The British edition of "The X Factor" is coming to U.S. television.

Music entertainment cable channel AXS TV said Wednesday it will begin airing the singing contest's 11th season on Labor Day weekend.

President Barack Obama says that U.S. sanctions levied against Russia over its actions in Ukraine are working but that Washington would face a much different set of questions about how to respond if Moscow invaded eastern Ukraine.

Western officials warn that a Russian military buildup on Ukraine's border could herald a major incursion to protect the pro-Moscow separatists fighting Ukrainian forces. Despite bipartisan pressure from lawmakers to send U.S. military aid to Ukraine, however, the Obama administration thus far has said it doesn't believe U.S. military assistance is needed.

The crisis in Ukraine and a hesitant recovery in Europe are casting shadows over the European Central Bank's meeting.

Economists say the monetary authority for the 18 countries that use the euro will look to reassure markets later Thursday that it is ready to back further stimulus measures if the economy takes a serious turn for the worse.

In 2025, self-driving cars could be the norm, people could have more leisure time and goods could become cheaper. Or, there could be chronic unemployment and an even wider income gap, human interaction could become a luxury and the wealthy could live in walled cities with robots serving as labor.

Or, very little could change.

Chinese regulators have launched a series of anti-monopoly investigations of global automakers and technology providers, stepping up pressure on foreign companies that feel increasingly unwelcome in China.

On Wednesday, a regulator said Chrysler and Germany's Audi will be punished for violating anti-monopoly rules. Mercedes Benz and Japanese companies also are under scrutiny. A probe of Microsoft was announced last week.

The Audubon Society wants bird lovers to contribute research to a project scientists hope will help save Atlantic puffins from starvation in Maine.

There are about 1,000 pairs of the seabirds, known for their multi-colored beaks and clownish appearance, in Maine. Audubon says the number of puffin fledging chicks has declined in the last two years, possibly because their key food source, herring and hake, are leaving for cooler waters. Puffins are on the state's threatened species list.

Levels of the metal mercury in much of the world's oceans are double to triple what they were before the industrial revolution, a new study says.

Researchers found there's more mercury from human sources — mostly burning fossil fuels and mining for gold — than scientists had thought.

Besides saunas and Nokia cellphones, it may very well be Finland's most successful export item ever: the Moomin universe, peopled by a group of bulky, white creatures resembling hippos.

A century after the birth of their creator, the late Tove Jansson, the odd charm of the quirky Moomin books and cartoons has won over millions in all age groups and dozens of languages from Czech to Chinese, Estonian to Esperanto.

Animal rights group PETA posted a $15,000 reward Wednesday for information leading to the arrest of a shirtless man seen kicking a squirrel off the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Video of the unidentified male luring the squirrel to its widely-assumed death went viral earlier this week on YouTube, which has since taken it down.

An insurance company settled a lawsuit with a Los Angeles man by dropping off buckets full of thousands of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies, his attorney said Wednesday.

Andres Carrasco, 76, filed a lawsuit in 2012 against Adriana's Insurance Services, a Rancho Cucamonga-based company.