MIAMI – Mets catcher Mike Piazza (search) married former Playboy Playmate and “Baywatch” star Alicia Rickter (search) in a candlelight church ceremony. With baseball superstars including former Mets pitcher Al Leiter (search) and Detroit Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez in attendance, Piazza and Rickter took their vows at St. Jude’s Catholic …

SAN FRANCISCO – Google Inc. (GOOG) is using its popular Internet search technology to find information and images broadcast on television, continuing a recent effort to extend its reach beyond the Web. The Mountain View-based company planned to introduce the new video search service Tuesday in an index that will …

KIEV, Ukraine – A top aide to Viktor Yushchenko (search), confident the Western-leaning reformer will be inaugurated as president within days, said Wednesday that Yushchenko next week will begin a push to bring the country into the European Union (search). Despite a complex appeal of the December election results by …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – An Army helicopter crashed in southwest Baghdad on Friday night, and the fate of the crew was not immediately known, a U.S. military official said. U.S. military officials do not believe the helicopter was hit by hostile fire, Lt. Col. James Hutton said. The OH-58 Kiowa (search) …

NEW YORK – Stocks ended the first week of 2005 on the short side as much-expected jobs data failed to excite investors while Wall Street showed caution ahead of a slew of earnings reports next week. The Dow Jones industrial average (search) closed down 18.92 points, or 0.18 percent, at …

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A powerful aftershock from last month’s tsunami (search)-triggering earthquake and another quake in central Indonesia (search) sparked panic Monday in at least two countries where people feared another giant killer wave. The two quakes, both magnitude 6.3, caused little damage and no reported injuries, and neither generated …

UNITED NATIONS – Investigators probing allegations of impropriety in the United Nations’ Iraqi Oil-for-Food program questioned Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) about his involvement twice last year and again Tuesday, a U.N. spokesman said. Annan met with former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker (search) and his investigators Nov. 9 and again Dec. …

WASHINGTON – President Bush has named as his top economic adviser an Indiana businessman and former state Republican Party chairman who was one of Bush’s top fund-raisers for both presidential campaigns. Allan Hubbard (search) will replace Stephen Friedman (search), who is leaving government, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said …

If exercise is too much of an uphill battle, you may want to try the downside. A novel study of hikers in the Alps made the intriguing discovery that different types of exercise had different effects on fats and sugars in the blood. Going uphill cleared fats from the blood …

VIENNA, Austria – Crude oil futures prices seesawed Tuesday as traders focused on continued mild U.S. winter weather ahead of the midweek petroleum stocks report from the Energy Department (search). Analysts said that the U.S. data, due Wednesday, and possible speculative trading were most likely to drive prices less than …