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HAVANA (Reuters) - Fidel Castro met on Thursday with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez in the third known meeting this week for the 81-year-old former Cuban leader who has been recovering following surgery almost two years ago.

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Quebec father has decided to appeal a decision by a judge who ruled he had no right to stop his 12-year-old daughter from going on a school trip, even though the girl has already gone on the outing.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Food shortages at Buenos Aires grocery stores deepened on Thursday as farmers kept up a protest over soy export taxes that has sparked a political crisis for President Cristina Fernandez.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Thursday on whether to provide as much as an additional $1.245 billion in emergency global food aid funding for this year and next.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The cattle are the stars at Brazil's 14th annual Feicorte International Beef Fair but these celebrities are actually admired for being pieces of meat.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Many Hollywood heavyweights who had supported Hillary Clinton are rallying behind Barack Obama, pledging money and star power to his U.S. presidential bid before a big fundraiser next week.

PARIS (Reuters) - France has renewed contact with the leaders of Colombian guerrillas holding Franco-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt to try and secure her release after their main guerrilla contact was killed in March, presidency sources said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday and they agreed negotiations for a long-term security pact were going well, the White House said. Maliki last week had said the talks were stalled.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday and they agreed negotiations for a long-term security pact were going well, the White House said. Maliki last week had said the talks were stalled.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. lawmakers are trying to pass legislation to remove former South African President Nelson Mandela from a U.S. list of terrorists by his 90th birthday next month, officials said on Thursday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union states agreed on Thursday to scrap sanctions against Cuba but will insist the Communist island improves its human rights record, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

MALABO (Reuters) - Powerful international businessmen who allegedly masterminded a failed 2004 coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea could try again to seize power there, a British mercenary said at his trial on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee said on Thursday they were disappointed with a White House threat to veto a multi-billion-dollar housing market rescue bill.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. telephone companies that took part in President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program could be shielded from billions of dollars in lawsuits under a electronic spy bill finalized on Thursday by congressional and White House negotiators.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday accused a six-nation group of world powers of bullying Tehran over its nuclear program and said their efforts would end in disgrace.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel this month to Chengdu, China, the capital of Sichuan province that was struck by a massive earthquake in May, the State Department said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday there is "growing confidence" North Korea will make its long-overdue declaration of its nuclear programs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Congressional ethics panel is examining allegations that two Senate Democrats, including the sponsor of a major housing bill, received preferential loans by troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp, a member of Congress said on Thursday.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel and Hamas halted fighting in the Gaza Strip on Thursday but, with wider peace prospects hazy, both sides voiced doubt over how long the Egyptian- brokered ceasefire might hold.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A young Canadian prisoner will go on trial before the Guantanamo prison camp's war crimes court on October 8 on charges of murdering a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, a judge said on Thursday.