Guests including Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet escaped uninjured when fire destroyed Richard Branson's Caribbean home during a tropical storm Monday, said the British businessman.

The Virgin Group boss said about 20 people, including Winslet and her children, were staying in the eight-bedroom Great House on Necker, his private isle in the British Virgin Islands.

George Michael made an emotional and introspective return to the stage on Monday, admitting mid-performance he'd split with long-term partner Kenny Goss and recalling his own troubled past with drugs.

The 48-year-old singer — appearing at the Prague State Opera House on the opening night of his "Symphonica" tour — told the audience: "Kenny and I haven't been together for two and a half years ... It's time to be honest."

Even a fatwa is grist for comedy when you're David Letterman.

Back from two weeks' vacation and making his first TV appearance since a threat against his life was posted on a jihadist website, the "Late Show" host played it for laughs during Monday's monologue.

Kim Kardashian's weekend wedding kept the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office busy.

Officer Drew Sugars says the Saturday evening ceremony brought 22 calls into the station, mostly complaints from neighbors about loud music and helicopters overhead.

A mayor is trying to ban Christian churches on streets with Islamic names, the latest attempt to block construction of a new parish in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.

Critics say the proposal — however arbitrary — is another example of growing religious intolerance.

A major Chinese online commerce site has banned sales of software used to bypass Internet censorship amid Beijing's efforts to block the development of a Middle East-style protest movement.

But Taobao.com, part of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, said it took the action on its own and received no official order.

Google says it will soon make available images of the Amazon rain forest on its Street View mapping service.

Spokesman Fabio Sabba says Google began taking photographs of Amazon rivers and trails in a partnership with a local environmental group called Fundacao Amazonia Sustentavel.

A chance meeting in an airport lobby between the top executives of Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. has evolved into a deal between the auto giants to jointly develop a gas-electric hybrid engine for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

The companies signed the agreement Monday to share development costs, saying they want to make the technology more affordable for customers and bring it to market faster. Many details have yet to be worked out, but both said their vehicles would remain unique even if they share the same drive systems.

This time around, the United States is saying no to the Olympics.

Locked in a dispute over millions of dollars, the U.S. Olympic Committee pulled the plug Monday on a bid for the 2020 Summer Games before the International Olympic Committee could say no to the Americans, as it has the last two times. The two sides have been at odds over a revenue-sharing agreement for years.

Tourists and Washingtonians were about to get their first up-close look Monday at the memorial to the civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The site was set to open without fanfare around 11 a.m. to kick off a week of celebrations ahead of Sunday's official dedication.