In brief: Venezuela promises action on prices
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela is stepping up efforts to combat shortages and rising prices so families can have a merry Christmas complete with 12-cent sacks of sugar and 50-cent chickens.
President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday that he is deploying hundreds of inspectors to enforce the government’s price regulations, which set the cost of everything from milk to toothbrushes artificially low.
“Today we deploy, and in November and December you will see that we have guaranteed a happy Christmas for the people,” he said during televised remarks.
The move is part of an expanded effort to combat chronic shortages, smuggling and runaway inflation that are putting great stress on consumers in the socialist Latin American country. The new initiatives come as Maduro’s approval ratings have plunged into the low 30 percent range, and his party prepares for congressional elections next year.
Maduro recently announced that his administration had taken over warehouses where “bourgeois criminals” were hoarding food and medical supplies. He also increased the maximum prison sentence for smugglers to 14 years.
Extremist leader taunts parents of missing girls
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – With a malevolent laugh, the leader of Nigeria’s Islamic extremists tells the world that more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls have all been converted to Islam and married off, dashing hopes for their freedom.
“If you knew the state your daughters are in today, it might lead some of you … to die from grief,” Abubakar Shekau sneers, addressing the parents of the girls and young women kidnapped from a remote boarding school more than six months ago.
In a new video released late Friday night, the Boko Haram leader also denies there is a cease-fire with the Nigerian government and threatens to kill an unidentified German hostage.
“Don’t you know we are still holding your German hostage (who is) always crying,” he taunts. “If we want, we will hack him or slaughter him or shoot him.”
In the new video, Shekau wears a camouflage tunic and pants and the black and white flag of al-Qaida is by his side. He is flanked by masked and armed fighters standing in front of four military pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns. Boko Haram has looted many weapons and vehicles including armored cars from Nigeria’s military.
The military has several times claimed to have killed Shekau, and says any new videos are made by a look-alike. But the United States has not removed a $7 million ransom on the head of the extremist leader.