarmed Over Plans to Cut US AIDS Program

Medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders is concerned that proposed budget cuts to a U.S. program for HIV treatment around the world threatens the progress being made against the pandemic in Africa.

Photo: AP

Blood is tested at the AIDS Care Training and Support Initiative (ACTS) at White River Junction, South Africa. The center is partly funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), December 2008 photo

On World AIDS Day in December, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that the United States would aim to treat six million people infected with HIV around the world by the end of 2013 - two million more than the previous target.

The organization responsible for the outreach will be the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known by its acronym PEPFAR.

But while Mr. Obama has pledged to expand PEPFAR to include more people, his budget proposal for the fiscal year 2013 cuts more than a half-billion dollars from the program, about 13 percent of its current funding.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, has raised the alarm over the proposed cut, saying it will undermine the president's own goals.

Jennifer Cohn, the East Africa policy advisor for the MSF Access Campaign, said she is concerned that countries that receive PEPFAR support may begin scaling back their own treatment programs in anticipation of the cuts.

"In terms of the budget shortfall, I think many problematic things might occur as a result of that, including decreases in treatment, decreases in other sorts of support, and then, sort of a chilling effect on country guidelines themselves," said Cohn.

Budget figures outlined by MSF show some major reductions in Africa, including a nearly 50 percent cut in funding for Kenya and 82 percent for Ethiopia.

In a post on the official State Department blog in February, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Eric Goosby wrote that the administration is "freeing up resources by reducing programs in countries with a lower HIV prevalence," specifically mentioning Ethiopia.  He also said the program in Kenya had "matured" and that it was adjusting the country's funding to reflect a new focus on local implementation.

Proposed cuts not final

PEPFAR senior advisor Tom Walsh said all the budget figures being discussed are preliminary and that some of the country figures are certain to change.

Still, he emphasized that PEPFAR has made dramatic gains in efficiency, and that the budget requested for 2013 is the amount needed.

"Over the years, we've gotten the cost of treating an individual person per year with antiretroviral therapy down from about $1,100 in 2004 to $335 in 2011," said Walsh.. "That kind of dramatic gain in efficiency, in reaching more people with the resources available, is what Congress likes to see and we think we're going to make continued progress on that front."

The president's budget proposal needs the approval of the U.S. Congress. Walsh said PEPFAR has always received strong bipartisan support.

MSF is not only concerned about the budget numbers, but also with some of the program's accounting methods.

Cohn said the way PEPFAR counts the number of people receiving treatment can be misleading.

"What we're finding is actually that whereas PEPFAR is not necessarily directly supporting people on treatment in certain countries, they're actually counting those people toward the 6 million people they promise to put on treatment by 2013, so we find that concerning and somewhat disingenuous," said Cohn.

Cohn's concerns are highlighted in a U.S. report from earlier this year on PEPFAR's programming in Malawi.

In the document, PEPFAR outlines the support it provides in the country, such as funding staff for visits to treatment sites, training service partners and developing an electronic data system. Nowhere does it say the U.S. provides antiretroviral medication (ARVs) for patients.

But, in the "Recommendations" section of the document, the authors suggest that all HIV-infected adults receiving treatment in Malawi's national program should be reported as "directly supported" by the U.S. government.

Tom Walsh for PEPFAR could not confirm that this accounting practice is common, and said the methods vary based on the arrangements in each individual country.

He said the U.S. supports a variety of services, and treating HIV is about more than just providing drugs.

"ARVs are an important part of treatment, but also important is the infrastructure to deliver the drugs, support for the clinics, training for the health providers who do the work," said Walsh. "In every country there's a different combination of resources that it takes to deliver treatment."

Partnering against HIV/AIDS

The United States is increasing its reliance on partners in treatment programs, one of the biggest being the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Walsh points out that responsibilities for HIV programs around the world are divided up between partner organizations.  So, PEPFAR may pay for training and infrastructure, while the Global Fund or the host government buys the medication.

Despite scaling back PEPFAR, President Obama's 2013 budget request includes an increase of $350 million for the Global Fund.

But that increase does not make up for PEPFAR's cuts.  If the budget is approved as is, the net decrease for AIDS funding would be about $213 million.

Theo www.voanews.com

Track and Field Masters

Paul and Brenda Babits, 51

Published: April 2, 2012

• Sign In to E-Mail
• Print
• Reprints

Enlarge This Image

Aaron P. Bernstein for The New York Times

Paul Babits pole vaulting.

Related

• After Late Start, Runner Is Speeding Through Records (April 2, 2012)

Most pole-vaulters do not stick with the sport after their youthful heyday. The spirit may be willing, but the humility is weak. "They don't want to jump at heights three or four feet less than they used to," Paul Babits said. He is different. An athlete who twice qualified for the United States Olympic trials, he not only has kept up with the sport, he has also turned it into a business, coaching vaulters at a custom-built facility in Fort Wayne, Ind. Among his students was his previously nonathletic wife, Brenda, a graphic artist. "She couldn't even run around the block," Paul said. Brenda, pole-vaulting now for five years, has a best of 8 ½ feet. "The feeling you get flying over the bar, nothing is better than that," she said.

Theo www.nytimes.com