News Snapshot:
Written by Declan Walsh A powerful earthquake last week catapulted Syria’s authoritarian president, Bashar Assad, into the global spotlight, creating an opportunity for him to inch further back onto the international stage through disaster diplomacy. As the death toll soared from the region’s deadliest quake in a century, Assad, long a pariah for bombing and torturing his own people during Syria’s civil war, received a steady flow of sympathy, aid and attention from other countries. Arab leaders who had shunned him for a decade picked up the phone and called. Senior United Nations officials trooped through his office, offering assistance...
