The killings in a Port-au-Prince slum, which appeared to target practitioners of voodoo, were ordered by a gang leader, a Haitian human rights organization said.

The fighters who forced Bashar al-Assad into exile began the complex task of governing the Syrian capital. New York Times reporters entering the country saw relics of the deposed regime on the highway from Lebanon.

Reporters for The New York Times entered Syria on Monday, finding remnants of former President Bashar al-Assad’s oppressive rule.

President Yoon Suk Yeol cannot leave the country as an investigation unfolds into whether he led an insurrection last week when he briefly imposed martial law.

Relations between the neighboring countries on the island of Hispaniola have long been frosty. They are now complicated by up to 10,000 deportations a week.

Bashar al-Assad’s downfall evokes memories of uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, each of which brought civil war or authoritarian rule. Syrians hope for better.

President Bashar al-Assad had kept opposition forces at bay for a decade with help from Russia and Iran. But rebels struck at a moment of weakness for those countries.

Tehran’s main regional allies are weakened or collapsing: Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has fled his country, Hezbollah is battered by conflict with Israel, and Hamas is still at war.

While Israel asserts that the United Nations has tried to minimize the problem, the global organization says Israeli officials are waging an unfair campaign to discredit it.

The tally differs sharply from estimates by U.S. officials and military analysts, who have said the number is closer to 70,000.