Syrians lived in terror for decades of what went on behind the concrete walls of Damascus's security compound. Now the Assad dynasty has been toppled, its dungeons and torture chambers are giving up their secrets.
Rebel fighters stand guard at the entrances to the forbidden city in the capital's Kafr Sousa district, where the feared security services had their headquarters alongside government offices.
Turkey has expanded its border crossing capacities to accommodate the surge in Syrian refugees seeking to return home following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the interior minister has said.
Following Assad's ouster on Sunday, hundreds flocked to Turkey's southern border with Syria, with Ankara quickly moving to expand its crossing facilities, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters in remarks published on Tuesday.
"Although we had a daily capacity to accommodate 3,000 crossings, we have increased that to between 15,000 and 20,000," Yerlikaya said.
Once celebrated as an advocate of women's rights in the Middle East, Syria's British-born former first lady Asma al-Assad has fled into exile with her husband, with UK officials saying she is not welcome to return to London.
Asma al-Assad, 49, her husband and three children have sought refuge in Moscow after rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad from power, according to Russian state news agencies, although the Kremlin has not confirmed the reports.
Syria's new transitional prime minister on Tuesday said it was time for "stability and calm" in the country, two days after longtime president Bashar al-Assad was toppled by rebels in a lightning offensive.
The rebels appointed Mohammad al-Bashir as the transitional head of government to run the country until March 1, a statement said.
"Now it is time for this people to enjoy stability and calm," Bashir told Qatar's Al Jazeera television in his first interview since being appointed.
Australia's prime minister toured the charred wreckage of a synagogue on Tuesday, urging the nation to unite in the face of an "evil" arson attack.
Counter-terror police are hunting for three suspects believed responsible for torching the Adass Israel Synagogue in the early hours of Friday.
The blaze was met with international condemnation, while a leading Jewish human rights group has warned Australia may no longer be safe for Jewish visitors.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed corruption charges against him as 'ridiculous' in court on Tuesday, becoming the country's first sitting premier to face criminal trial.
Israeli media called it a "historic day" as Netanyahu faced charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust in three separate cases while running a country at war.
But Netanyahu rejected the charges, saying: "There's no corruption, no fraud. It is just ridiculous."
Donald Trump does not take office until January 20, but on the world stage he is already acting as if he is US president.
President-elect Trump has stamped his seal on US diplomacy on crises in Syria and Ukraine as his second spell in the White House approaches.
World leaders have jostled to talk to Trump and he was treated as the guest of honor at the grand reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on the weekend.
Lame-duck, single-term President Joe Biden, 82, was conspicuous by his absence at the ceremony, as he increasingly fades into the background.
The United States on Monday vowed to make all efforts to bring back journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, with a US envoy heading to the region after strongman Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.
Roger Carstens, the US special envoy on hostage affairs, has arrived in nearby Beirut on a mission to find information on Tice, US officials said.
In the northern Lebanon town of Chekka, Suheil Hamawi received a heartfelt welcome as he returned home Monday after languishing for 33 years in deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's jails.
A day earlier, as Assad fled the country, Islamist-led rebels captured the Syrian capital and released thousands of prisoners from his notorious jail system.
"Today I feel like I can breathe again. The best thing in this world is freedom," Hamawi, 61, told AFP, visibly tearing up from joy.
Since rebels took Aleppo more than a week ago, its new de facto authorities have been getting on with running Syria's second city, restoring basic services like communications, electricity and health.
Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had been administering parts of neighbouring Idlib province, before it launched on November 27 a lightning offensive alongside allied groups, seizing control of government-held territory.
