Omans Sultan pardons 234 protesters

An unspecified number of other detainees, however, are to face charges for setting fire to public and private property, resisting the authorities, blocking traffic and humiliating or attacking state employees.At the beginning of April, police released 57 people arrested in a crackdown on protests in the northern industrial city of Sohar, a day after a protester was shot dead.A supermarket and government offices were torched in Sohar on February 28. The normally peaceful sultanate has been caught up in the protests sweeping the Arab world, with demonstrators taking to the streets in February to call for better living conditions.Sultan Qaboos announced a cabinet reshuffle and the creation of 50,000 jobs at the start of March, while demonstrators have insisted their protests were aimed at corrupt officials not at Qaboos, who has ruled for 40 years.Qaboos has also decreed a monthly allowance for registered job-seekers and a higher minimum wage for Omani private-sector workers.