Now to Syria. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in Jordan today and Turkey tonight, meeting with leaders of two crucial Syrian neighbors. And within Syria, an American was found as the prisons are emptied. Many people initially thought he was journalist Austin Tice, believed to be held in Syria the last 12 years.

Instead, we now know it is Travis Timmerman from Missouri,

detained earlier this year by the former regime on what he called a religious pilgrimage

for which he would later write a book.

Tice's whereabouts remain unknown.

Apart from the joy and relief, the mundane but vital work of making a country

function is job number one for many. Simone Fultein reports now on that huge task and the mess

the Assad family left behind. Outside Syria's central bank, a new police unit is in charge.

Almost overnight, Syria's security institutions have melted away from the feared intelligence agencies down to the traffic police.

Abbas Sheikh is from Idlib, the northern province from where the rebels launched their lightning

offensive.

The liberation happened Sunday morning.

We arrived from Idlib in the afternoon and immediately took over to protect the public and private

facilities, to protect the people, to facilitate things and to receive the people's complaints.

Days after Bashar al-Assad's overthrow, the capital appears to be functioning.

Streets are getting busier by the day.

Shops and government institutions are slowly returning to work.

The opposition has taken over government institutions in the capital, Damascus,

and has begun the task of governing the country using its experience in Idlib as a blueprint.

But administrating a whole country as opposed to a province is quite a different matter,

and it remains to be seen how easily it can be scaled.

In front of the municipality, Assad's picture lies on the floor for passers-by to step on.

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