Portal:Current events/2012 December 26

December 26, 2012 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

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)

Arts and culture

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)

Business and economy

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)

Disasters and accidents

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)

International relations

Law and crime

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

Politics and election

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)

Science and technology

Sport