Pope's Christmas message appeals for peace in global flashpoints

Christmas was celebrated all around the world on Wednesday, with Pope Francis appealing for peace in many of the world's hotspots while festivities were muted for Filipinos battered by a typhoon, as well as in strike-bound France.

"May Christ bring his light to the many children suffering from war and conflicts in the Middle East and in various countries of the world," Francis said in his traditional Christmas message at the Vatican, singling out the crises in Venezuela and Lebanon, as well as armed conflicts ravaging many African countries.

For her part, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II used her Christmas Day message to pay tribute to young environmental campaigners who were inspired to global action by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg.

She also described 2019 as "quite bumpy" after a year of crises in the royal family. The queen attended the annual Christmas Day service in Sandringham without her ailing husband Prince Philip, 98, who was released from hospital after a four-night stay for an .