Free Republic

Opposition activists from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect called for his overthrow on Sunday, Al Arabiya reported. The activists urged their co-religionists in the army to rebel. It was the first meeting of its kind by Alawites who support the revolt. Delegates to the convention distanced themselves from Assad's crackdown against the uprising that has been raging in Syria for two years, in which 70,000 people have been killed. "We call on our brothers in the Syrian army, specifically members of our sect, not to take up arms against their people and to refuse to join the army," the...