A view of Aleppo, Syria, where a suicide bomber struck on Wednesday.

A police patrol in the old city of Damascus, Syria, in April. Under the new authorities, some of Syrian society’s most religious people have suddenly come to rule over some of its most socially liberal.

Top academics in the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department at Columbia University, including Professors Timothy Mitchell and Gil Hochberg, the department’s chair, say the school is committed to the program’s autonomy.

College administrators throughout the country are closely watching whether Columbia responds to the White House with deference or defiance.

Members of the Syrian government’s security forces in the capital, Damascus, on Thursday.

Members of the new Syrian government set up security checkpoints in Homs in February. Many Syrians are demanding more such controls.

Syrian antigovernment fighters pouring into the city of Hama on Friday.

Syrian rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad heading toward the strategic city of Homs.

An antigovernment fighter covers his ears as a multi-barrel rocket launcher fires against government forces, in the northern outskirts of Syria’s west-central city of Hama on Wednesday.