Tel Aviv - Israel Thursday opened the Gaza Strip to foreign journalists and aid workers, after preventing them from entering the salient for four weeks.

A Palestinian official said Israel also opened a cargo crossing into the Strip to allow delivery of limited amounts of vital aid.

"The Israeli side told us that Kerem Shalom crossing would open Thursday for 40 trucks with food, aid and medical supplies," Nasser al-Sarraj, a Palestinian ministry of economy official, said.

Israel banned foreign journalists from entering the Strip as a fragile truce with Palestinian militants began falling apart.

London, Dec 4 : Penelope Cruz bagged Best Ensemble Performance prize at Gotham Independent Film Awards for her role in Woody Allen movie ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’.

‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’, which starred Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, and Javier Bardem, shared the award with ‘Synecdoche, New York’, which has a cast-list including Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener, reports the Daily Star.

Cruz was among four movie icons honoured at the ceremony, picking up a tribute prize, alongside other honourees Van Sant, Melvin Van Peebles and HBO boss Sheila Nevins

New York, Dec 4 : Pete Wentz has revealed that his embarrassing nude photo incident actually helped him bond with wife Ashlee Simpson.

In 2006, the Fall Out Boy star took some photos of himself naked with his camera phone and sent them to a girl he knew - and she leaked them to the internet.

He told Details magazine that he was embarrassed when the pictures appeared online but Ashlee comforted him about it.

"She just called me up and made me feel a lot better," the New York Post quoted him, as telling the magazine.

Baghdad - US president-elect Barak Obama has told the Iraqi prime minister he will implement the security agreement between the two countries and is ready to cooperate in fighting terrorism and insurgents in Iraq, national television reported on Thursday.

Obama told Nuri al-Maliki in a phone conversation on Wednesday night that the two countries have entered "a new phase" in their relations after the signing of the security deal in November.

Thw agreement calls for US forces to pull back from Iraqi towns and cities by the end of June 2009, and for a complete withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2011.

London, Dec 4 : Lil Wayne has won eight Grammy awards nominations, including album of the year for ‘Tha Carter III’.

Following close behind with seven nominations was British rock band Coldplay, while rappers Kanye West and Jay-Z, and R&B singer Ne-Yo each received six, reports BBC.

Zurich - Switzerland's second biggest bank Credit Suisse is stepping up its restructuring programme saying Thursday it was axing another 5300 jobs after reporting a
3 billion Swiss francs (2.5 billion dollars) net loss during in the first two months of the current quarter.

"Investment banking had a significant pretax loss, reflecting the adverse financial market conditions in the quarter and cost association with risk reduction," the Zurich-based bank said in a review of its fourth-quarter performance.