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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican cement firm Cemex said on Wednesday it will seek international arbitration to resolve a dispute with Venezuela's government, which seized the company's unit there in a nationalization drive.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eight scientific organizations urged the next U.S. president to help protect the country from climate change by pushing for increased funding for research and forecasting, saying about $2 trillion of U.S. economic output could be hurt by storms, floods and droughts.

MADRID (Reuters) - Grieving relatives on Thursday tried to identify charred bodies from the wreckage of a Spanish jet which crashed at Madrid airport on its second attempt at takeoff after mechanical problems.

ALOFI, Niue (Reuters) - South Pacific leaders warned Fiji's post-coup government on Wednesday it could be suspended from a regional forum if it failed to hold democratic elections in early 2009.

Jon Hemming has been Reuters chief correspondent in Afghanistan for just over a year and traveling, when conditions allow, across the country. Before moving to Afghanistan, Jon worked for Reuters in London, Tehran, Ankara and Istanbul. In the following story, he tells of an experience traveling in a convoy of U.S. troops through the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a hot-bed of Taliban insurgents.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya, now in the mainstream of international politics after decades of isolation, needs reforms to revamp its political system into one that stands out against the region's "forest of dictatorships", Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp lost out on a Navy patrol plane contract because of problems with past work on the unmanned Predator aircraft it proposed, offsetting a $5 billion higher life-cycle cost of Northrop Grumman Corp's winning bid.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California's attorney general is reviewing a request by former employees of IndyMac Bancorp Inc to investigate whether a New York senator triggered the bank's collapse by releasing confidential information.

CHESTER, Virginia (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama attacked Republican John McCain on Thursday for not knowing how many houses he owns and said it proves his presidential rival is out of touch with the economic struggles of most Americans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat who was one of the few dissenting voices in Congress during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, died on Wednesday after a brain aneurysm, a hospital spokeswoman said.

SUSIA, West Bank (Reuters) - In the stony hills south of Hebron, Palestinian shepherds complain of frequent attacks by militant Israeli settlers encroaching on their land.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California's attorney general is reviewing a request by former employees of IndyMac Bancorp Inc to investigate whether a New York senator triggered the bank's collapse by releasing confidential information.

VIENNA (Reuters) - A civilian nuclear deal between India and the United States faces a crucial test on Thursday when the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group meets in Vienna.

VIENNA (Reuters) - A civilian nuclear deal between India and the United States faces a crucial test on Thursday when the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group meets in Vienna.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has halted a program that united African refugees with relatives in America after DNA testing revealed many people were lying about family links, the State Department said on Wednesday.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya will sign a free trade accord with the European Union soon, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's influential son Saif al Islam said on Wednesday.

PARIS (Reuters) - France reacted in shock on Wednesday to the death of 10 of its soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan and questions began to be asked about the country's worst military loss in 25 years.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eight scientific organizations urged the next U.S. president to help protect the country from climate change by pushing for increased funding for research and forecasting, saying about $2 trillion of U.S. economic output could be hurt by storms, floods and droughts.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed Middle East peace moves with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday, in advance of an expected visit by Syria's leader to Moscow, an Israeli official said.

WARSAW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Russia's reaction to the U.S.-Polish missile shield agreement "borders on the bizarre" but denied Washington wanted a confrontation with Moscow.