Russian ships arrive in Venezuela for joint military exercises. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will arrive to Venezuela, Cuba and some other countries of Latin America next week.

Jim Lehrer asked about most of the major states: Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and yes, even Russia. What was sorely lacking and probably most important? Venezuela.

Two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers have landed at a military airfield in Venezuela, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of Colombians and Venezuelans attended a free concert Sunday, held on a bridge linking the two countries. It was organized by Grammy-winning rock artist Juanes to celebrate the end of the diplomatic crisis between Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, and to further improve peaceful relations within the region.

The Presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela have settled a weeklong crisis that was starting to get close to war. The dispute began when Colombian forces attacked FARC rebels inside Ecuador.

Venezuelan authorities say search teams have retrieved several bodies from Thursday's plane crash in the Andes Mountains that left 46 people dead.

A plane carrying 46 people took off afternoon and was reported missing 30 minutes later. The plane crashed in the mountains of western Venezuela, where the wreckage was spotted by helicopter on Friday. All aboard were believed killed.

Venezuela's state-run oil company has announced it is cutting crude sales to ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company, because of Exxon's efforts to seize Venezuelan assets.

For the past few months, the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela have been engaged in a war of words, harshly criticizing each other. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez even hinted at the possibility of armed conflict in comments made in mid-January. Yet the two neighboring nations are closely tied commercially -- they are for each other the second largest trading partner after the United States.

Officials in Ecuador say Venezuela is to help them build a $5 billion oil refinery that will become operational in 2012.

President Hugo Chavez crashed to an unprecedented vote defeat on Monday as Venezuelans rejected his bid to run for reelection indefinitely and accelerate his socialist revolution in the OPEC nation.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to stop oil exports to the US if violence he claims it is plotting breaks out after a hotly contested weekend referendum aimed at expanding his powers.