President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama -- and their two dogs -- on Friday paid tribute to U.S. soldiers in a joint address wishing Americans a Merry Christmas.

The Obamas, who are currently on holiday in the president's home state of Hawaii, called for compassion and caring, and for the people of the United States "to come together as one American family."

For the past 60 years, Chui Hoi has risen in the early hours of the morning to prepare bite-size steamed morsels for his small but popular dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong. 

"Sun Hing" opens its doors at 3:00 am, seven days a week, with a loyal clientele from students to the elderly filling the 60-seat restaurant in the western district of Kennedy Town.

Pope Francis will accept next year's Charlemagne prize, a prominent annual German award for promoting European values, organizers said Wednesday.

The Argentine pontiff will receive the medal at a ceremony in Rome on a date still to be determined, the selection committee said in a statement.

Indian police Wednesday formally charged 15 suspects over the mob murder of a Muslim man suspected of eating beef in late September, a case that sparked an outcry over communal intolerance.

Mohammad Akhlaq, 50, was dragged from his house in Bisada village in Uttar Pradesh state and beaten to death by around 100 people over rumors he had eaten beef -- a taboo in the Hindu-majority nation.

Prime Minister David Cameron was urged to intervene Wednesday after a British Muslim family was prevented from flying to the United States for a visit to Disneyland.

The family of 11 was stopped from boarding their flight to Los Angeles at London's Gatwick airport on Tuesday last week by immigration officials.

Christmas is just around the corner, but there are no tinsel-laden trees or Santa hats in the oil-rich sultanate of Brunei, where celebrations have been banned under a shift towards hardline Islamic law.

The all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, one of the world's richest men, announced last year he would push ahead with the introduction of sharia law, eventually including tough penalties such as death by stoning or severed limbs. 

Japan's ruling party on Tuesday launched a study group to review its modern history, amid reports it may take up contentious regional issues including the Nanjing massacre which Tokyo is accused of playing down. 

The group "is aimed at studying historical events after the first Sino-Japanese War", a Liberal Democratic Party spokesman said, referring to a conflict between Japan and Qing dynasty-ruled China in 1894-95.

Israeli anti-racism activists have called for an investigation after a Jewish extremist leader urged a ban on Christmas celebrations in the country and called Christians "vampires."

Benzi Gopstein, who heads the far-right Lehava organization and has been arrested a number of times, made the comments in an article on the ultra-Orthodox Jewish website Kooker.

Madrid city council announced Tuesday it would rename 30 streets that pay tribute to heroes of Francisco Franco's brutal dictatorship, such as a "butcher" general or a military unit that fought for the Nazis.

The Spanish capital's left-wing government announced in July it would enforce a nationwide "historical memory" law passed under the national Socialist government in 2007 that calls for the gradual replacement of symbols relating to Franco's 1939-75 rule.

French surrealist poet Alain Jouffroy, who "revolted against the absence of revolt", has died, his wife said Monday.

He died on Sunday, Fusako Hasae told Agence France Presse. Jouffroy was 87.