Syria’s Interior Ministry announced today that voters had approved constitutional reforms. The referendum was dismissed by Western leaders as a sham.

The government’s reform effort follows a gathering of Western leaders and Syrian opposition groups in Tunisia over the weekend.  The talks addressed the growing violence, and leaders emerged calling for President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. 

Meanwhile, as the violence in Syria rages on, foreign correspondents risk their lives to report from inside the country. Last week, an American journalist and a French photographer were killed by a rocket attack in Homs.

New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson  is a veteran war correspondent who just returned from Syria. His article “The Implosion: On the front lines of a burgeoning civil war” appears in the most recent issue of the magazine.  He discusses the dire situation in Syria, both for its citizens and the foreign journalists who cover the conflict.