China China officially opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.
Hawaii 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.
U.S. President 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.
Japan Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzō Abe unveils his cabinet line-up as he begins the task of economic revitalisation.
Russia Russia's parliament approves a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children as response to a U.S. Magnitsky bill.
U.S. state 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.
China 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.
Gerry Anderson Gerry Anderson, pioneer of "supermarionation" and creator of classic television series such as "Thunderbirds" and "Stingray", dies aged 83.
Irish The death is announced of Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor Dennis O'Driscoll at the age of 58.
Afghan 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.