SYRIA-ITALY-PEOPLE-ASSAD

Syria's First Lady Asma al-Assad (L) attends a ceremony during which she received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Archeology of Rome's La Sapienza University, 20 October 2004 in the historic Syrian city of Ebla, 300 kms north of Damascus. The British-educated first lady received the doctorate from Paolo Matthiae (C), the head of the Archeology and History of Art department at the Italian university, who has been in charge of excavation in the ancient northern Syrian city, near Aleppo, since 1964. AFP PHOTO/LOUAI BESHARA (Photo by Louai Beshara / AFP) (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)