WORLD : Cuba Extends Food Rationing

Cuba’s Communist government extended rationing of food, clothes and household articles and restricted the sale of prized electrical goods today in a further sign the island is feeling the pinch of the disruption of Soviet imports.

The austerity moves signaled additional sacrifices for Cuba’s long-suffering 10 million people, who despite free health care and education have endured rationing and shortages since the United States imposed an economic blockade after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Less than a month ago, the government introduced stringent fuel restrictions and energy-saving measures to offset a shortfall in Soviet oil and other deliveries. In one of its rationing orders today, the government imposed controls on the sale of 28 food items, including canned meat, fish and fruit, fresh and frozen fish, cream cheese, pasta and even ketchup.