Guarded by rifle-toting police, immigration authorities in western Myanmar have launched a major operation aimed at settling an explosive question at the heart of the biggest crisis the government has faced since beginning its nascent transition to democracy last year.

It's a question that has helped fuel two bloody spasms of sectarian unrest between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims since June, and it comes down to one simple thing: Who has the right to be a citizen of Myanmar, and who does not?

A California law prohibiting mental health providers from counseling gay minors on how to become straight faces its first legal test Friday.

Lawyers for counselors endorsing "reparative therapy" and parents who claim their sons have benefited from it plan to ask a judge to block the first-of-its-kind measure.

Attorneys for Halle Berry and her ex-boyfriend have settled court issues that arose after a Thanksgiving Day fight at the actress' home.

The fisticuffs involved Berry's ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry and her fiance, actor Olivier Martinez. Aubry was arrested after the fight, which left him with a black eye, a broken rib and other injuries.

The single line of Napoleon's secret code told Paris of his desperate, last order against the Russians: "At three o'clock in the morning, on the 22nd I am going to blow up the Kremlin."

By the time Paris received the letter three days later, the Russian czar's seat of power was in flames and the diminished French army was in retreat. Its elegantly calligraphic ciphers show history's famed general at one of his weakest moments.

A wealthy Missouri man posing as "Secret Santa" stunned New Yorkers on Thursday, handing $100 bills to many in Staten Island who had lost everything to Superstorm Sandy.

The Kansas City businessman is giving away $100,000 this holiday season, and spent the day in New Jersey and New York giving away thousands. But he says money is not the issue.

Two U.S.-based Internet-monitoring companies say Syria has shut off the Internet nationwide.

Activists in Syria reached Thursday by satellite telephone confirmed the unprecedented blackout, which comes amid intense fighting in the capital, Damascus.

Egypt's foreign minister says the political unrest roiling his country after President Mohammed Morsi seized more power should not affect Egypt's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan.

Mohammed Kamel Amr told reporters in Berlin after meetings Thursday with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle that Morsi's move last week to grant himself near-autocratic powers — at least until a new constitution is adopted and parliamentary elections are held — was a domestic issue.

Spanish poet and essayist Jose Manuel Caballero Bonald has won the 2012 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor.

Education Minister Jose Ignacio Wert said Thursday the 86-year-old was chosen for the contribution his life-long work has made to enriching Spanish-language literature.

European Union foreign ministers say they have agreed to open free trade negotiations with Japan.

Cyprus' commerce minister Neoklis Sylikiotis, whose country holds the bloc's rotating chairmanship, says Thursday talks could start in the next few months. They are likely to last about three years.

Luiz Felipe Scolari is back in charge of Brazil's national football team, 10 years after leading the team to the 2002 World Cup title.

The Brazilian football federation said Thursday that Scolari has been hired to lead the team through the 2014 World Cup at home. He replaces Mano Menezes, who was fired last week because the federation didn't like his methods.