Venezuelan President Maduro 'to expand price controls'

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he plans to extend price controls to all consumer goods, if he is given powers to govern by decree.

In a televised address, Mr Maduro said that he wanted to set legal limits on businesses' profit margins.

His announcement followed the seizure on Saturday of shops accused of selling electronic goods at inflated prices.

The National Assembly is expected to vote this week on his request to govern temporarily by decree.
'Theft'

The president demanded there be "zero tolerance with speculators" in his speech broadcast on Sunday. "This is beyond usury, this is theft," he added.

On the weekend, soldiers occupied a chain of shops selling electronic goods which, according to Mr Maduro, had sold items at vastly inflated prices.

Hundreds of people flocked to the Daka stores after they were forced by the government to sell their goods at lower prices, some of them at a quarter of the price listed earlier in the week.