The amount of salt on the menus of the six biggest fast food companies varies greatly from nation to nation, according to a study Monday that calls for regulations to curb sodium intake.

"We saw marked variability in the reported salt content of products provided by major transnational fast food companies," said Norman Campbell, lead author of the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

A Lebanese-Canadian university professor accused of a 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people will appeal an order to extradite him to France, his lawyer said Friday.

Canada's justice minister on April 4 signed an order to send Hassan Diab to France after a Canadian court in June 2011 approved his extradition despite its concerns the case is "weak."

A Korean Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Vancouver to Seoul was diverted to a nearby Canadian Forces base after the airline's U.S. call center received a bomb threat.

Korean Airlines said in a news release that the call center received the threat Tuesday about 25 minutes after take-off from Vancouver International Airport. Airline officials said they decided to turn the aircraft around.

Canada on Thursday ordered the extradition of a university professor of Lebanese descent wanted in France in connection with a deadly 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that left four dead and dozens wounded.

Hassan Diab, a sociologist at the University of Ottawa who has denied any involvement, will have one month to appeal the justice ministry's extradition order, said ministry spokesman Christian Girouard.

A Canadian potato farmer who was arrested in Lebanon a year ago has been released from prison in Beirut and is expected to arrive home on Saturday, officials said.

Henk Tepper, 44, one of Canada's largest potato growers, was arrested in Lebanon in March 2011 under an Interpol warrant for allegedly selling bad produce to Algeria.

They clutter your dresser and cost too much to make. They're a nuisance and have outlived their purpose.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was talking about the Canadian penny and why the Royal Canadian Mint will end its production this fall as part of his austerity budget.

Canada tightened the sanctions Friday on Syria, targeting President Bashar al-Assad's wife, mother, sister and sister-in-law a week after the European Union made a similar move.

Stepping up its sanctions as fighting raged after an embattled Assad said he had accepted a peace plan to put an end to a year of violence that has left over 9,000 dead, Canada said it sought a "Syria that respects the fundamental rights of all its people."

With blond locks, long legs and delicate features, Jenna Talackova would have been a strong competitor in Canada's Miss Universe pageant but was disqualified, she says, because she used to be male.

The 23-year-old transgender model from the western Canadian city of Vancouver has accused the pageant of discrimination, and more than 28,000 supporters have signed an online petition demanding her reinstatement.

A Canadian court on Monday quashed portions of a law banning brothels and living off the avails of prostitution, lifting key barriers which it said put sex trade workers at risk of harm.

The Ontario Court of Appeal, however, upheld a ban on communicating for the purposes of selling sex.

Octogenarian Jewish writer Akos Kertesz of Hungary is seeking asylum in Canada because of a "political campaign" against him, sources close to him in this country confirmed Monday.

Kertesz, 80, winner of the Hungary's most prestigious literary prize the Kossuth, arrived with his wife in Montreal last Wednesday. Since then, he has curbed his availability to media so as not to influence his refugee bid, the source also said.