As the sun begins setting over his mountainside dwelling, Miki Cohen takes his position under a wrought iron gazebo and slowly begins to spin in the meditative dance of a Whirling Dervish.

With his arms folded across his chest, he slowly picks up tempo in time with the mystical Sufi music playing on his mobile phone. Then, lifting his arms above his shoulders, he continues to turn, his eyes tightly shut in contemplation.

Stockholm's Museum of Modern Art is pitting Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, two of the 20th century's modernist greats, against each other in a new exhibition opposing their contrasting approaches to art.

"Picasso/Duchamp: He was wrong" opened Saturday, the title based on Picasso's reputed laconic remark on learning of Duchamp's death in 1968.

French designer Pierre Cardin outlined his plan on Monday for a 255-meter (837-foot) tower called the Palais Lumiere that he wants to build in an industrial port area on the famous Venice lagoon.

"I want to offer Venice a big garden for eternity," the Italian-born Cardin told reporters in the city, where some locals are horrified by the project.

Sprouting out of the corn fields of western Mexico rises a hill crowned with two arches and four towers, marking the gates of an improvised "holy land" that farmers built brick by brick over nearly four decades to mark the only spot they believe will be saved in the coming apocalypse: Nueva Jerusalen, or "New Jerusalem."

The faith of the people who live here is built on messages purportedly passed from the Virgin Mary to a defrocked Catholic priest, an illiterate old woman and a clairvoyant who passed messages from beyond the grave.

Participants in the 10th edition of the International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (Abu Dhabi 2012) are preparing to promote their innovations and creativity at the event that will be launched in September.

The Exhibition is labeled on the agenda of competent international events as a popular, quality family event, and as an artistic, heritage, environmental and cultural occasion that assimilates the economic aspect where major deals are concluded and large contracts and sales are sealed.

With oyster, tobacco and watermelon flavored brews; Italy's craft beers are flourishing despite a punishing recession that is putting thousands of other businesses out of work.

From just seven craft breweries in 1996, there are now more than 445 challenging wine's traditional dominance and experts say there is scope for more growth in a country where tastes for beer are still being shaped.

Acclaimed author Lung Yingtai felt the force of China's soft power when she spoke in New York this week on her first trip as Taiwan's culture minister aiming to win friends for the isolated island.

Lung, whose best-selling book on China's civil war is banned by the mainland government, had a firewall put around her name on the Chinese Internet almost immediately after she spoke at the Asia Society on Tuesday. She had pleaded, ironically, that culture should not be used as a "weapon."

Hundreds of athletes on Sunday ran a marathon to mark half a century since the arrest of South Africa's democracy icon Nelson Mandela for his anti-apartheid struggle.

The run started on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg where on March 25, 1961 Mandela gave his last public speech as a free man, and finished at Howick village close to where he was arrested on August 5 the next year.

Germany's president commemorated on Sunday the 20th anniversary of the country's worst post-war racist violence, saying Germans were "duty-bound" remember it and learn from it.

President Joachim Gauck said the riots, which saw a mob of racist extremists mount a five-day siege of a hostel for asylum-seekers was "unfortunately still a stigma today" for the northern city of Rostock.

The Danish city of Aarhus was recommended on Friday by an EU selection panel as one of two European Capitals of Culture to be chosen for 2017.

The panel picked Aarhus to represent Denmark, with either Nicosia or Paphos in Cyprus also to be nominated by European Union governments when a final decision is made in May next year, the European Commission said in a statement.