Obama defends budget as essential to recovery

President Obama said Tuesday "there are no quick fixes" to pull the economy out of recession, but he insisted the country will recover. In his second prime time news conference, Obama called on Americans to look to the future with a “renewed confidence that a better day will come.” “We will recover from this recession,” the president said.

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Celebrity chef Oliver to cook for G-20 leaders

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

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Map offers hope in fight against malaria

A new map illustrating global malaria risk in unprecedented detail suggests that wiping out the disease in many parts of the world is possible. An international team of researchers published Tuesday what they say is the most comprehensive map ever showing how severe the risks of contracting malaria are in the world.

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Brown, bank chiefs thrash out G-20 plans

Top executives of leading international banks were meeting the British prime minister and treasury chief Tuesday to discuss kick-starting the global financial system ahead of next month’s G-20 summit. About a dozen representatives of U.S., Japanese, German and South African banks were at Downing Street to meet with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling, a spokesman for the Treasury said.

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S. Africa peace summit postponed after Dalai Lama row

An international peace conference in Johannesburg has been postponed after South Africa refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend the event. Announcing the postponement at a news conference Tuesday, Irvin Khosa, chairman of the South African football league, did not offer an explanation for the delay.

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Obama highlights need for more clean-energy funding

President Obama turned his attention to the need for more clean-energy funding Monday, arguing that an expanded investment is needed to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth, cut dependence on foreign oil and slow the process of global warming. Obama, speaking to a group of renewable-energy company owners and investors, said the country has “known the right choice for a generation (and that) the time has come to make that choice.” In the years ahead, the United States “can remain the world’s leading importer of foreign oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” Obama argued. “We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc, or we can create jobs preventing its worse effects

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