CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) - President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela signed a decree Wednesday that orders the nationalization of the country's leading steel producer.

Chavez nationalized Sidor, a steel making company, a Venezuelan government official told CNN. The Argentine company Ternium owns the majority of shares in Sidor, according to a report about Chavez's decision in the Venezuelan-based Bolivariana News Agency.

The leftist administration of Chavez has nationalized companies from several industries.

(CNN) - A group of native Hawaiians occupied the grounds of the old Hawaiian monarchy's royal residence Wednesday, vowing to stay and do the business of the kingdom's government.

"It is through a greater realm than ours" that the group took this action, said Mahealani Kahau, elected leader of the group, called Hawaiian Kingdom Government. "Today and every day, we will be here to assume our role."

The group is one of several in Hawaii that reject statehood and seek to return to the constitutional monarchy that effectively ended in 1893 when a group of politicians, businessmen and sugar planters - aided by the U.S. minister to Hawaii - overthrew the kingdom's government.

The monarchist groups say that the kingdom was overthrown and annexed into the United States illegally.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A nationwide computer failure briefly shut down terminals at U.S. Customs entry points all over the country, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Balero said the failure happened at about 7 p.m. ET and lasted for about 30 minutes. Not all the country's entry points were affected, he said, although he could not say how many were.

Balero said the temporary problem caused no backups.

(CNN) - Thousands of people packed a broad street Wednesday in downtown Santa Cruz, Boliva, listening to speakers urge them to vote "Si" Sunday on a referendum seeking autonomy for the eastern department of Santa Cruz.

Autonomy "is a fundamental right to be creators of our own destiny; autonomy is an essential part of our liberty," said Santa Cruz Prefect Ruben Costas Aguilera.

But a mine union worker opposed the supporters of autonomy. "They want to divide our departments and the whole Bolivian people," he told a reporter. "We're not going to permit that the country be divided."

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A nationwide computer failure has shut down terminals at U.S. Customs entry points all over the country, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Balero said the failure happened at about 7 p.m. ET.

He said passengers entering the country are being processed using laptop computers and that slowdowns at entry points are minimal. The laptops are part of a backup plan implemented after several customs computer failures in the past, Balero said.

(CNN) - Two bombs exploded overnight in northern Spain's Basque country, though there were no reports of casualties.

The first occurred without warning shortly after midnight in an industrial pavilion belonging to the Ministry of Labor in the town of Arrigorriaga, reported CNN's partner station, the 24-hour Spanish language news channel CNN Plus.

The second bombing occurred half an hour later in the San Sebastian neighborhood of Donostiarra, but this time authorities had cordoned off the area.

An hour ahead of the attack, a caller had declared to authorities that the attack was imminent and was to be carried out in the name of the separatist group ETA.

(CNN) - Investigators are looking into the possible sexual abuse of some of the young boys taken from a polygamist sect's ranch in Texas, and into how several children apparently sustained broken bones while there, the state child welfare department said Wednesday.

Child Protective Services said suspicions of sexual abuse are based on interviews with the children and journal entries found at the Yearning For Zion ranch, owned by the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy.

But an FLDS spokesman blasted the department, saying it was unethical of CPS to leak information without any legitimate evidence.

"They don't have any evidence that there's abuse and neither do I," said Rod Parker at a news conference in Salt Lake City, Utah - home to the sect. "CPS is trying to grab headlines ... and insulate themselves from fair and justified criticism on the way they have treated this case."

WASHINGTON (CNN) - U.S. troops fear that seeking help for mental health problems could harm their careers, according to a survey released Wednesday, and the Pentagon is expected to change its policies to ease that concern.

Three out of five members of the military worry it would have at least some impact, according to the small online survey conducted for the American Psychiatric Association. About half said they thought other people would think less of them if they sought help for mental health problems.

The report was released a day before a scheduled announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates aimed at encouraging more servicemembers to seek help for post-combat stress. Pentagon officials told CNN that troops who file for security clearances will no longer have to answer a question on the standard application for a security clearance that asks whether the applicant has been treated for combat-related mental health issues.

Currently, if a service member says they have received treatment they are required to answer the question in depth, in person, in an interview with a security agent.

From CNN's Mythili Rao

NEW YORK (CNN) - A little more than a month after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation, Penguin Group imprint Portfolio will be publishing a book about his career "from start to finish," president and publisher Adrian Zackheim told CNN.

Peter Elkind, editor-at-large at Fortune and author of a 2005 profile of the governor called "Satan or Savior?" in that magazine, will be collaborating with filmmaker Alex Gibney to produce a book and documentary which will be released together, according to Allison McLean, Penguin spokeswoman.

Elkind's last book, "The Smartest Guys in the Room," in which he and co-author Bethany McLean retraced Enron's downfall, was a bestseller in 2003.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Burgeoning populations, the rise of China, and a less-than-harmonious relationship with Europe are three key challenges facing the United States as it moves further into the 21st century, according to CIA Director Michael Hayden.

In a speech at Kansas State University on Wednesday, Hayden indicated the world's population is expected to grow by 45 percent to 9 billion people by mid-century, mostly in countries that cannot sustain it. Such rapid growth in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, coupled with likely mass migration to developed countries, will strain resources and increase the risk of violence, civil unrest or extremism, he said.

The CIA director predicted China will achieve great-power status during this century. Although he called China an economic and political competitor, he said, "China is not an inevitable enemy."

–From CNN National Security Producer Pam Benson