Hugo Chávez shuts off discounted heating oil to U.S. poor

Venezuela's state oil company is suspending a much-promoted program that provided discounted heating oil to hundreds of thousands of poor people throughout the United States, the company announced Monday.

The program has been a public relations bonanza for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, a socialist who frequently attacks capitalism and the United States. Chávez repeatedly has tweaked the noses of U.S. policy makers by saying the program shows that he's a good friend of America's poo