4 dead in Mozambique riots over rising prices (Mozambique riots spotlight world food price spike)

[Turborama]

Source: MSNBC

By EMANUEL CAMILLO -

updated 9/2/2010 6:27:46 PM ET -

MAPUTO, Mozambique — Angry protesters burned tires on the streets of Mozambique's capital and a TV station said at least one person was killed Thursday, a day after at least four people died in clashes between police and rioters.

Mozambique's S-TV said a young man drowned after he ran from police and stumbled into a small pond in Maputo, the capital. Police did not immediately confirm the death.

Protesters, most of them young men, had rioted Wednesday over the rising cost of food, fuel and water. They threw stones and looted shops in Maputo. Cell phone messages late Wednesday and early Thursday called for continued protests.

Protesters Thursday appeared to avoid confrontations with police and soldiers, who were on the streets in large numbers. Those gathered would scatter when police and soldiers came near, only to regroup when the patrols passed. Sporadic gunfire could be heard as police fired into the air.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38981068/ns/world_news-africa/

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At least 1 dead in second day of Mozambique riots

By the CNN Wire Staff
September 2, 2010

At least one person was killed Thursday as riots in the southern African nation of Mozambique continued into a second day, Deputy Justice Minister Alberto Nkutumula said in a televised news conference.

Another 37 people were admitted to a hospital with bullet wounds, said Evete Soares, the hospital director, on STV.

Police used live rounds and threw tear gas into crowds, according to a local journalist who saw the violence in Maputo, the nation's capital.

Residents of the neighborhood where the violence took place are outraged, and police fear a backlash, said a police source who asked not to be named because of safety concerns.

Amnesty International on Wednesday urged police not to use live ammunition to disperse violent demonstrations in the capital unless lives are at risk.

More: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/09/02/mozambique.violence/#fbid=5tFS21of5oJ&wom=false


A woman passes near burning tires in a street in Maputo, Thursday
Sept. 2, 2010 a day after police opened fire on stone-throwing
crowds who were protesting rising prices in this impoverished country.

Mozambique riots spotlight world food price spike

By DONNA BRYSON (AP) – 4 hours ago

JOHANNESBURG — A few pennies' increase in the price of a loaf of bread can mean the difference between getting by and going hungry — and erupting in anger — in the world's poorest countries.

A spike in food prices has triggered deadly riots in Mozambique this week, and experts worry other countries that saw such unrest during the last global food crisis in 2008 could be hit again. Over the last two months alone, food prices worldwide have risen 5 percent.

"I think everyone is wondering if we are going to have a repeat of 2008 when ... there were food riots around the world," said Johanna Nesseth Tuttle, director of the Global Food Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Countries from Asia, to the Middle East to Europe are feeling the strain.

More: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jCDf-xtZ9_auszUd9DOucz-2DCEAD9I026Q81

[provis99]

1. well, that's how free enterprise works.

I guess a capitalist/libertarian would say, if they don't want to sell themselves into debt just to buy food, they have chosen to starve.

[Hawkowl]

2. Goldman Sachs et al again

Commodity traders who trade only paper, and never, ever take delivery of said commodities are forcing the prices of food up. Corn, wheat, soybeans, oil, etc. All these prices are not determined by a "free market", but by a handful of commodity traders who can corner the market (on paper) of these commodities and then dictate the prices. Americans take heed, because it happens in the third world first. Once the evil banker/brokers run out of sheep abroad, they will bring it home.