Google Inc.'s search results for airline tickets are finally getting a lift from a key piece of technology that it bought earlier this year.

The Internet search leader's revised approach to airfare queries appeared Tuesday in a newly opened "flights" section of Google.com. The new look at http://www.google.com/flights arrived with little hoopla. The low-key debut might have reflected Google's desire to avoid attracting too much attention to the service, which has raised fears that the Internet's most powerful company will trample the competition in online travel — one of the biggest markets in electronic commerce.

Guide dogs and their handlers have always undergone intense training on dealing with distractions from squirrels to skateboarders. But today's guide dogs have a whole new generation of things to worry about: quiet cars, button-activated walk signals, stroller traffic on handicapped curb-cuts, and a greater likelihood of interacting with other dogs.

"It used to be you encountered other dogs mostly on sidewalks while you were going down the street," said Morgan Watkins, acting president and chief executive officer of Guide Dogs for the Blind, which has campuses in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, and in Boring, Oregon.

Sony's upgraded portable video game machine PlayStation Vita is going on sale in Japan on Dec. 17 with 26-game software going on sale on the same date, but it's still not available overseas until next year.

The competition in portable gaming is almost certain to intensify in Japan, ahead of the rest of the world, during the year-end shopping season.

Amy Winehouse's family has launched a youth charity in her name to mark what would have been the singer's 28th birthday.

Winehouse, who had long fought drug and alcohol problems, was found dead at her London home on July 23. Her family says toxicology reports indicated there was alcohol in her bloodstream but it was unclear whether this had contributed to her death.

Lebanon may be known more for its civil strife than its fledgling movie industry, but Nadine Labaki hopes to change all that.

The director-actress is out to transform the way the world sees her native country.

A man is suing the White Castle chain, claiming the booths in one of its hamburger restaurants are too small.

Martin Kessman says in the federal lawsuit filed last week that he was embarrassed in 2009 when he tried squeezing his 6-foot (1.83-meter), 290-pound (132-kilogram) frame into the seating at a White Castle in New York state. He says he slammed his knee into a metal post under the table and was in pain.

Actor David Walliams has battled diarrhea, polluted waters and strong tides to complete a 140 mile (225 kilometers) charity swim along the River Thames.

Walliams, best known for his role in the television comedy show "Little Britain," raised more than one million pounds ($1.58 million) for the charity Sport Relief with his grueling, eight-day challenge.

Iran's state television has banned programs featuring provocative love stories or shirtless men in an apparent bow to hard-line Muslim clerics complaining about such scenes in foreign movies, Iranian newspapers reported Tuesday.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian TV and movie productions have avoided scenes showing the close mixing of the genders, which is discouraged in Iran. Iranian actresses in domestic productions also appear in Islamic dress that covers them from head to toe.

President Dilma Rousseff says Brazil will have access to high-speed internet via the latest generation of cell phones before the country hosts the 2014 World Cup.

Brazil's president says 4G cell phones will be available in time to watch the matches.

Bionic ear maker Cochlear has been forced to begin a global recall of the world's thinnest hearing implants after some stopped working.

The Sydney-based company, which dominates the world's bionic ear market, said Monday it was mystified as to why some of its award-winning Nucleus CI500 devices were suddenly shutting down.