The protests that left much of the world in a haze of tear gas last year were slowed by a pandemic – until the death of George Floyd sparked a global uprising against police brutality and racial inequality.

From Hong Kong to Khartoum, Baghdad to Beirut, Gaza to Paris and Caracas to Santiago, people took to the streets in 2019 for the pursuits of freedom, sovereignty or simply a life less shackled by hardship while few prospered. It seemed as if the streets were agitated everywhere but the United States.

A recap of key dates in the regime of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for three decades and died on June 10, 2000.

Bashar al-Assad's rise to power after three decades of his father's iron-fisted rule raised hope of democratic opening. But 20 years later, Syria is isolated and war-ravaged.

Rattled by a string of military defeats for ally Khalifa Haftar in neighboring Libya, Egypt has pressed for a ceasefire -- and, despite doubts, is sticking with the strongman for now, analysts say. 

Violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody led several US cities to impose curfews, but do they help maintain order or merely further antagonize demonstrators?

Lurching from tough talk to empathy and back again, with one eye firmly on his voter base, Donald Trump seems unsure what tone to strike as America is convulsed from Minneapolis to Los Angeles by furious anti-racism protests. 

Jalal was barely three years old when Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon two decades ago, but he speaks fondly of the Hizbullah "victory" that shaped his allegiance to the group.

Syria's top tycoon publicly airing his grievances has revealed a power struggle within the ruling family as it tries to cement its power after nine years of war, analysts say.

A host of state intelligence services warned early of a new coronavirus with the potential to wreak havoc worldwide, yet many governments failed to heed the warnings -- a mistake that experts say they are unlikely to make again.

Major social advances have often emerged from the depths of disaster: the Black Death brought an end to serfdom, and Britain's welfare state emerged from the ruins of World War II.