China has unearthed the ruins of an ancient palace near the tomb of the country's first emperor that was already famed for its terracotta soldiers, state media said on Saturday.

The discovery is the latest at the mausoleum, which dates back more than two millennia and became one of the greatest modern archaeological finds after a peasant digging a well stumbled upon the life-size warriors in 1974.

The region of Bremen in northern Germany on Friday said it would be the second of the country's 16 states to recognize Muslim holidays.

"I am delighted because Islam and Muslims are part of our city and part of our life," said the mayor of the city state, Jens Boehrnsen, after signing the deal with representatives of the local Muslim community.

A U.S. House of Representatives vote to offer permanent residency to foreign students graduating with advanced degrees in science and math from U.S. colleges and universities is setting the stage for a bigger battle next year on how to redesign the nation's flawed immigration system.

House Republicans, with the help of a minority of Democrats, are expected to prevail Friday in passing the STEM Jobs Act, which would provide up to 55,000 green cards a year to those earning masters and doctoral degrees from U.S. schools in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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.

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.

Natural wine? Who could possibly object?

With a desire for healthy, sustainable food stimulating trends like the farm to table movement and Slow Food, natural wine is positioning itself as the perfect accompaniment.

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.

Four Nobel prize winners have joined forces with dozens of artists and writers to demand that access to books be made a priority for disaster relief, once victims' basic needs have been met.

While food, shelter and health will always come first, the petition spearheaded by Libraries Without Borders (LWB) argues that "more attention should be given to nourishing the mind as a second measure to help victims cope with catastrophe and move forward."

An ancient Chinese tower tilting at a perilous angle has earned comparisons with Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa and worried a school in its shadow, state media reported Thursday.

The Wanshou Temple Tower in the central city of Xi'an, which dates from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), began to lean dramatically after a heavy rainstorm in May 2011, state-run China Radio National said.