The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Friday that it was increasingly alarmed over the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and distressed over the lack of international response.

The U.S. Army decided on Friday to stop a plan to send a convicted dog handler, one of the American soldiers involved in abusing Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, back to Iraq after his deployment was disclosed by the news media.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on Friday that the state will build more Enterprise Zones to spur job growth and economic development.

The United States said on Friday that it regrets the loss of "innocent" Palestinian lives during Israel's military offensive but defended Israel's military action as fighting against "terrorists."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his visiting German counterpart Angela Merkel met in London on Friday, agreeing to make efforts on tackling climate change.

The U.S. government has shut down a public web site that included sensitive details about constructing nuclear and chemical weapons, newspapers reported Friday.

Several fresh and successive Israeli airstrikes killed nine Palestinians on Friday evening in northern and southern Gaza Strip, medical and security sources said.

Authorities have filed arson and murder charges against a 36-year-old Californian man, who allegedly set last week's wildfire that killed five firefighters and destroyed 34 homes in a mountain area near Palm Springs, about 150 km east of Los Angeles.

Canada's Conservative government is planing to table a motion in early December to reopen the same-sex marriage debate, local media reported Friday.

The United States has no intention to attack or invade the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and believes there is an opportunity to settle the DPRK nuclear issue through diplomatic means, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a briefing on Friday.