Japanese first lady Akie Abe said she has again visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo, posting photos of the site on the same day Japan and South Korea struck a landmark agreement on wartime sex slaves.

"My final visit of the year," Abe, wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wrote Monday on her Facebook page, also noting that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

A new Chinese translation of Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's poetry collection "Stray Birds" has been pulled from bookshop shelves, the publisher said, after controversy erupted over its unusually sexual content.

The work, originally in Bengali, was first published in 1916, three years after Tagore won the Nobel literature prize for "his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", the first non-European to do so.

Ireland underwent a massive prehistoric wave of immigration from the Middle East and eastern Europe, which could explain how modern farming arrived in the region, researchers said in a study released on Monday.

The major finding, traceable via in genome sequencing, may end a long-running debate among scientists, some of whom thought local populations abruptly switched from being hunter-gatherers to using organized farming techniques simply as part of local adaptation.

Giant replicas of an ancient arch in the Syrian city of Palmyra attacked by Islamic State (IS) jihadists will go on show in London and New York next year, organizers said Monday.

The full-size recreation of the arch from the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel will reportedly made using the world's biggest 3D printer and put on display in London's Trafalgar Square and Times Square in New York in April.

South Korea and Japan reached a landmark agreement Monday on the emotive and complex issue of wartime sex slaves -- euphemistically known as "comfort women" -- that has long soured relations. 

After talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries in Seoul, Japan announced it was offering a one-billion yen ($8.3 million) payment for survivors and an apology from nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Some of China's most valuable historic artifacts went on display in Taiwan Monday at a new branch of one of the world's top museums, as the island pushes its credentials as a cultural destination.

The 9,000 square meter venue in the southern city of Chiayi is an extension of Taipei's famous National Palace Museum -- one of the most popular museums in the world, drawing more than five million visitors each year.

The quiet village of Ptycha has become an unlikely battleground for the Orthodox faithful in western Ukraine, where the divide between pro- and anti-Moscow factions plays out far from the eastern front of the war-torn country.

Armed with sticks, spades and Molotov cocktails, the Orthodox faithful in the Ukrainian-speaking village this month moved against each other, leaving at least one cleric with a bloodied head, according to video footage that went viral across Ukraine.

Pope Francis on Friday used his Christmas message to denounce the destruction of cultural heritage, in a clear reference to the Islamic State group.

He said "atrocities" committed by IS "do not even spare the historical and cultural patrimony of entire peoples."

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.