
Reuters - South American leaders failed Friday to ease diplomatic tensions set off by a Colombian plan giving U.S. troops more access to its military bases for joint operations against cocaine traffickers and leftist rebels.

Reuters - South American leaders failed Friday to ease diplomatic tensions set off by a Colombian plan giving U.S. troops more access to its military bases for joint operations against cocaine traffickers and leftist rebels.

AP - Thirteen-year-old David Rojas didn’t tell his mother how terribly he missed her while she was on Navy deployments to the Middle East, because he worried it would upset her.

AP - The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it has authorized the emergency use of a swine flu test for U.S. troops overseas, allowing the military to speed up diagnoses and treatment of a virus that could cause widespread infections again this fall.

AFP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has warned he will break off diplomatic ties with Bogota over a controversial US deal to use Colombian military bases, which he termed a “declaration of war.”

AFP - South American presidents are expected to slam a US plan to use military bases in Colombia when they gather for a summit in Argentina at the end of the week specifically to discuss the issue.

AP - With the nation’s top military officer calling the situation in Afghanistan dire, President Barack Obama soon may face two equally unattractive choices: increase U.S. troops to beat back a resilient enemy, or stick with the 68,000 already committed and risk the political fallout if that’s not enough.

AP - As public support for the war in Afghanistan erodes, President Barack Obama soon may face two equally unattractive choices: increase U.S. troops levels to beat back a resilient enemy, or stick with the 68,000 already committed and risk the political fallout if that’s not enough.

AP - Speaking in a soft, sometimes labored voice, the only U.S. Army officer convicted in the 1968 slayings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai made an extraordinary public apology while speaking to a small group near the military base where he was court-martialed.

AFP - Four American soldiers serving in Iraq have been charged with cruelty and abuse of their fellow troops, the US army said in a statement on Friday.