The United Nations will resume shipments of food and supplies to Gaza after receiving assurances from Israel that it is not being targeted, a UN spokesperson said Friday.

Efforts are underway to bring to safety at least eight Canadians still trapped in the Gaza Strip.

A federal grand jury in Maryland has indicted a Canadian citizen on charges of passing U.S. information on to the government of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein while living in the state.

Mired in recession, the United States economy shed 524,000 jobs in December, pushing overall job losses for 2008 to 2.6 million - the largest annual drop since 1945.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he wasn't surprised by his impeachment by the state house of representatives Friday, saying he's butted heads with the house since his re-election in 2006.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked Merck & Co., maker of the Gardasil vaccine for cervical cancer, to provide longer-term data on women aged 27 to 45, the company said Friday.

Natural gas shipments from Russia to Europe could resume Friday if a European Union mission immediately begins observing Ukrainian pipelines, the head of Russia's gas company said.

Somali pirates released a Saudi supertanker after receiving $3 million US in ransom Friday, a negotiator for the pirates said.

Former Sopranos actor Lillo Brancato Jr. is going to jail for 10 years for a botched 2005 robbery, a New York court heard Friday.

Kidnappers of a Vancouver web publisher are demanding a $150,000 million ransom and the release of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan, according to a Pakistani newspaper.

Sarah Palin says she was exploited by the media and entertainers during her failed run as a Republican vice-presidential candidate.

A New York surgeon who has been involved in a long and bitter divorce battle is telling his estranged wife to either return the kidney he donated to her or give him $1.5 million US in compensation.

Investigators in the Philippines will launch a formal probe into the case of a Northern Ontario woman who was found dead last month at the resort where she worked as a chef, according to her family.

Higher global temperatures forecast for the rest of this century will lead to major disruptions in the world food supply unless farmers can adapt to the changing climate, U.S. researchers say.

Six people were killed in southern Afghanistan Friday when a suicide bomber launched an attack on a produce shop, according to a provincial governor.