- Newsmaker: Friendly Fire Trial Begins in Shreveport, Louisiana
At Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, a hearing begins today into last year-s so-called friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan. Two pilots from the Illinois Air National Guard dropped a 500-pound bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers on the ground. Former Navy combat pilot Brad Knickerbocker is following the trial for the Christian Science Monitor. - Reporter-s Notebook: Venezuelan Oiligarchy-s General Strike
Though it has the western hemisphere-s largest crude oil reserves, 80% of Venezuela-s people live in poverty. Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998, and reelected in 2000, with the support of the poor and a middle class fed up with the greed of the oil oligarchy. Polls now show that two-thirds of the country is fed up with Chavez. Mark Weisbrot of KnightRidder/Tribune Media reports that the polls are somewhat deceiving.
National Institute of Mental Health