Former U.N. Sec-Gen Annan Meets With Syrian President Al-Assad; Kansas Voters Cast Their Ballots; High School Valedictorian Wins Right to Remain in U.S.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Most of the morning there has been new violence in Syria and it has overshadowed high-stakes diplomatic efforts to stop the country's bloodshed. Bashar Al-Assad sat down with former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Damascus today, and Nic Robertson is monitoring the developments from neighboring Beirut, Lebanon. Syrian state-run television calling today's talks positive. But was there any real progress?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly no indication of progress in those talks. And the progress on the ground was the Syrian military continuing to shell citizens in the northern town and Homs and arresting citizens in other parts of the country. Activists say about 30 tanks have been seen advancing on the town. One activist said that the city there has been circled, it is under siege. People are too afraid to go out of their homes. The government has been shooting and shelling it throughout the day, 19 people killed in that town alone in the north of the country, 16 of them killed in an ambush, according to activists. We don't have a way to independently confirm that. So while the government on the one hand says the talks in Damascus with Kofi Annan and president Bashar al-Assad are positive, the reality on the ground is something different. And Bashar al-Assad, according to Syrian state media, is saying that he will do everything to make sure there's a positive solution to the situation inside Syria. But it seems his troops on the ground are not getting the same message that he's giving the U.N. diplomat there.</s>WHITFIELD: So underscoring that real contradiction, Nic, some are alleging that the assaults being leveled by the government is actually intensifying while these talks were taking place.</s>ROBERTSON: This is what the activists fear. They think that while the international community tries to engage President Assad in some kind of talks -- and what Kofi Annan has gone there to do today is to call for a cease-fire and get political talks going. And the activists fear Bashar al-Assad will just use this as a smokescreen to continue his military advance on the ground, that what he is looking for here is time to sort of continue the maximum sort of most deadly part of his campaign so he can sort of wrap that up and sort of push down the opposition, if you will, around the country, so that, from now on, in the future, the death toll will be much lower and people will say, oh, the situation is getting better, whereas he's really using this time to sort of go after the opposition in the most aggressive way possible.</s>WHITFIELD: Nic Robertson, thanks so much, from Damascus. Well, there is more on Syria. CNN's Arwa Damon and her team were inside the besieged Syria city of Homs. It is one of the most dangerous places in Syria right now. Join us tomorrow night as Arwa gives us an eye-opening account, a CNN special "72 Hours Under Fire," that's tomorrow night, 8:00 pm Eastern time. All right. Now to Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials say Israeli rockets killed at least 15 Palestinians. Twenty-two people were injured in the series of attacks. Israeli forces say they are targeting people who are part of a terror infrastructure. They say they are responding to several Palestinian rocket strikes in southern Israeli communities. One of the men killed has been identified as a Hamas military leader. In Moscow now, thousands of people turn out to protest against the man who will be their new president again. Vladimir Putin won his third term as president last weekend, but the opposition says the vote was rigged. Military police and security officials are keeping close watch on the demonstrations. Putin will be inaugurated come May. Here in the U.S., the last group of prisoners pardoned by former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour are set to be released today. The state supreme court upheld the controversial pardons of more than 200 convicts, including four murderers. The justices said the decision to pardon the prisoners rested with Barbour. Mississippi's attorney general, who had challenged the pardons, expressed sympathy for the prisoners' victims.</s>MISSISSIPPI ATTORNEY GENERAL JIM HOOD: I feel for them. Having had a first cousin murdered in 1976, and gone through a trial and understanding how victims feel, you know, I think they have been victimized twice. and the criminal justice system has let them down.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Meantime, the presidential race is picking up speed, as more states hold GOP caucuses this weekend. Voters in Kansas are casting their ballots right now, and we could know the winner in just a couple of hours. CNN political reporter Shannon Travis is live at a caucus site in Overland Park, Kansas, now. It looks like a full house. That's good. So, Shannon, the contest in Kansas, well, it hands out delegates proportionately, so which candidate is expected to do the best, to take the bulk of the 40 delegates?</s>SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people here in Kansas believe that Rick Santorum, that he's the favorite to win this contest. You know that Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, they pretty much ceded the state to Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. They were supposed to campaign here this week. They actually skipped campaigning here, so a lot of people believe that Santorum has the momentum going into this. He has been campaigning across the state or he did yesterday. Ron Paul as well today. I just want to show you a little bit about what's going on right here. You'll notice that at this table right here you've got some caucus workers basically handing out ballots. The ballots, Fred, I've got one right here. I can't fill it out. I promise not to slip this in the ballot box, but you've got all the candidates on there pretty much. They go from this table, they walk along this path right here. You'll notice that there are some people who are sitting, listening to some speakers. That's the lieutenant governor of Kansas right there, Jeff Collier, he's speaking to the crowd right now. But after they hear from the lieutenant governor and some other campaign workers, this ballot right here goes into that box over there, Fred. There's a ballot box where they're walking, dropping it in. We're told that about two hours away from now they expect for -- to open -- to crack open those boxes and to start to count some of these ballots. And we'll be on hand to see who actually wins here and who wins the state of Kansas. Of course, obviously, on Tuesday we've got some other important contests in Mississippi and Alabama. But today all eyes are on Kansas, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: OK, results (inaudible) early (inaudible) today, Shannon. There are other caucuses this weekend, Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam. OK, so maybe the candidates are not necessarily, you know, giving up a whole lot of face time in those places, but I understand in Guam, Romney's son, one of his sons will be there representing him. Is that still the case?</s>TRAVIS: Yes, I mean the candidates can't make it, as you said, to all these places themselves. So what they do is they send their high profile surrogates. Newt Gingrich's daughter is supposed to be here. As you mentioned, we've been watching Mitt Romney's son go to different places. I was in Idaho on Tuesday; Mitt Romney's son was there. So, yes, they basically farm out or fan out their surrogates to a lot of these different places. But Mitt Romney won the nine delegates in Guam. Again, a smaller contest, but a delegate is a delegate. And he also won the nine delegates in the Northern Mariana Islands earlier this morning, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Very good. Thanks so much. Shannon Travis there in Overland Park, Kansas. We'll check back with you directly after this. And of course you want to join me every Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock Eastern when we dedicate an entire hour to the presidential contenders in this 2012 election. All right. Also coming up, a high school valedictorian avoids being deported, but her fight to stay in the U.S. is far from over. Also, might it be a sign of similar cases to come? A man is ordered to pay child support to twins conceived after he separated from his wife. Our legal guys weigh in straight ahead.