Egyptians stage nationwide strike, riots over economy

Thousands of demonstrators angry about rising prices and stagnant salaries torched buildings, looted shops and hurled bricks at police who responded with tear gas Sunday in this northern industrial town as Egyptians staged a nationwide strike.

About 150 people were arrested and 80 were wounded after riots broke out among residents and disgruntled workers at the largest textile factory in Egypt.

Nearly 100 others were arrested elsewhere across Egypt, officials said, as thousands skipped work and school and hundreds protested rising food costs and deteriorating working conditions.

The nationwide strike was the first major attempt by opposition groups to turn the past year's labor unrest into a wider political protest against the government of President Hosni Mubarak.

The strike and riots came two days before key elections for local councils, causing jitters in the government, which last week lifted import duties on some food items in an effort to soften discontent.

Mogadishu, Somalia

France contacts yacht's hijackers

France has made contact with pirates who hijacked a French luxury yacht off Africa's eastern coast with 30 French and Ukrainian crew members on board, the French foreign minister said Sunday.

About 10 pirates stormed the 288-foot Le Ponant Friday as it was returning, without passengers, from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The pirates then guided the vessel down Somalia's coast.

The hijacking comes amid a surge in piracy off the chaotic Horn of Africa nation, with a weak, impoverished government unable to patrol its territorial waters. Pirates have seized more than two dozen ships off the country's coast in the past year, demanding ransoms to free their hostages.

Earlier, a fisherman said he saw the ship arriving at the northern town of Eyl, about 310 miles north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with a small boat heading toward it, apparently with supplies.

French Prime Minister François Fillon said Saturday that he hoped to avoid force in freeing the crew but that no options had been ruled out.

Gaza City, Gaza Strip

Shrapnel kills Palestinian boy

An 8-year-old Palestinian boy was killed on Sunday in an explosion in the central Gaza Strip near the border with Israel, medical officials said.

The boy, Abdullah Buhar, was hit by shrapnel to his head and chest, the officials said. It was not immediately clear whether the boy was killed by Israeli forces operating in the area or by Palestinian militants who may have misfired a mortar shell.

The Israeli army confirmed there was fighting in the area, saying its forces opened fire at a group of militants who attacked them.

Israeli troops and Palestinian militants frequently clash along the 25-mile border between Gaza and Israel. Palestinian militants often target Israeli forces and neighboring Jewish communities with rockets, mortars and sniper fire, sparking Israeli retaliation.

Seattle Times news services