December 20, 2008 (Saturday)
- The Swedish Academy, the body that selects the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, announces that Horace Engdahl will be replaced as its permanent secretary by historian Peter Englund. (AP via Google News)
- Iraq releases 24 security personnel arrested on Thursday on suspicion of aiding terrorism. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
- Three submarine communications cables break, disrupting Internet and telephone transmissions in the Middle East and Asia. (Reuters)