MUSCAT — A Persian Gulf human rights group is calling on Oman to free more than 30 people including writers and bloggers arrested during crackdowns on protests and pro-reform campaigns in the tightly run Arabian Peninsula nation.
The Gulf Center for Human Rights says 22 people were taken into custody Monday during a demonstration to demand the release of at least nine activists detained this month.
The group’s statement Tuesday said those in custody include poets, writers and social media activists.
Oman has been hit this month by strikes in its oil industry. Last year, protests inspired by the Arab Spring called for a greater political openness.
In response, Oman’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos, gave more powers to a council which until then had been advisory.
New TV station goes on air
BEIRUT — A new Pan-Arab TV station that went on the air Monday courts viewers who see mainstream coverage of the political upheaval sweeping the Middle East as biased against the regimes in Syria and Iran and their close ally in Lebanon, the powerful Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The Beirut-based station Al-Mayadeen, Arabic for “The Squares,” hopes to counter the influence of regional media heavyweights such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, both funded by oil-rich Sunni Gulf Arab countries that have backed the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
It also promises to support the Palestinian cause and all forms of “resistance” - a term in Mideast parlance usually used to describe Hezbollah and other groups that fight Israel.
Amnesty calls for probe of mob attacks on women
CAIRO — Amnesty International has called on Egyptian authorities to investigate reports of sexual assaults on women protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in order to end impunity for repeated attacks.
The London-based rights group said women are singled out by mobs for sexual harassment and assaults in the epicenter of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year. The group said the attacks are an attempt to intimidate women and prevent them from participating in public life.
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