Nations are not required to adopt the recommendations of other countries that are included the report, but often nations will reject recommendations without first agreeing to consider them. Among the other recommendations included in the report are for Bahrain to consider abolishing the death penalty, commuting death sentences to prison terms and improving laws that protect freedoms of expression and assembly.

Bahrain also has agreed to consider a recommendation to release political prisoners, a major concern of some Western nations over jailed Bahraini activists such as Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on a hunger strike since February. He and others have claimed that they suffered abuses and torture, and demanded their release.

Al-Khawaja and seven other activists were sentenced to life in prison last year by a military-run court as part of crackdowns by Bahrain’s Sunni rulers on a Shiite-led uprising calling for a greater political voice in the Gulf kingdom. A civilian court retrial was ordered in April for 21 people convicted of anti-state crimes, with the court adjourning the case until May 29.

Bahrain’s human rights minister, Salah bin Ali Mohammed Abdulrahman, led a delegation this week that told the 47-nation council the government is moving quickly to improve its human rights record after allegations of abuses by Bahraini security forces and crackdowns such as widespread arrests and workplace purges.

More than 50 people have died in the unrest since the spring of 2011 in the Western-allied nation that hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. Some nations have praised Bahrain for setting up an independent inquiry into the crackdown but called for urgent action on its findings that security forces resorted to unnecessary and excessive force against protesters and that many detainees were tortured or had their rights violated.

Another historical item, the Murat Tiara, sold for $3.87 million. The pearl-and-diamond tiara was created for the marriage of a prince whose ancestors included the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister.

 A diamond brooch known as the “Bonnie Prince Charlie” sold for $968,085. The brooch features a yellow diamond once owned by Charles Edward Stuart, whose attempt to regain the British crown led to the Battle of Culloden in 1745.

 At a Christie’s auction Monday to benefit 32 charities favored by the Lily Safra Foundation, Safra’s donated jewelry fetched nearly $38 million in sales — almost double what was expected.

 The most expensive item there was a 32.08-carat Burmese ruby and diamond ring that sold for $6.7 million, a world record price for a ruby sold at auction. Eighteen jewels by the designer JAR collectively brought in $11.4 million.

 After the auction, the billionaire Lily Safra beamed as she won a standing ovation from the buyers and bidders she had come to thank.

 She later told reporters that selling a heap of jewels for charity — rather than keeping them unused in a vault — felt like one of the best things she’d ever done in her life.

Kellenberger said there has been no let-up in the unrest in some parts of Syria but that calm has returned intermittently to other areas. He spoke to reporters ahead of international envoy Kofi Annan’s assessment of the revolt in Syria to the U.N. Security Council later Tuesday.

Kellenberger said the ICRC has gained permission to visit a prison in Aleppo in mid-May, its second visit to a Syrian prison since visiting one in Damascus in September, and is pushing for access to others.

Despite his series of visits and high-level negotiations in Damascus, Kellenberger said the Red Cross still lacks enough information to provide an accurate “overview” of the number of detainees or the conditions in which they are being held nationwide.

Syria still has not granted access for Red Cross officials to visit most prisons in the country.

What began as a largely peaceful protest movement, calling for change after similar uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, has gradually evolved into more Syrians taking up arms in the face of President Bashar Assad’s unflinching crackdown.

Unarmed protests continue to be met by gunfire from security forces such as that on Friday when demonstrators at Aleppo University were shot at and a teenager was killed.

In the meantime, the ICRC is appealing for 24.5 million Swiss francs ($27 million) to quickly scale up aid.

“Our priority is to improve living conditions and to restore public services for up to 1.5 million people affected by the fighting,” Kellenberger said. “Many people are still struggling just to make it through the day. Others are trying to rebuild their lives from scratch.”

UBS also offered a somewhat grim outlook for the second quarter of 2012, owing to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, the U.S. federal deficit and continuing global uncertainties.

“Failure to make progress on these key issues would make further improvements in prevailing market conditions unlikely and would have the potential to continue the headwinds for revenue growth, net interest margins and net new money,” the bank reported.

Chief Executive Officer Sergio P. Ermotti said despite the “challenging market conditions” the bank had performed well.

“We improved operational performance across all our businesses, strengthened our leading capital ratios further, reduced risk-weighted assets and remained vigilant on costs,” he said in a statement. “The strong net new money inflows in our wealth management businesses provide further clear evidence of the trust our clients place in UBS.”

It was just the second quarter for the bank under the leadership of Ermotti, who took over in September with the aim of restoring clients’ trust following a case of alleged rogue trading in its investment bank that cost UBS $2 billion. Ermotti pledged to tighten oversight at UBS and restructure the ailing investment banking unit where the trading scandal occurred.

Last month, the specter of a damaging tax evasion case rose again. After resolving a long-running tax probe in the United States with a $780 million fine and the handover of thousands of client files, UBS now faces allegations by former staff in France that it also helped French clients cheat on their taxes.

The bank strenuously denies the allegations and says it will defend itself using “appropriate legal means.”

The first-quarter results for 2012 also were a turnaround from the last quarter of 2011 when the bank, Switzerland’s biggest by market capitalization, posted a net profit of 319 million francs.

Rival Credit Suisse reported a 95 percent drop in first-quarter net profit last week due to writedowns, staff severance costs, bonus payments and the strong Swiss franc.

“This means withdrawal of all heavy armory (weapons) from population centers and (sending them) back to the barracks. They are claiming that this has happened. Satellite imagery, however, and credible reports show that this has not fully happened. So this is unacceptable,” Fawzi said.

Annan also has become aware that U.N. cease-fire monitors are met with brief lulls of violence when they enter conflict areas in Syria, Fawzi said.

He further told U.N. Television there are credible reports “that these people who approach the observers may be approached by security forces or Syrian army and harassed or arrested or even worse, perhaps killed.”

After first posting an incomplete version of Fawzi’s comments, the U.N. quickly sent out a “corrected” version that omitted mention of Syrian forces harassing and perhaps killing people who speak to the monitors — a sign of the sensitivity of his statement.

But Fawzi retracted that corrected version after The Associated Press reviewed the U.N. footage for accuracy in his statement.

Fawzi called it “totally unacceptable” that people might be targeted for speaking with U.N. truce monitors and added that “it just underlines the risks involved, not only to the Syrian people themselves and civilians, men, women, children, but also to the U.N. observers. This is a risky venture, but it is one that we must undertake.”

The cease-fire is part of Annan’s peace plan, which aims to stop the 13-month violence in Syria, where more than 9,000 people are believed to have died during a government crackdown on a popular uprising.

Right now, there are only a small number of monitors on the ground in Syria, but the U.N. Security Council has authorized up to 300.

“With 11 or 12 monitors, you can’t be everywhere, and there are many cities that have seen destruction and have seen fighting, and we have to be present,” Fawzi said. “With up to 300, we will be able to monitor more cities than two to three at a time.”

Annan said in a speech at Sweden’s Lund University that the use of U.N. staff to monitor conflicts such as the one in Syria ultimately can offer “no guarantee of protection” without strong international backing.

The use of observers requires “skilled staff, strong mandates and clear international support” — and their safety cannot always be assured, Annan said.

He spoke to mark the centenary of the birth of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who is widely credited with rescuing tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II.

He said world powers should not always wait for conflicts to “erupt” before sending envoys or monitors. “Too often the Security Council response is weak or nonexistent, its actions driven not by principle but by politics and selectivity,” he said of the U.N.’s most powerful arm.

Annan said the world must be ready to step in militarily when nations “cannot or will not protect their populations from the worst crimes.” The so-called “responsibility to protect” principle, known by its shorthand R2P, was adopted by U.N. member nations in 2005.

“It made clear that hand-wringing and appeals to conscience by the international community are not enough,” Annan said, without specifically invoking Syria. “Military action really must be the last resort. It may be necessary in some situations, but the decision must never be taken lightly.”