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>> the city where heroin is cheaper than food and help addicts and their families are struggling. -- and how attics and their families are struggling. this is the city of karachi, and hear some have resorted to selling family members to feed heroin addiction. the revolutionary history could be a friend. >> what happens? are they likely to organize an attack? >> and one of the great art critics of the 20th century remembered but one of the great historians. simon schama on his friend.

>> he was an irreplaceable union of head and heart. he had a mind like a razor blade. >> hello. statistics about karachi are quite disturbing. it is one of the most densely populated areas in the planet. an estimated 21 million people call it home. there are even more startling facts about karachi. heroine is cheaper than food. it is a city of addicts. we have this report. >> in this sprawling port city,

there is an estimated half a million heroin addicts. that is one in 40. this state has very little public health provisions, so it is up to charities to close the gap. this foundation it was once thought to be the world's largest drug rehabilitation center. without the resources to offer conventional treatment like methadone, 4000 patients are given only paris see small -- paracetemol to help with the pain. every day, the foundation is called by the families of the addicts so desperate for help they are willing to have their loved ones locked up. >> what are you doing?

>> [speaking foreign language] [siren] >> [unintelligible] >> they have factions. >> [unintelligible]

>> [speaking foreign language] >> because he was forced into rehab by his mom, under the center rules, only she can decide when he is ready to leave. unlike him, is brothers check themselves in. they can leave whenever they want. >> [speaking foreign language] >> it is now a weak sense of brothers usain and yusef checked themselves into rehab.

the decide they are ready to leave. >> [speaking foreign lagnuage] -- [speaking foreign language] >> but hussain's happiness is short-lived. his wife does nto want to see him, and his mother-in-law told him to leave. his wife says her life has been ruined by heroin.

>> [speaking foreign language] >> the next day, we found hussain and yusef sleeping rough a few miles from their home. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> the war in afghanistan has led to a surge in opec exports. as a result, heroin in karachi is cheaper than food. it has led to joblessness. >> [speaking foriegn language]

>> 48 hours after calling for help, josephine mrs. the center for the first time. -- visits the center for the first time. >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] >> staff at the center told me they often see patients pleading with family members. for them, it is an expected

part of the withdrawal process. [both speaking foriegn language] >> thank you. >> thank you. >> [speaking foreign language] >> a week after leaving rehab,

hussain says he has left his addiction behind him. but for his brother, it is not the same. hussain is convinced he is back on heroin. >> [speaking foreign language] >> treatment does not work for everyone. but the center is a lifeline in a city that sometimes it feels like it is floating on a sea of heroin. >> reporting from karachi. this week, the city of aleppo has been pounded from the ground and the air as the city tries to dislodge it fighters.

but we have the highest level defection yet from the assad regime. a sunni, a brutal enforcer, the effective from the country. we spoke with a representative from the opposition. but first, how the balance of power has been shifting in syria. >> how widespread is the violence now? >> it is very widespread. among the key elements of what has been happening is escalation in terms of the military conflict and fragmentation. if you look at the map, we complot this geographically. the freeze syrian army, a very strong now in the east -- the freed syrian army, very strong now in the east of the country.

many people say the government has given up their. but the free syrian army has been very active in the mosque is, -- damascus, daraa. i think we get the idea of government troops and their garrisons fighting a sea of insurgency. things like the highway that goes through homs to aleppo becomes important. being blocked by guerillas, we see the response escalate. let's look in some video we have got. this is what happens when men with guns blocked the highway. syrian army, the playing ever- heavier firepower. we have frozen the image there.

this is one of two objects that flies down toward this town. it is actually a heavy artillery system. either way, it is the type of weaponry the assad regime has taken for possible use against israel, here being used against insurgents. >> that is a lot of what is called collateral damage. aleppo now is the site of a major attack. >> exactly. the government has been left in their wretched position there, really. there has been a discussion about are they getting weapons from saudi arabia. we do not see any signs of it. there are men with kalashnikovs

taking on the syrian army. it is a complex attack. it is a land mine planted in the soft ground of the tarmac. they are all closed down. develops. how this we have the second tank. that may have come from outside, of course. they hit a second tank. appears the crew of that tank survived. there are mines, anti-tank gunfire. >> what is the response of the

international community now? both sidesars that' want to see the escalation. frankly, you do not see much grounds for hope. having seen the situation on the ground, it is interesting the degree to which it has become a regional cockpit for escalation. >> as syria slides further into violence, there are countries with a stake for stopping its allies. iran, lebanon, iraq. the kidnap of -- shows how much syrians and resent the will of these outside actors.

>> iran is backing them up. they are part of his power network in the middle east. his ability to project power in the region. >> saudi arabia, turkey, a loose alliance designed to channel support for the free syrian army. the military groups are seen as another sign of the polarization of the conflicts. a british of photojournalist and the belgian colleague were abducted last week by a unit of foreign fighters. >> they were from the u.k., they were from chechnya, from the caucuses. are real mix. >> the international community should worry about the day after

a saw false. what happens to these groups. are they likely to impact the west? they are elsewhere. >> if the regional picture is not complicated enough, what about western countries? have the u.s., the u.k., and france played a constructive role internationally? >> now, i think the international community has played a rather negative role in terms of enabling the conflict, supporting the conflict in ways that made it possible to continue to fight and not reach a political solution. >> it is a situation in which there is precious little hope of a resumption of meaningful

diplomacy. not least, as kofi annan made clear, because neither the opposition nor the syrian government wants it. the implications of the crisis grow more serious by the week. >> i think the real point at the end of this is kofi annan is no longer in position to talk of a spiritual successor. what could one person meaningfully do now? >> thank you. i am joined by the senior spokesman for the syrian national council. of first of all, let's talk about the defection, this high level defection. tell me, how did that evolve. he has to find this cable way out.

the defection is part of this. >> more than two months ago? >> there is an army, his family, and they were escorted to the border areas. >> he was a brutal member of the assad regime. >> i'm not sure if we can use the word brutal or not. >> you was part of the regime? >> yes, he was part of the regime. we do question the defection of everyone in this regime. he was the highest ranking

position of authority after the president's of the country. this is a huge blow to the assad regime. it shows you support is crumbling and the regime is decaying. >> now we have kofi annan's resignation. part of the problem was under the annan plan, not only did assad have to talk, but the opposition had to talk and come up with some kind of solution. >> number one in the plan was to stop shelling and villages. none of that happen. >> what about the conflict? >> he is choosing the same destiny as gaddafi? >> killed in syria? >> or perhaps left at the last minute. there have been so many opportunities to solve this

conflict in a different way. they have been wasted by this regime. they have decided to treat this entire country despite. >> we know there will be a big push on the left, and that might be a decisive feature for assad himself. do you think he is making plans to leave? >> i think he would maybe leave at the very last resort, really, when he thinks there is no way even for him to maintain damascus itself. there are lots of troops there, weakening their presence in the country, and if elected, it will be another situation in syria. >> this week saw the death of the art critic, historian, and writer robert hughes. his intellect and capacity for

communication and his forthright criticism of the art world in the 20th-century -- he said his gift was to view modern art, as evidenced in his most famous tv series "the shop of the new." the historian simon schama spoke to kirsty wark from new york. >> it seems he had a great gift of communication. >> yes, but you know, he reveled in the gift of language, actually. he had written poetry, actually. and in some way, he turned to this incredible facility for

language into an adoptive instrument, into communication, really. what he hated, kirsty, robert was a great hater of the meretricious and these sanctimonious. he hated theory-loaded discussions about art and the hated the audacious, finely dressed explicit nest of the artwork. what he loved was the rough craft of art. he went along with michelangelo and rembrandt in believing that you labor physically with art before you could get a yield of true greatness. >> did he have all blindness spot for some conceptual art? -- a blind spot.

he did not have a love for conceptual art, did he? >> was not keen on the. but i will tell you why. he was fine with conceptual art so long as the concepts were banal. he said one painter's concepts have all the profundity of a sampler. i think what bob minded was the notion that those who did not, as it were, take the conceptual artists were the height of intellect. he thought they were in their way intellectual giants. the notion of calling yourself a conceptual artist means you're conception was intrinsically interesting, he would tackle with laughter. you can hear him tackling from the truth -- from the tomb.

>> he said about sorting that, and that became a famous book, didn't? >> and deservedly so. everybody out there, go out and read his art critic. -- art criticism. but do not miss this. the crucial thing about this story, told many times, but when it was told by hughes, it was told with a muscular, a physical sense of being in the shoes of desperate people. you are there with their desperation. the thing about bob, for whom i grieve and mourn, he was really an irreplaceable union of head and heart. he had a mind like a razor blade. he used the big old communicating body of his and a

light like that does not come along very often. >> that's all from us for this week. from all of us, good bye. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. andunion bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business. offering specialized solutions and capital to help you meet

your growth objectives. we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you? >> "bbc newsnight" was presented by kcet los angeles.