• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
  • A suicide bomber kills himself and three Afghans (a guard and two civilians) outside the perimeter of Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, the scene of an earlier attack in December 2009. (AP via MSN)

• The death is announced of Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor Dennis O'Driscoll at the age of 58. (RTÉ News)
• Gerry Anderson, pioneer of "supermarionation" and creator of classic television series such as Thunderbirds and Stingray, dies aged 83. (BBC)

• CBB International, a financial analytics concern, releases a survey of executives indicating that China's retail sector is growing, leading a broader upswing in that nation's economy. (Reuters)

• A moderate severe weather outbreak pounds several southern U.S. states on Christmas Day, including Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. More than 30 tornadoes are reported as the storms leave at least six people dead. The system is expected to move northeast and affect the East Coast with high winds and heavy snowfall. (ABC News) (Reuters) (AP) (CNN)

• Russia's parliament approves a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children as response to a U.S. Magnitsky bill. (AP via ABC News) (The Wall Street Journal)

• A total of nine unidentified individuals are shot to death in Sinaloa state, Mexico. (Rantburg)

• Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzō Abe unveils his cabinet line-up as he begins the task of economic revitalisation. (BBC) (AP)
• Former South African President and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, 94, in still-fragile health, is released from the hospital in Pretoria, South Africa to receive continuing at-home care. He had had his longest period of hospitalization (more than 2 weeks) there since his 1990 release from prison, as the result of a gallstone removal operation and a lung infection. (MSN)
• Former U.S. President, 88-year-old George H. W. Bush, still receiving visitors, remains hospitalized (since 23 November) at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, where he resides during the winter, with a receding bronchitis-like cough but with a now-rising and long-lasting fever, and has been put in intensive care on a liquids-only diet for unspecified reasons. (AP via Huffington Post)
• Hawaii's Democratic Governor Neil Abercrombie appoints Lieutenant Governor Brian Schatz (a former state legislator and nonprofit group executive) to fill the term of the recently-deceased longtime Democratic U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye until 2014, when a special election will be called to fill the slot until 2016. His was one of three names known to have been submitted by the state party's central committee, along with an unnamed person and U.S. Democrat Colleen Hanabusa, whom Inouye had stated as his preferred successor hours before his death. (CNN)

• China officially opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou. (BBC)

• In ice hockey, the 2013 IIHF World U20 Championship begins today in Ufa, Russia with 10 teams split into two groups of five. (IIHF)
• Mykhaylo Fomenko is appointed the Ukraine national football team coach by the Football Federation of Ukraine. Serhiy Kovalets will lead the Ukraine national under-21 football team. (Kyiv Post) (Bigmir.Net)
• NBA postpones regular season game between Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers due to snowstorm that hit the Indianapolis area. (NBA) (NBC Sports)