Poland turns to meat rationing

The Polish government has approved meat and sugar rationing and vowed to raise prices on vodka in an effort to stem an alcohol problem that finds 10 percent of the nation's work force inebriated every day. The rationing is the first in Poland since the 1950s and limits a person to 2.2 pounds of sugar a month for the next seven months and from 4.4 to 10 pounds of meat monthly, depending on age and occupation, from April to June.

The rationing plan approved Sunday was one of the first proposals made by the new government of Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski in a bid to put the faltering an d shortage-ridden economy back in shape.