Workers Strike Over Prices; 1 Killed

Police in Zimbabwe fired tear gas at thousands of demonstrators protesting price hikes and killed a man in Mutare, on the border with Mozambique, during a one-day national strike that sparked looting and brought much of the southern African nation to a standstill. Workers were trying to press President Robert Mugabe’s government to reverse a 67% fuel price hike, with some challenging him to give more time to domestic problems instead of foreign policy issues. The labor movement announced last week that it will hold strikes every Wednesday until Mugabe suspends the fuel price rise--which provoked riots last week--and engages the unions in serious talks over a deepening economic crisis.