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A 12-day-old general strike in Venezuela turns violent again as supporters and critics of President Hugo Chavez battle in Caracas. Detractors say Chavez has impoverished the country. The leftist leader fired four dissident oil executives Thursday, increasing tensions. NPR's Gerry Hadden reports.

North Korean officials say they will reopen a nuclear power plant closed under a 1994 agreement with Washington. The move raises new concerns about North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Hear NPR's Rob Gifford and Johns Hopkins professor Donald Oberdorfer.

Boston's Cardinal Law will comply with a subpoena to appear before a grand jury investigating the church-abuse scandal. The move comes on the heels of a legal settlement with New Hampshire church officials who admit they violated criminal laws. NPR's Tovia Smith reports.

President Bush is set to announce a plan to vaccinate all Americans against smallpox. The general population won't be offered the inoculation until 2004. Meanwhile, soldiers and "first-response" personnel prepare for early inoculations. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.

Robert Siegel and Michele Norris read from some of this week's letters.

NPR's David Welna reports on the latest developments about Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott. Today, President Bush weighed in on the matter for the first time, saying that Lott's comments -- which seemingly endorsed the views held by Strom Thurmond when Thurmond ran for president on a segregationist platform in 1948 -- were "offensive" and "wrong." Mr. Bush made his comments before an enthusiastic Philadelphia audience made up of many minorities. But the President refused to ask for Lott's resignation as leader.

NPR's Jack Speer reports President Bush is naming former Goldman Sachs investment banker Stephen Friedman as his top economics adviser. Friedman is being appointed to the White House job despite an aggressive campaign to torpedo his candidacy by some conservative Republicans.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez fires four dissident executives at the state oil monopoly as he tries to break an 11-day strike paralyzing the economy. Venezuelans opposed to Chavez clamor for new elections, while oil and gas supplies run thin. NPR's Gerry Hadden reports.

As part of NPR's year-long Housing First project, Morning Edition this week airs three reports on the economics of housing for some of the neediest Americans. In the third report, NPR's Cheryl Corley reports from Boston on a controversial program that's had some success turning around crumbling neighborhoods, but can also be used to clear desirable land for high-rent construction.

NPR Religion Correspondent Duncan Moon reports on the dilemma the Roman Catholic Church faces over whether to give the Boston Archdiocese the go ahead to declare bankruptcy. Cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston, resigned this week after meeting with Vatican officials in Rome. Moon reports that bankruptcy may not remove the tremendous financial problems the Boston Archdiocese faces because of lawsuits, filed by victims of alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests.