Myanmar said Friday it will allow private daily newspapers starting in April for the first time since 1964, in the latest step toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation.

The Information Ministry announced on its website that any Myanmar national wishing to publish a daily newspaper will be able to submit an application in February. New papers will be allowed to begin printing April 1 in any language.

All the single ladies — and men — will have a chance to join Beyonce onstage at the upcoming Super Bowl.

Pepsi announced Friday that dozens of fans will hit the stage when the Grammy-winning diva performs Feb. 3 in New Orleans.

A Chinese court has ordered Apple Inc. to pay 1.03 million yuan ($165,000) to eight Chinese writers and two companies who say unlicensed copies of their work were distributed through Apple's online store.

The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled Thursday that Apple violated the writers' copyrights by allowing applications containing their work to be distributed through its App Store, according to an official who answered the phone at the court and said he was the judge in the case. He refused to give his name, as is common among Chinese officials.

China's government tightened controls on Internet users Friday by enacting rules requiring them to register their names. The new rules follow online postings about graft and abuses that rattled the ruling party.

The country's rubber-stamp legislature approved the Internet measures at a closing meeting of a five-day session.

Katie Holmes' return to Broadway will be much shorter than she would have liked.

The former Mrs. Cruise's play "Dead Accounts" will close within a week of the new year. Producers said Thursday that Theresa Rebeck's drama will close on Jan. 6 after 27 previews and 44 performances.

Unilever, the maker of Vaseline, Axe deodorants and Dove soaps, among other cosmetic and hygiene products, says it will phase out the use of microplastics by 2015.

Many soaps, skin scrubs and shower gels contain microplastics, which are tiny polyethelene beads. Scientists and environmental groups are concerned that they contribute to polluting oceans.

Two contemporary stagings of Puccini's "La Boheme" from 2012 have been released on DVD: director Stefan Herheim's reimagining that opened in January at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo (on Electric), and Damiano Michieletto's staging that premiered in July at the Salzburg Festival in Austria (on DG). Both are equally fascinating and frustrating.

Taking the 1963 sets by Heike Scheele that he grew up watching, Herheim begins the opera with Mimi's death — usually the performance's final moment. And she succumbs to cancer rather than consumption.

Brazilian health officials say doctors will be required to notify authorities of every HIV case in the nation.

Until now, doctors were only required to notify state and federal officials when patients developed AIDS.

The Los Angeles Clippers routed Boston 106-77 on Thursday, becoming the first NBA team to win 15 consecutive games since the Celtics four years ago.

Also Thursday, the Oklahoma City Thunder won their 11th straight home game but needed overtime to do it, edging the Dallas Mavericks 111-105.

Avery Johnson was fired Thursday as coach of the Brooklyn Nets, who have struggled recently in their season of new surroundings and elevated expectations.

After a strong start to their first season in Brooklyn, the Nets have lost 10 of 13 games to fall well behind the first-place New York Knicks, the team they so badly want to compete with in their new home.