EGYPT
Bonuses offered in bid to quell worker rioting
Updated: 04/09/08 6:49 AM
MAHALLA EL-KOBRA, Egypt (AP) — Egypt rushed Tuesday to grant bonuses to workers after two days of deadly riots over high food prices and low wages wracked this northern industrial city, fueling government fears that the rioting might spread across the country.
This Nile Delta factory city has seen a wave of strikes for more than a year, and the anger exploded into rioting Sunday and Monday.
Protesters tore down a billboard of President Hosni Mubarak and fought with police in clashes that left one person dead in the worst unrest since Egypt’s 1977 riots over increased bread prices.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif hurried to Mahalla al-Kobra on Tuesday with several top economic ministers to meet with workers at the 50-year-old, state-owned Misr Spinning & Weaving factory complex that employs 25,000 people.
