Algerians taunt leader at site of earthquake

BOUMERDES, Algeria - Furious crowds hurled debris and insults at Algeria's president Saturday when he visited a town devastated by an earthquake, blaming the government for a death toll that rose to nearly 1,900 and shortages of food and water.

The anger came as Japanese rescue workers said they pulled a survivor - a 21-year-old waiter - from the rubble of a hotel on the Mediterranean coast at midnight Friday, more than two days after the quake hit.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake flattened villages east of Algiers on Wednesday night. The government on Saturday said at least 1,875 people were killed and 7,691 people were injured.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika tried to tour the quake-ravaged town of Boumerdes on Saturday, but angry crowds harangued him with shouts of "pouvoir assassin!," a common slogan roughly translated as "the authorities - killers."

Police fought to hold back the crowd as Bouteflika drove away, with many people throwing chunks of rubble and other objects at his car and some kicking the cars in his motorcade. Bouteflika was not hurt.

After 31/2 hours of digging through the wrecked Adim Beach Resort at Zemmouri, Japanese aid workers rescued the waiter, who somehow had escaped injury.

"It was almost a miracle. He was unscathed," said Toshimitsu Ishigure, director of the Japanese Overseas Disaster Assistance.

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