Venezuela may require prints to buy bread
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelans could soon have to scan their fingerprints to buy bread.
President Nicolas Maduro says a mandatory fingerprinting system is being implemented at grocery stores to combat food shortages by keeping people from buying too much of a single item. He calls it an “anti-fraud system” like the fingerprint scan the country uses for voting.
In announcing the plan late Wednesday, Maduro did not say when the system would take effect, but other administration officials suggested it could be in place by December or January.
Venezuela has been grappling with shortages of basic goods like cooking oil and flour for more than a year. In the spring, the administration tried a similar system in government-run supermarkets on a voluntary basis.
Ukraine continues attacks in rebel areas
KIEV, Ukraine – Fierce fighting raged in eastern Ukraine on Thursday in what appeared to be a last-gasp attempt by government troops to snatch back territory from pro-Russian separatists before the arrival of a Russian aid convoy overseen by the Red Cross.
Trucks loaded with water, generators and sleeping bags for desperate civilians in the besieged city of Luhansk began moving through Ukrainian customs after being held up at the border for a week, in part because of safety concerns and Ukrainian fears that the convoy’s arrival could halt the military’s advance.
The trucks in the 200-vehicle convoy were expected to cross into Ukraine on Friday morning on their way to Luhansk, a city with a war-reduced population of a quarter-million people, 12 miles from the Russian border.
At Russia’s urging, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a cease-fire during the humanitarian mission.
The Red Cross has said it needs assurances of safe passage.
Associated Press
