Romney looks to fall campaign, doubts linger

FITCHBURG, Wis. (AP) — Appearing ever-more confident inWisconsin's primary, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney focused entirely on Democratic President Barack Obamaduring a campaign trip through this upper Midwestern battleground and predicted a victory that could effectively seal the nomination for him Tuesday.

"We're looking like we're going to win this thing on Tuesday,"Romney told supporters, suggesting he could also claim wins in Maryland and the District of Columbia that day. "If I can get that boost also from Wisconsin I think we'll be on a path that'll get me the nomination well before the convention."

At the same time, fading rival Rick Santorum sought to stoke doubts about Romney's conservative credentials on the last weekend of campaigning before the critical showdown. It's Santorum's last chance to prove his strength in the industrial heartland, where he's said he can challenge Obama but where Romney has beaten him consistently.

Still, Romney nodded toward evangelical conservatives Saturday, acknowledging the doubts in the former Massachusetts governor that linger with these voters, and foreshadowing the balancing act that will face him in the months to come.

"President Obama believes in a government-centered society. He believes government guiding our lives will do a better job in doing so than individuals," Romney told more than 1,000 Wisconsin conservatives at a Faith and Freedom Coalition meeting in the heart of GOP-heavy Waukesha County. The county, just west of Milwaukee, is home to the state's largest evangelical mega-churches.

Romney, tagged by opponents as rich and detached, appealed to the spectrum of households he will need in the fall should he remain on the likely course to the GOP nomination. He mentioned a single mother he met Friday in Appleton, Wis., a landscaper from St. Louis and a Cambodian immigrant from Texas, all while blaming Obama for "the most tepid, weakest recovery we've seen since Hoover."

Romney Saturday veered slightly from the strict general election message he's offered since winning big in the Illinois primary.

"We were endowed by our creator with our rights. Not the king, not the state, but our creator," Romney told the packed hotel ballroom who would later hear Santorum. Romney promised to restore religious freedom he and other Republicans have accused Obama of undermining, and "to protect the sanctity of life," an issue that has haunted him since his conversion to opposing abortion rights as governor of Massachusetts.

Romney received a healthy if not thunderous ovation from the group. However, Santorum, who has counted on like-minded activists in winning across the Bible Belt, did not do much better in appearing before the group. He described Romney's enactment of sweeping health care legislation as governor as disqualifying him from challenging Obama.

"Don't listen to the pundits...They're telling you to give up on your principles in order to win," Santorum said. "Stand up for what you know is right for America. Stand up and vote your conscience."

With about half of the GOP nominating contests complete, Romney has won 54 percent of the delegates at stake, putting him on track to reach the threshold 1,144 national convention delegates in June.

Santorum has won 27 percent of the delegates at stake. The former Pennsylvania senator, who has described Romney as too moderate on key issues to effectively confront Obama, would need to win 74 percent of the remaining delegates. GOP rival Newt Gingrich would need 85 percent.

Santorum has maintained a heavy schedule of campaign events in Wisconsin, imploring Republicans in the state to keep his sputtering campaign alive.

"I ask you to shake this race up. I ask you to let people across this country know that Wisconsin stands ... for the principles they stand for," Santorum told a local Republican fundraising event in Milwaukee.

Maryland and the District of Columbia also hold primaries Tuesday. Santorum is not on the D.C. ballot but could pick up delegates in Wisconsin and Maryland, although Romney is favored in both states. A defeat for Santorum in Wisconsin would present him with a difficult choice: drop out or continue wounded into the next round of primaries, an April 24 five-state Eastern gauntlet that favors Romney and includes Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania.

Santorum planned to host his election watch party Tuesday in western Pennsylvania — an indication he may not feel good about his chances in Wisconsin.

Still, cultural conservatives have struggled to embrace Romney.

On average, in states where exit or entrance polls have been conducted, white evangelical conservatives have made up about half of the GOP primary electorate.

Romney did not win in any of the eight states where they were a majority of voters, and he carried evangelicals themselves in just five states: New Hampshire, Nevada, Massachusetts, Virginia and Vermont.

Outside of those states, Romney has won on average 28 percent of votes among evangelicals, compared with a 37 percent average support for Santorum.

Even in states Romney won after hard-fought campaigns, such as Michigan and Ohio, he has struggled to appeal to white evangelicals. He trailed Santorum among evangelicals by 16 percentage points in Michigan, 17 points in Ohio.

Several primary voters at the forum Saturday voiced reservations about Romney, but said they would likely support him if he's the nominee.

"If he turns out to be the candidate, you bet I'll be behind him," Mary Ruth Gobek of Waukesha said. "But there's that hesitation, that question mark."

Romney sought to answer questions by heralding the recent endorsements by an array of Republican establishment and conservative leaders. Among them were Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Utah Sen. Mike Bell, both tea party favorites. In Wisconsin, Romney was introduced by House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, a local GOP hero and a rising national star. Ryan endorsed Romney Friday.

"I think there comes a point where this primary can become counterproductive," Ryan told the audience. "I think we need to coalesce around the person we think is going to be the best president and who gives us the best chance of realizing this vision."

-----

Associated Press Writer Beth Fouhy in Milwaukee and AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.

Erdogan: meet Syrian people's needs "here and now"

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the "legitimate demands of the Syrian people must be met, right here, right now" as Western and Arab countries met in Istanbul on Sunday to try to agree on how to support armed rebels fighting to unseat President Bashar al-Assad.

Erdogan was addressing a meeting of mostly foreign ministers from around 70 countries including the United States and leading European Union and Gulf powers who call themselves the "Friends of Syria".

Assad's forces pounded a pro-opposition neighborhood of Homs city with artillery fire and mortars on Saturday, as his crackdown continued a day after the Syrian Foreign Ministry announced that the year-old revolt was over.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian forces killed a young man at dawn on Sunday as they carried out raids and arrests in the town of Damir in Damascus province. It said a soldier was also wounded in the province when a military checkpoint came under attack.

It also said defectors attacked an army convoy near the village of Janoudiya in Idlib province, close to the Turkish border, killing at least four soldiers and wounding 11.

In the same province, a woman was shot dead by a sniper in the town of Maarat al-Nuaman during army raids, it said.

Gulf Arab countries within the "Friends of Syria" group have pushed for more support to be given to the defector-based Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has taken up the baton of rebellion after months of violent repression of unarmed protesters.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Saturday it was a "duty" to arm the rebels.

But Western countries fear strident opposition from Russia and China as well as the prospect of being sucked in to a bloody and intractable conflict.

TRUST FUND

The conference was to discuss setting up a "trust fund" for the Syrian opposition.

A Western diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations said the crux was whether countries would commit to such a fund without first settling the specifics of how it would be used.

Western countries want any such funds to be used for humanitarian efforts, but doubt the need for this, given that U.N. agencies stand ready to provide relief.

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) wants to support the FSA's efforts to protect civilians, and pay recruits who defect from Assad's forces. Diplomats say Gulf states are ready to funnel money through the SNC for this purpose.

The Turkish hosts are arguing the case for giving the SNC a bigger role, though some Western countries remain doubtful of the opposition umbrella group, which is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The final declaration is unlikely to recognize the SNC as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, but the conference is expected to seek a clear endorsement from the ANC of Kofi Annan's peace plan, and demand that Assad order a ceasefire and open daily windows for humanitarian aid.

Assad has said he accepts the plan proposed by Annan, the United Nations-Arab League special envoy, which involves Syrian forces making the first move to pull back from towns and cities but does not call on Assad to step down.

But while the FSA said on Saturday it would cease fire if Assad pulled back heavy weaponry from population centers, Syria said it had to keep security forces there to maintain security.

"NEXT STEPS"

Many governments suspect Assad of just buying time. Both Washington and Gulf Arab states urged Annan on Saturday to set a timeline for "next steps" if there was no ceasefire.

"There will be a message of support for Annan's mission," said one senior Western diplomat attending the meeting, "but also a message to Assad: 'Don't play with us, we know you've reneged on previous agreements'."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu before the meeting started.

Most of Turkey's Muslims are Sunni, like the majority in Syria at the forefront of the revolt. Assad and most of Syria's ruling establishment belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

More than 9,000 people have been killed by Assad's forces during the revolt, according to the United Nations, while Damascus says it has lost about 3,000 security force members.

If Assad fails to keep his word, Annan will have to decide whether to tell the United Nations he has failed to make peace through a "Syrian-led process", diplomats said.

Annan will brief the Security Council on Monday on whether he sees any progress in implementing his six-point plan.

The next steps could include a return to the Security Council for a binding resolution, with increased pressure on Assad's allies Russia and China, which have endorsed Annan's mission, to get tough with Damascus.

Syrian state television broadcast some of the opening session of what it called "The meeting of the enemies of the Syrian people" in Istanbul.

It said Erdogan "speaks about the interests of the Syrian people but ignores (Turkey's) harboring of terrorists".

When Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani addressed the meeting, it said in a strapline: "Hamad speaks about a political solution in Syria, yet he is the one who, along with al-Faisal, declares support for terrorists with arms and money to kill Syrian people."

(Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Insight: Lifting the veil on Afghanistan's female addicts

KABUL (Reuters) - Anita lifted the sky-blue burqa from her face, revealing glazed eyes and cracked lips from years of smoking opium, and touched her saggy belly, still round from giving birth to her seventh child a month ago.

"I can't give breast milk to my baby," said the 32-year-old Anita, who like other women interviewed for this story, declined to give her full name. "I'm scared he'll get addicted

She was huddled with other women at the U.N.-funded Nejat drug rehabilitation center in the old quarter of Kabul, having sneaked out of her home to avoid being stopped by her husband from going outside alone.

With little funding and no access to substitution drugs such as methadone, treatment is rudimentary at Nejat for a problem that is growing in a dirt-poor country riven by conflicts for more than three decades.

Afghanistan is the source for more than 90 percent of the world's opium, which is used to make heroin, and more of it is being grown than ever before.

While it is not uncommon to see men shooting up along the banks of the dried of up Kabul riverbed in broad daylight, women in the ultra-conservative culture of Muslim Afghanistan are expected to stay out of public view for the most part. They often have to seek permission from a male relative or husband to leave their home, and when they do they are encased in the head-to-toe burqa.

"I am not allowed to leave home for medical checks. What can I do? I am a woman," Anita said matter of factly.

Like many of Afghanistan's female drug users, Anita picked up the habit from her husband.

Like other women interviewed for this story, Anita asked that only her first name be used. Shrouded in stigma, female drug users is a topic that is almost never mentioned in Afghanistan.

They agreed to tell their stories to a reporter only through an intermediary they trusted.

CONSUMPTION ON RISE

Opium poppy cultivation in a country that has been growing the plant for a thousand years increased 7 percent in 2011 from the year before, due to a spike in prices and worsening security, according to a survey sponsored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

In 2011, the farm-gate value of opium production more than doubled from 2010 to $1.4 billion and now accounts for 15 percent of the Afghan economy, the UNODC says.

Opiate consumption in Afghanistan, where it has long been a medication but in recent years has been used increasingly for recreation, is also on a sharp rise. The UNODC says Afghanistan has around one million heroin and opium addicts out of a population of 30 million, making it the world's top user per capita.

No estimates are available on how many women are addicted to opium or heroin. Nejat estimates around 60,000 women in Afghanistan regularly take illegal drugs, including hashish and marijuana.

"There has been a definite increase amongst women drug users over the last decade," said Arman Raoufi, director of harm reduction for women at Nejat.

Smoking opium costs around 200 Afghanis a day ($4), a very expensive habit in a country where a third live beneath the poverty line. Women send their children to collect scrap and bottles to help pay for their habit, or resort to begging, extending a hand to cars from beneath their burqa on busy streets when their husbands have left home.

"My husband took on a second wife and began to ignore me, so I started to smoke his powder (opium) and now must beg," said Fauzia, 30, a petite mother of five sitting in the corner of Nejat, her embroidered floral slippers poking out from under her baggy trousers. She said she was terrified that her husband and male relatives might discover she was seeking treatment on her own at the center.

Treatment options are sorely limited. A pilot project launched two years ago by Medecins du Monde, which gives methadone to drug addicts, is the only one in the country.

The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) wants to roll it out across the country, but the Ministry of Counter-narcotics has objected, saying it would introduce yet another narcotic onto the black market.

IRANIAN CONNECTION

With her five-year-old son tugging on her unwashed burqa, 30-year-old Najia said she has smoked opium for nine years.

"It is so hard for me. I have kids. I'm poor. I'm not able to work -- my husband won't allow me," said the raven-haired mother of four.

Najia said she picked up the habit from her husband after he returned from his job as a laborer in neighboring Iran.

Raoufi at the Nejat center says the return of migrant workers and refugees, who fled to Iran and Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, and the bloody civil war and Taliban rule that followed, is the main reason behind the rise in female drug addicts.

Increased street prostitution since the fall of the Taliban, which policed the trade more rigorously than the government does today, has also contributed, he said.

Iran has the second highest heroin abuse rate in the world after Afghanistan, according to UNODC. Afghan addicts among the 1 million refugees in Iran have become such an issue Tehran has started to expel them.

"Our relatively open borders are not doing us any favors," said Feda Mohammad Paikan, who heads the NACP working under the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. "Most addicts get hooked in Iran, and many of these men have wives."

PRISONERS OF HABIT

Afghanistan's female narcotics problem is now filling the country's largest women's prison, Badam Bagh or "Almond Orchard", on the outskirts of Kabul.

Of its 164 inmates, 64 are opium and heroin users, double what it was when the clinic started in 2008, said clinic doctor, Hanifa Amiri.

"There are simply more drugs out there available to women now," she said, waving a medical-gloved hand over a prison courtyard, where burqa-clad female relatives were bringing gifts of pomegranates and flat naan bread for the inmates.

With cropped black hair, a leather jacket and a henna tattoo of a scorpion on her hand, inmate Madina looks nothing like an ordinary Afghan woman.

One of seven injecting heroin users in Badam Bagh, she lives with her teenage son and daughter in prison, where she has been for seven years since she killed her husband.

She said she murdered him after he forbade her from prostituting herself to support her habit, said Madina, the only inmate at the prison who agreed to speak to Reuters.

"I would love to give it all up, but how am I meant to, as a woman?" the 37-year-old mother of two said as she scratched at the scabs on her arm, dark red from recent use.

She supports her habit by selling handmade sexual aid tools -- stuffing compacted wool into condoms -- to other inmates, several of whom have developed lesbian relationships.

HIV and AIDS is becoming a more serious issue, largely spurred by injecting drug use, and could reach the general population if not tackled properly.

A new strategy being rolled out by the health ministry to target more women in counseling and HIV testing is being met by opposition from the strong conservative forces in Afghan society.

"HIV and drug use are viewed as evil in Muslim society, and even more so for women," said specialist Mohammad Hahn Heddait, who works at the infectious diseases hospital under the ministry of health.

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Michael Georgy and Bill Tarrant)