In this March 26, 2000, file photo, U.S. President Bill Clinton, right, shakes hands with Syrian President Hafez Assad, at the opening of their meeting, in Geneva, Switzerland. On Nov. 13, 1970, Assad a young career air force officer launched a bloodless coup. Fifty years later, Hafez Assad’s family still rules Syria. The country is in ruins from a decade of civil war that killed around a half million people, displaced half the population and virtually wiped out the economy. But Hafez’s son, Bashar Assad, has an unquestioned grip on what remains. (AP Photo/Laurent Gillieron, File)
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