Syria Live Coverage: Opposition Leaders Cancel Trip to Washington --- Why?

1950 GMT: Friday Protests. With UN kidnappings and Damascus on fire, it's easy to lose the fact that today is Friday, and every Friday for almost two whole years there have been widespread protests. Today's protest theme roughly translates to "Your sectarian state will not pass," but that's a literally translation. Essentially, it means "Assad's sectarian state will not happen," a reference to Assad's efforts to stoke sectarian tensions, and a reference to the world's tendency to classify this conflict in purely sectarian terms.

An impressive rally today in Yabroud, north of Damascus (map). This area is on the edge of both rebel-controlled territory and some of the most substantial military bases in the Middle East, and is often attacked by regime airpower:

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