Berlin's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is opening its catwalk outside the city's landmark Brandenburg Gate with more than 50 shows presenting spring/summer collections for 2012.

The Berlin event, which runs from Wednesday through to Saturday, is seen as a show where young designers who often struggle to get noticed in New York, Milan or Paris can highlight their clothes.

Chinese search giant Baidu Inc. will use Microsoft's Bing for some English-language results as the software giant tries to expand its small share of China's search market.

China has the world's biggest population of Internet users, with more than 450 million people online. Global e-commerce, search and other Internet brands have struggled to gain a foothold against aggressive local competitors in a heavily regulated market.

Most of the risk of autism has been blamed by experts on inherited genes. Now one of the largest studies of twins and autism shifts the focus to the womb, suggesting that the mother's age and health may play a larger role than thought.

The new research doesn't solve the mystery of what causes autism. Most scientists think faulty genes and outside factors are both at work. And since autism spectrum disorders include a wide range of conditions, from mild to severe, it's unlikely there's a single cause for all of them.

The Swiss team behind the world's most advanced solar-powered airplane plans to fly its prototype across the Mediterranean next year before attempting a round-the-world trip in 2014.

Pilot Andre Borschberg says a recent flight to Belgium and France has encouraged the Solar Impulse team to consider flying the aircraft to Morocco in 2012.

Whether it's with an explosion of colorful fireworks, a hometown parade or just one burger too many, people across the United States will celebrate Independence Day Monday — each in his own way.

Thousands will camp out near the Washington Monument, eagerly awaiting the festivities there, while others will throw on a Hawaiian shirt and shorts and head for the still-snowy slopes at resorts from California to Colorado. If you're in Boston, the annual Boston Pops concert is a must. But if you're in Akron, Ohio, the Rib, White & Blue Food Festival is enticing. And then, there are Nevada's casinos. They're promising a pyrotechnics extravaganza that could be a gambler's best bet.

A Michigan jail inmate says he's being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because he can't have pornography.

In a handwritten lawsuit, 21-year-old Kyle Richards claims his civil rights are being violated at the Macomb County Jail. Richards says denying his request for erotic material subjects him to a "poor standard of living" and "sexual and sensory deprivation."

Monaco's Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene promised each other love and fidelity in an extravagant religious wedding attended by international celebrities and royalty, bringing new allure to the tiny principality known for its luxurious casinos and as stomping ground for the rich and famous.

The Catholic service Saturday followed an intimate civil ceremony Friday, which saw Charlene officially transformed from commoner into royalty. The marriage of the 53-year-old prince and the 33-year-old Charlene Wittstock, a one-time Olympic swimmer from South Africa who is now known as Princess Charlene, ended a three-decade wait for a new princess.

A buildup of volatile gas hampered rescue efforts in one Chinese coal mine and high levels of water slowed them in another as emergency crews raced to reach 40 miners trapped Sunday for a second day, officials and state media reports said.

The accidents — a cave-in at one mine and a flood at the other — occurred Saturday in two southern provinces after days of heavy rains.

Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday ruled out the arrest of four members of his party indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the 2005 assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafik Hariri.

In his first reaction to the charges by the STL, Nasrallah also rejected "each and every void accusation" made by the Netherlands-based court, which he said was heading for a trial in absentia.

Boommi Gowda used to fear the night. Her vision fogged by glaucoma, she could not see by just the dim glow of a kerosene lamp, so she avoided going outside where king cobras slithered freely and tigers carried off neighborhood dogs.

But things have changed at Gowda's home in the remote southern village of Nada. A solar-powered lamp pours white light across the front of the mud-walled hut she shares with her three grown children, a puppy and a newborn calf. Now she can now cook, tend to her livestock and get water from a nearby well at night.