December 23, 2009 (Wednesday)
- Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Jim Moriarty resigns, the second bishop to do so following the publication of the Murphy Report. (RTÉ) (BBC) (Bangkok Post)[permanent dead link]
- 39-year-old Russian Orthodox priest Father Alexander Filippov is fatally shot in the back outside his home in Satino-Russkoye after challenging a group of drunks who were urinating in his hallway. (BBC) (Radio Free Europe) (The Age)
- Gävle's giant straw goat — a traditional symbol of yuletide in Scandinavia — is burned down for the 24th time. (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters Africa) (BBC) (USA Today)
- President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf voluntarily imprisons herself in Bella Yalla prison, an old maximum security prison in the northern jungle, which is to be renamed and turned into a museum. (BBC)
- Farouk Adamu Aliyu of the All Nigeria Peoples Party initiates legal action in a bid to tempt the unwell President of Nigeria Umaru Yar'Adua, who is hospitalised in Saudi Arabia, to resign the position on health grounds. (BBC)
- Clashes between police and protesters take place in the Iranian city of Isfahan at a memorial service for Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri. (Al Jazeera) (The Times)
- American Airlines Flight 331, with 154 people onboard, overshoots the runway at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, injuring 44. (Jamaica Observer) (AFP) (China Daily)
- The trial of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo on charges of subversion begins. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Times of India)
- A Dutch court hears a case taken by Kurdish survivors of poison gas attacks in Halabja against businessman Frans van Anraat, who sold chemicals to Saddam Hussein during the 1980s. (BBC) (Radio Nederland Wereldomroep)
- Shia insurgency in Yemen led to the deaths of 73 Saudi soldiers, while more than 100 Houthis have been killed in recent days. (The New York Times) (The Christian Science Monitor) (AFP) (Press TV) (The Christian Science Monitor)
- The body of Luis Francisco Cuéllar, the governor of Caquetá department in Colombia kidnapped the previous day, is found. (Colombia Reports) (BBC) (Reuters)
- Afghan senator Mohammed Yunos Shirnagha and his son/driver are fatally shot by police in Puli Khumri, Baghlan Province. (BBC) (The New York Times) (Press TV) (CBC News)
- Authorities in Uzbekistan fell trees, some of which are more than a century old, in the capital Tashkent, in a controversy which has drawn protests. (BBC)
- Soyuz TMA-17, carrying an international crew of one Russian, one American and one Japanese astronaut, docks with the International Space Station. (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
- The United Nations imposes sanctions of a ban on arms importation and frozen bank accounts on Eritrea for supporting Somali rebels. (Reuters) (The Times) (RIA Novosti)
- The Supreme Court of Pakistan orders the government to recognise hijras (eunuchs and transgender individuals) as a distinct gender. (BBC News)