ple's Council. 5. Call for early presidential and parliamentary elections; and 6. Abolition of Article 8 of the constitution, which stipulates that the Baath Party is by law the ruling party in Syria. President Assad's speech to Parliament on March 31st was disappointing to many, who were expecting the speech t

Libya, no foreign rescue mission is on the horizon. But with all the uncertainties, this much can be said: the fearsome security state that Hafez, the Baath Party, and the Alawite soldiers and intelligence barons built is gone for good. When consent and popular enthusiasm fell away, the state rested on fear,