71.   In addition to heavy snowfalls during the rescue effort, the relief workers have been hampered by a strike by the state government workers who are demanding higher wages.

72.   In the worst labor unrest since the end of communism, thousands of angry workers demonstrated for eight days earlier this month to demand higher wages.

73.   In the central Siberian town of Anzhero-Sudzhensk, miners have been on strike since last week to demand back wages that are six months overdue.

74.   Kommersant, a Russian business daily, reported that workers were also demanding higher wages.

75.   Many French doctors began a four-day strike Friday to demand higher wages, an expected sequel of strikes around Christmas that clogged emergency rooms across France.

76.   Miners throughout Russia and neighboring Ukraine have gone unpaid for months, and workers at dozens of mines went on strike last week to demand back wages.

77.   Meanwhile, workers at the Novovoronezh nuclear plant announced Wednesday plans to stage a protest to demand back wages, Interfax said.

78.   Miners throughout Russia went on strike in December to demand wages that had not been paid in months.

79.   More than a million workers at state-run banks across India began a two-day strike Thursday to demand higher wages.

80.   More than a thousand nationalists rallied outside the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday, demanding back wages and calling on the president to curb corruption and push economic reforms.