The rights group running Russia's only museum in a preserved former Soviet labor camp warns that the facility is facing closure as authorities grow increasingly hostile to probing the country's totalitarian past. 

The Perm-36 museum -- named after the notorious prison camp where it is housed -- has seen operations grind to a halt after local authorities cut off key funding "without explanation", the non-governmental organisation Memorial said.

Germany's book industry said Tuesday it had complained to the country's competition watchdog about Internet giant Amazon, accusing it of using "blackmail" to gain discounts from publishers.

The U.S. giant has been delaying delivery of printed books from Sweden's media and publishing group Bonnier, which has 16 publishers in Germany, since early May, the German Publishers' and Booksellers' Association said.

A planned talk on whether honour killings can be morally justified as part of Sydney's Festival of Dangerous Ideas has been cancelled following public outrage, officials said.

Uthman Badar, spokesman for the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, had been set to speak on the topic "Honour Killings Are Morally Justified" at the Sydney Opera House in August, but the festival said late Tuesday it would not go ahead.

Proposals by radical Buddhist monks to criminalize inter-faith marriage in Myanmar face strong opposition from women's rights groups in a tussle over the nation's religious identity that has sparked international alarm.

Buddhist nationalists, feeding off the fear and uncertainty caused by successive waves of anti-Muslim violence, have issued fiery pronouncements that the very fabric of the country's main religion is under threat, casting a dark shadow over ongoing democratic reforms.

An iconic "Water Lilies" painting by French artist Claude Monet sold for £31.7 million ($54 million, 39.7 million euros) at a London sale on Monday, the second-highest sum paid for his work on record.

The 1906 painting "Nympheas" -- sold to an anonymous bidder -- formed part of a seminal exhibition held at the Galerie Durand-Ruel, in Paris, in 1909 to unveil Monet's Water Lily works.

Human rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned a Malaysian government ban on Christians using "Allah" to refer to God as "an abuse against free speech".

The Catholic Church in the Muslim-majority country on Monday lost a long-running court battle for the right to use the Arabic word in the local Malay-language edition of its Herald newspaper.

The U.N. cultural agency has designated a network of ancient, man-made caves outside of Jerusalem a World Heritage site.

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee added the caves of Beit Guvrin-Maresha — known as a "city under a city" — to the prestigious list of during its annual meeting in Qatar on Sunday.

Madrid's top art museum the Prado unveiled a major show Monday about the master painter El Greco, exploring his influence on modern greats such as Francis Bacon and Jackson Pollock.

"El Greco and Modern Painting" is part of a year-long series of big exhibitions to mark the 400th anniversary of the Greek-born master's death.

Myanmar on Monday welcomed the designation of its ancient Pyu kingdom cities as a UNESCO world heritage site, marking its first entry onto the U.N. cultural agency's prized list.

An annual World Heritage Committee meeting in Doha on Sunday granted endangered status to the remains of the cities of Hanlin, Beikthano and Sri Ksetra in the country's Irrawaddy basin.

A row between Tokyo and Taipei over the loan of a host of treasured artefacts to Japan has been solved, Taiwanese officials said Monday, with the exhibition set to open on schedule.

The disagreement broke out last week after the name of Taiwan's national museum was changed in promotional posters advertising an upcoming exhibition in Japan -- a spat that highlighted Taipei's sensitivity over its global diplomatic status.