Manama, February 22
Tens of thousands of supporters of Bahrain’s Shiite-led opposition today poured into the streets of Manama calling for the government’s downfall in the largest rally in more than a week of protests.

Streets of the capital were clogged with protesters marching towards Pearl Square, the focal point of anti-regime protests, an AFP correspondent said.

Those leading the protest carried a large banner reading, “The march of loyalty to martyrs”, while a poster strung from a bridge read in English, “No dialogue before the downfall of the ruling regime.” The banner carried by the crowd bore the photographs of seven “martyrs” killed by security forces, the last of whom succumbed to his wounds yesterday and was buried earlier today.

“The people want the fall of the regime,” protesters chanted in unison, as they waved red-and-white Bahraini flags.

Women in black veils chanted slogans against Bahrain monarch Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa. “May your hands be paralysed, Hamad,” they shouted.

“Down down Khalifa,” the crowds chanted, condemning Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman, the uncle of king Hamad who has been in office since 1971 and who is widely despised by the Shiites.

The rally marked the first to be officially called for by political associations since protests started on February 14 in response to calls by cyber activists inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Today’s protest comes after pro-government Sunnis rallied in their thousands at a Manama mosque on Monday pledging loyalty to the al-Khalifa family, and calling on protesters to answer an invitation by Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad to engage in wide-reaching dialogue.

The rally also comes a day after King Hamad bin Isaa al-Khalifa answered a crucial opposition demand by ordering the release of political prisoners and halting trial procedures against others.

Shiite opposition MP Abduljalil Khalil told AFP the prisoner release was an opposition demand so Crown Prince Salman could “prove his seriousness in calling for dialogue.” The Islamic National Accord Association (INAA) which is the main Shiite formation and controls 18 seats in the 40-member parliament, had demanded along with other opposition groups, the release of prisoners before considering the crown prince’s call for dialogue.

The protester buried today, Redha Mohammed, died of his wounds on Monday after being shot by police three days earlier. — AFP

Dubai, February 22
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is resisting popular demands for him to step down now, but will have to make good on promised reforms if he is to stem a nationwide tide of protests in which 12 persons have been killed.

Saleh, who has ruled his impoverished nation for 32 years, has pledged to quit in 2013 and not to hand power to his son. He has also promised to reform parliamentary election laws.

But opposition parties say they cannot accept his call for dialogue while the Sanaa government is using force to quell demonstrators energised by popular revolts against entrenched Arab autocrats in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.

Yemeni political analyst Abdul-Ghani al-Iryani said the violence used to crush unrest since Thursday was only bringing more people to the streets. “We have passed the tipping point.”

“Now the youth revolution is here to stay. The only option for the regime is to try to understand and meet the grievances,” he said, adding that he believed Saleh might respond soon. Yet the president gave little ground on Monday.

“Yes to reforms, no to coups and seizing power through anarchy and killing,” he told a news conference in Sanaa. “If they want power they must reach it through the ballot box ... You are calling for the regime to go-then get rid of it through the ballot box.” — Reuters

Islamabad/Lahore, February 22
American official Raymond Davis, arrested for double murder, had “close links” with the Taliban and was “instrumental” in recruiting youths for it, the media here claimed today, close on the heels of reports in the US that he was a CIA agent tracking movements of terror groups like LeT.

The “close ties” of 37-year-old Davis, arrested in Lahore on January 27 for killing two men he claimed were trying to rob him, with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan came out during investigations, The Express Tribune reported quoting an unnamed senior official of the Punjab Police.

“Davis was instrumental in recruiting young people from Punjab for the Taliban to fuel the bloody insurgency (in Pakistan),” the official said.

The report came a day after The New York Times, citing US government officials, said that Davis “was part of a covert CIA-led team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country.” Among the groups that Davis was keeping an eye on was the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the NYT said.

The Express Tribune quoting unnamed sources said call records retrieved from mobile phones found on Davis had allegedly established his links with 33 Pakistanis, including 27 militants from the banned Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

The report claimed Davis was “said to be working on a plan to give credence to the American notion that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not safe.” “For this purpose, he was setting up a group of the Taliban which would do his bidding,” it said. — PTI

Houston, February 22
Lawyers for a group of Indian guest workers, trafficked to the US from India to work in shipyards after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, have sued an American company, Signal International, along with its co-conspirators and other entities for human trafficking and racketeering.

If class status is granted, the lawsuit could be the largest human trafficking case in US history, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said in a statement. Workers were allegedly lured here with dishonest assurances of becoming lawful permanent US residents, the statement said.

The ACLU joined a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of over 500 guest workers from India charging that the workers were trafficked into the US through the federal government’s H-2B guest worker programme with dishonest assurances of becoming lawful permanent US residents and subjected to squalid living conditions, fraudulent payment practises, and threats of serious harm upon their arrival.

The complaint alleges that recruiting agents hired by the marine industry company Signal International held the guest workers’ passports and visas, coerced them into paying extraordinary fees for recruitment, immigration processing and travel, and threatened the workers with serious legal and physical harm if they did not work under the Signal-restricted guest worker visa.

The complaint also alleges that once in the US, the men were required to live in Signal’s guarded, over crowded labour camps, subjected to psychological abuse and defrauded out of adequate payment for their work.

The ACLU charges that the federal government has fallen short of its responsibility to protect the rights of guest workers in this country. According to the lawsuit, the treatment of the workers violates the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act.

In addition to the federal court litigation, in partnership with the ACLU, the workers have testified before the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, and senior staff at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Signal, a marine and fabrication company with shipyards in Mississippi, Texas and Alabama, is a subcontractor for several major multinational companies. — PTI