God-fearing villagers snub "satanic" bar codes*

Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:56PM GMT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A hundred residents of a Russian village have refused
to switch to new passports because they believe the documents' bar codes
contain satanic symbols, state television reported on Wednesday.

"We believe these new passports are sinful," Valentina Yepifanova, an
elderly resident of the village Bogolyubovo, told Rossiya television as
she clutched an old, tattered passport she said she wanted to keep.

"They have these bar codes and people say they contain three sixes. We
are against that."
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Some residents of Bogolyubovo, which means "God-loving" in Russian, have
also stopped collecting their pensions at the local post office because
the payment slips also have bar codes that might contain the mark of the
devil, Rossiya TV reported.