Politics - Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It's show time for Barack Obama and John McCain, with back-to-back presidential nominating conventions offering them tightly-scripted spectacles designed to polish their images and highlight their messages.

CHESTER, Virginia (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Thursday he would assemble a foreign policy team of the "best and the brightest" and mentioned some people who may be considered for jobs if he wins the White House.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Democrats gather in Denver next week to nominate Barack Obama for president, they'll be joined by such uninvited guests as Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday declined to rule on whether lawsuits seeking to target President George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping are covered by secrecy laws or can be challenged in court.

TBILISI (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy warship will head through the Bosphorus on Friday taking relief supplies to Georgia, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy in Europe said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States and Iraq are close to a deal extending the presence of U.S. troops beyond 2008, but any timetable for their withdrawal must be "feasible," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday thanked Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who resigned this week, for efforts in fighting terrorism and called Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to pledge support for going after extremists, the White House said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Health officials released a regulation on Thursday to protect health professionals who do not want to provide abortions or certain other health care services.

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.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With speculation over U.S. vice presidential picks at a boil, prediction markets on Wednesday judged Democrat Joseph Biden and Republicans Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty most likely to get the nod.

TBILISI (Reuters) - The United States expects to help Georgia rebuild its military following the conflict with Russia over breakaway South Ossetia, a top U.S. general said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Sen. Ted Stevens failed on Wednesday to have his corruption case moved to Alaska so he could have more time in his home state to campaign for re-election.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Forty-five nations met on Thursday to consider lifting a ban on nuclear trade with India, a move which will help launch a U.S.-Indian nuclear deal.

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.

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.

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.

WARSAW (Reuters) - The United States and Poland signed a deal on Wednesday to station parts of a U.S. missile defense shield on Polish soil, drawing a sharp response from Moscow.

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.

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi politicians must not let a bitter feud over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk stand in the way of provincial elections expected to redraw the country's political map, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad said on Wednesday.