Lusaka - Striking construction workers at a copper smelter in Zambia took a group of Chinese managers hostage on Tuesday in protest at their poor working conditions. Police were called to the site to free the hostages and calm tensions after workers locked the Chinese inside their offices and shut the perimeter gates, said company spokesperson George Jambwa. More than 500 workers at the $200m Chinese-owned site near the town of Chambesi began their strike action on Monday to press for better wages and safer working conditions ... Workers, who staged a similar work stoppage one month ago, said their salaries amounted to a mere $50 a month and complained of poor medical facilities ... Chinese investors in the southern African nation were often criticised for poor safety records. This criticism grew after 50 Zambian miners died in an explosion at a Chinese-owned Chambeshi copper mine in 2005 ...

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawian tobacco farmers are expected to be paid a minimum of $2.70 per kg this year for their crop, up from last year's $1.85 per kg, a senior government official said on Thursday. Tobacco is the southern African nation's mainstay, accounting for over 70 percent of Malawi's exports and 15 percent of its gross domestic product, but for the last two years low prices have led to cuts in production. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Patrick Kabambe said that the new prices have been agreed upon with buyers and other stakeholders in the industry. "The minimum price set for the leaf is $2.20 cents which is more than last year minimum price of $1.85 cents" ... For many years tobacco prices had hovered around 70-90 U.S. cents per kg, far lower than the $1 the industry says it costs to produce one kg of the golden leaf. But from last year prices improved and farmers sold their crop between $1.70 and $1.60 per kg for the first time in several years, after President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered buyers to offer better prices or leave the country. Limbe Leaf Tobacco, majority owned by the Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company, and U.S.-based Alliance One Tobacco, are the active buyers who were ordered to peg the prices at a minimum price of $1.1 per kg and $1.7 for higher grade leaf. Wa Mutharika, who also farms tobacco, accused buyers of running a cartel to fix prices ... Last year, the government registered another international buyer, U.S.-based based Premiere Leaf, in a bid to get better prices. Two undisclosed Chinese companies are expected to buy the crop this year ...