Legendary Spanish bullfighter Manuel Benitez, "El Cordobes", is locked in a legal battle with another popular matador who openly uses the same nickname and has for years claimed to be his son.

The scandal broke in February when Manuel Diaz told "Hola!" magazine he had filed a paternity suit against his supposed father in the southern city of Cordoba after trying in vain to form a relationship with him.

He is best known for "Don Quixote", but the eventful life of Spain's revered author Miguel de Cervantes was just as intriguing as any adventures of the delusional wanna-be knight of his famous novel.

Cervantes -- whose death on April 22, 1616 will be commemorated in Spain this week just as Britain marks the passing of Shakespeare 400 years ago -- survived a sea battle, capture by pirates, five years of captivity in Algiers and stints in prison.

Bill Gates said Wednesday that "with any luck" polio will be eradicated by 2017 in the last two countries where it remains active, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Microsoft founder, who has donated billions to fight global diseases, was speaking in Doha at the official announcement of a $50 million donation from Qatar to "The Lives and Livelihood Fund".

A Singapore woman who lives as a man has been acquitted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl because the judge said the law on which the charges were based relates only to men with a penis.

A senior figure in one of Germany's governing parties called Wednesday for a law that would prevent foreign financing of mosques in the country.

Andreas Scheuer, the Christian Social Union's general secretary, argued in an interview with the daily Die Welt that "political Islam" undermines efforts to integrate people in Germany.

A Polish prosecutor has questioned a Polish-American scholar to try to determine if he committed the crime of publicly insulting the nation with a statement on Polish violence against Jews during World War II.

Princeton professor Jan Tomasz Gross told The Associated Press that he was questioned for five hours Tuesday in Katowice but still does not know if he will be charged in the case.

Thais and tourists took to the streets on Wednesday to drench each other in a mass water fight marking the country's new year, as authorities attempted to crack down on alcohol, topless dancers and other "indecencies."

A marine robot deployed in the waters of Scotland's Loch Ness has found the remains of a monster but it turned out to be a prop from a movie shot in 1970.

The robot, belonging to Norwegian offshore oil company Kongsberg Maritime, is drawing up the first high-resolution map of the 230-meter (755-feet) deep lake in a project named "Operation Groundtruth".

Ernest Hemingway and John F. Kennedy never met, but the author's most extensive personal collection is housed at JFK's presidential library and is now on public display.

The exhibition opening this week in Boston includes original manuscripts of some of his most famous literary works; letters to other major literary figures of his time; photographs and other personal mementos.

A surprise awaits beyond a black door adorned with a silver lotus flower at the end of a tangle of alleyways in Gaza's chaotic Old City.