Syria's Assad still standing after six months of bloodshed...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has watched Arab uprisings bring down the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia in a few short weeks and topple Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, but shows no sign of yielding to protests challenging his own iron rule.

As street demonstrations against Assad reach the six-month mark this week, Syria has plunged deeper into bloodshed, economic stagnation and international isolation than most countries swept up in the turmoil of the "Arab Spring."

Any one of those crises could threaten the survival of the 46-year-old president, a member of Syria's minority Alawite sect who has ruled the mainly Sunni Muslim country since succeeding his late father Hafez al-Assad 11 years ago.

But Assad enjoys two crucial advantages over the deposed North African leaders, who were either cut adrift by their own security forces when the tide turned against them or forced to retreat by NATO bombs. Full story...

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