Budget-conscious celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been hired to cook for G-20 leaders in London next week, nearly a year after they provoked outrage by eating an eight-course meal while discussing the global food crisis. Oliver's company will feed the leader's at Prime Minister Gordon Brown's residence, 10 Downing Street. Leaders at last July's G-8 meeting drew heavy criticism for enjoying an eight-course meal featuring 19 dishes while they were meant to be discussing how to ease global food shortages. ...

Conservative candidate Gjorge Ivanov leads his rivals after Sunday's presidential election in Macedonia, the State Election Commission said Monday. But the vote appeared to be heading for a runoff on April 5 with no candidate on course to secure an overall majority. The election is seen as crucial to the former Yugoslav republic's prospects of joining NATO and the European Union after parliamentary elections last June were marred by violent clashes, prompting criticism from election observers. Ivanov, of the ruling ...

Pirates attacked a Japanese cargo ship off the coast of Somalia on Sunday, a Japanese Transportation Ministry official said. A pair of small pirate vessels fired on a ship operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines about 4 p.m. Somali time (9 a.m. ET), damaging the front of the ship, but not seriously, according to Masami Suekado. There were no injuries. The exact number and makeup of the crew were not immediately known, although none of the crew members is Japanese, ...

Two NATO-led soldiers were killed on Sunday in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

The global economy will shrink up to 2 percent, and rapidly approved stimulus plans worldwide could spark another crash in financial markets, World Bank President Bob Zoellick projected at a forum in Belgium Saturday. Zoellick said the World Bank, an international institution that offers aid to developing nations, projects a global economic decline between 1 percent and 2 percent. That estimate is in contrast with an earlier 1 percent decline projected by the International Monetary Fund, a Washington-based organization ...

Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, arrived in Pakistan on Saturday morning, a Pakistani Interior Ministry official said. Khamenei said a change in rhetoric is not enough, and Washington must practice what it preaches, according to the English-language Press TV channel in Iran. He also promised that Iran will change its policy if the United States does so as well, Press TV reported. Khamenei's comments, which he made in a televised address to mark the start of the Iranian New ...

Iran's ancient Persian New Year celebration is known as Nowruz, which literally means "new day", and President Barack Obama marked the occasion on Friday with an unprecedented taped message to Iran's leaders and its people offering "a new beginning" in relations between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic. Obama said he was "committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran and the international community," and looked ...

President Barack Obama reached out to Iran on Friday -- the start of the Iranian New Year -- in a video message offering "the promise of a new beginning" that is "grounded in mutual respect." The message is a dramatic shift in tone from that of the Bush administration, which included Iran, along with North Korea and Iraq, in an "axis of evil." It also echoes Obama's inaugural speech, in which he said to the Muslim world, "we seek a ...

It carries the nickname "America's Finest City," and right now it appears San Diego is living up to the hype. Though the international financial crisis has precipitated economic woe across the United States, developments in San Diego's super-yacht industry don't appear to be slowing. Fifth Avenue Landing, a stylish new facility promising the ultimate docking experience for super-yachts up to 300 feet long, has just opened in city's downtown area. The marina, which is close to local attractions and top ...

A bat that apparently had trouble flying instead tried to hitch a ride on the space shuttle Discovery, NASA officials said. The rodent was last seen clinging on the foam of the external tank of the space shuttle moments before the Discovery launched, officials said. NASA officials had hoped the bat would fly away on its own, but admitted the bat probably died quickly during Discovery's climb into orbit. Discovery's seven-member crew, which lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on ...