Food Is Donated in Bid to Calm Rioters

Three ethnic Chinese tycoons have started a huge food giveaway to the country’s poor, hoping to placate rioters targeting Chinese merchants as rage mounts over rising food prices. Unrest over the nation’s hard times flared again when mobs attacked Chinese-owned shops and homes in a town 1,120 miles northeast of the capital, Jakarta. Riots began a month ago when people suffering from the worst economic crisis in three decades vented their anger on Chinese merchants. Sweeping austerity measures under a $40-billion International Monetary Fund bailout have worsened the despair.