Syria's new interim prime minister pledged to protect minority rights as Washington's top diplomat flew to the region on Thursday to urge an "inclusive" transition after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.
Assad fled Syria after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies, which brought a spectacular end to five decades of brutal rule by the Assad clan.
As the corruption trial of Benjamin Netanyahu resumed this week, Israel was gripped by another scandal involving the prime minister and the alleged leaking of classified documents.
Eli Feldstein, a former adviser to Netanyahu, is accused in the case of leaking a classified document related to hostage negotiations in Gaza to shift critical media coverage of the Israeli leader.
The case, critics say, highlights deep-seated corruption inside his office, including attempts to sway public opinion amid a divisive war.
In the corridors of Damascus's main hospitals, thousands of families have gathered for the foreboding mission of trying to find the bodies of loved ones captured years ago by the Syrian authorities.
"Where are our children?" women cried out as they grasped at the walls, desperate for closure after their years-long ordeal.
But no such closure was within reach for Yasmine Shabib, 37, who still could not locate her brother or father, both arrested in 2013.
Roaming the opulent Damascus home of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Abu Omar felt a sense of giddy defiance being in the residence of the man he said had long oppressed him.
"I am taking pictures, because I am so happy to be here in the middle of his house," said the 44-year-old, showing photographs he took on his mobile phone.
He was among the dozens an AFP correspondent saw Sunday entering Assad's home after Assad fled the country -- to Moscow according to Russian news agencies -- as rebels took control of the capital in an 11-day lightning offensive.
Prosecutors Wednesday called for two years in jail for a man suspected of punching and kicking Israeli football fans in Amsterdam during a night of violence that sparked worldwide shock and accusations of anti-Semitism.
The 22-year-old identified as Sefa O was one of five suspects before an Amsterdam court on charges relating to the chaos in the city following a match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv on November 7.
For more than a decade, the United States has sought to keep out of Syria's political debacle, seeing no viable partner. Islamist rebels' toppling of strongman Bashar al-Assad has forced a change of tune -- and a debate over just what US interests are.
Donald Trump, who returns to the White House in little more than a month, on the eve of Assad's fall called Syria "a mess" and stated in his plain-speaking style that the United States should not be involved.
In Damascus, life is cautiously returning to normal as residents step out of their homes into a Syria transformed by the ousting of long-time president Bashar al-Assad.
"We were a little worried, but since Sunday, we are no longer afraid," said Lina al-Ostaz, referring to when the Syrian capital fell to a coalition of Islamist-led rebels.
The 11-day lightning offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allies ended over half a century of unchecked rule by the Assad dynasty.
The hulks of half-submerged Syrian missile ships smouldered in Latakia harbour on Tuesday, hours after Israel hammered its neighbour with strikes from the sea and air.
The Israeli strikes came a day after Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power and were among more than 300 raids across Syria in recent days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Israel's bombing of Syrian military assets and its entry into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights show it fears the worst from the end of the Assad clan's rule, analysts told AFP.
"The Israeli government... is operating on a worst-case scenario with little to no nuance," said Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East specialist at Chatham House in London.
As soon as rebel forces seized Damascus, Syrians swarmed the notorious Saydnaya prison, desperate for news of loved ones who vanished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad's rule.
"I am waiting in the hope that one of my relatives will be found," said 25-year-old Youssef Matar, camped outside the feared Y-shaped prison since Sunday.
He said 10 of his family members were arrested "for no reason, just because we are from Daraya", a Damascus suburb pivotal in the 2011 uprising.
"I'm going to stay until I know if they're dead or alive."
