Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration camp where some 1.3 million people were killed, will undergo major maintenance work paid for by donors from nearly 20 countries, museum officials said Wednesday.

"Created three years ago as the first of its kind worldwide, the funding instrument for maintenance work is beginning to bear fruit," Piotr Cywinski, director of the museum located in Oswiecim, southern Poland, said in a statement.

The niece of legendary Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca could not contain her tears as she traced the steps of Lorca's brief, but influential New York stay on the 114th anniversary of his birth.

"It's very emotional. In some ways this closes a circle," Laura Garcia Lorca told Agence France Presse late Tuesday as she paid homage to her famous uncle, a trailblazing poet who lived in New York between 1929 and 1930, before returning to Spain, where he was killed in the first days of the civil war in August 1936.

Documenta, one of the world's biggest contemporary art fairs, will open to the public Saturday in this central German city, accompanied by events in Afghanistan, Egypt and Canada.

The 13th edition of the event, held every five years, will present the work of nearly 300 people from around 55 countries -- only about half of them "artists" in the conventional sense, organizers said.

A new English translation of a debate between two celebrated figures of the medieval Islamic era who diverge on notions of prophecy, miracles and the origins of science helps to dispel the notion of Islam as a rigid, monolithic religion, the American University of Beirut said in a press release Wednesday.

Tarif Khalidi, Shaykh Zayid Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at AUB who translated Abu Hatim al-Razi: The Proofs of Prophecy, explains that debates were frequent in pre-modern Islamic culture though very few have survived, and fewer still at such length, the media release added.

With a production of Shakespeare's "Othello" and even an opera, cultural life in Turkmenistan is slowly coming back after grinding to a halt under the rule of eccentric despot Saparmurat Niyazov.

Niyazov, who died in 2006, notoriously ordered the closing of the Central Asian state's theatres in 2001 and now his successor Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is seeing to a very cautious relaxing of control.

Iraqi architects and historians have decried official neglect of historical buildings nationwide, many of which have fallen into disrepair and disuse, and called for greater attention to be paid to them.

"For many years, we have talked about the importance of maintaining historical centers and buildings spread across Iraqi cities ... but unfortunately, the government did not respond to these calls," Iraqi architect Hisham al-Medfai said at a conference of local historians and architects over the weekend.

Australia was gearing up Tuesday for the transit of Venus, an event with historical significance as a previous occurrence in 1769 played a key part in the "discovery" of the southern continent.

When Venus on Wednesday passes between the Earth and the Sun, an astronomical event that will not occur again until 2117, millions of people will be gazing to the skies, just as Englishman Captain James Cook did in the 18th century.

India is raising the age of consent for sex to 18 under a new law seen by some children's rights activists as being out of step with social changes and open to abuse.

Under a provision in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act approved by parliament last month, sex with a person under the age of 18 will be deemed as statutory rape and subject to prosecution.

A Bangladeshi court has issued an arrest warrant for the writer of a 2003 novel that allegedly contains insulting remarks against the Prophet Mohammed, a lawyer said Tuesday.

The court in Dhaka issued the order in response to a petition from a Muslim activist accusing author Salam Azad of hurting religious sentiment in his banned book "Bhanga Math" ("Broken Temple").

Sporty wine lovers are exploring the vineyard paths and private forests of France's historic wine region in marathons and bike rides, complete with zany costumes, live music and wine tastings de rigueur.

In Bordeaux, the Medocaine mountain bike ride in May drew 6,500 pedaling wine enthusiasts for its 14th edition, organized by hundreds of local volunteers to promote tourism, nature and, of course, wine in a convivial setting.