Polling stations have opened in government-held areas in Syria for the country's presidential election — a vote that President Bashar Assad is widely expected to win, The Associated Press reported. Tuesday's balloting comes amid a devastating, three-year civil war that activists say has killed more than 160,000 people. It's also Syria's first multi-candidate election in more than 50 years, though the Syrian opposition and government critics have denounced the vote as a sham to give Assad the veneer of electoral legitimacy.
