Bestselling U.S. author Danielle Steel has been awarded France's highest honor, the government's official newsletter revealed Wednesday, one of hundreds of personalities to be given the Legion d'honneur on New Year's Day.

Steel joins other foreigners such as singers Bono and Bob Dylan or writer Philip Roth awarded the "Ordre National de la Legion d'honneur" in recognition of service to France or work that is deemed to uphold its ideals.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants women like Tomo Tamai to go back to work.

Tamai is eager to do so, nearly two years after her first child was born, but so far the 35-year-old former national government employee has only been able to find an internship.

Officials in a Chinese village dug up and set fire to a man's corpse after his family ignored their demand that he be cremated rather than buried, state media reported Tuesday.

The case is an extreme example of the country's unevenly-enforced funeral policy, which tries to encourage cremation rather than interment given the wide range of alternative uses for land.

Islamic police in Indonesia's sharia stronghold seized thousands of firecrackers and cardboard trumpets after the city administration banned New Year's Eve celebrations for the first time, an official said Tuesday.

The Monday night raid on street stalls and shops selling the items followed a fatwa, or decree, by the clerical Ulema Consultative Assembly that said New Year's celebrations or wishing someone "Merry Christmas" was "haram" (forbidden) in the city of Banda Aceh.

Pakistan's truck artists, who transform ugly lorries into flamboyant moving works of art, fear boom times for their trade could be at an end as NATO winds down its mission in Afghanistan.

The workhorses of the Pakistani haulage industry are often aging, patched-up Bedford and Dodge models, but almost without exception they are lavishly decorated.

In a grassy downtown plaza, strolling musicians wearing glitzy cowboy outfits blast a mariachi song, while Spanish-speaking shoppers bustle between farm stands, sampling tart cactus leaves, sniffing roasting chilies and buying bundles of warm pork tamales.

The scene is an increasingly typical one in towns across California, where Hispanics are on pace to become the largest ethnic group next year. And Watsonville is but one of dozens of California communities where Hispanics outnumber whites.

China's top film director Zhang Yimou has said he violated the country's one-child policy because of the traditional belief that having multiple children would lead to greater prosperity, state media said.

After months of rumors that he had fathered as many as seven children with several different women, Zhang issued an apology on December 1 acknowledging that he has two sons and a daughter with his current wife, and another daughter with his ex-wife.

First, he stuffed Spanish dictator Francisco Franco into a fridge. Now, he has transformed Franco's head into a punching ball.

Not surprisingly, 36-year-old Spanish artist Eugenio Merino's headline-grabbing works have won few fans among the late dictator's admirers.

Marijuana users in Colorado and Washington are counting down the hours before the western U.S. states become the first to legalize recreational pot shops on January 1.

Blazing a trail they hope will be followed in other parts of the United States, cannabis growers and others are also rubbing their hands, while tax collectors are eyeing the revenue the newly-legalized trade will generate.

Saudi police on Saturday pulled over a woman minutes after she got behind the wheel in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after activists called for a new challenge to a driving ban.

"Only 10 minutes after Tamador al-Yami got behind the wheel police stopped her," activist Eman al-Nafjan told Agence France Presse, adding that Yami carries an international driving licence and was with another woman who was filming her in the car.