National News

Stocks are closing out their best year since 2013 led by huge gains in technology stocks. The benchmark S&P 500 index soared 28.9% for the year. Major indexes ended slightly higher Tuesday after spending most of the day wavering between small gains and losses. Technology and health care stocks led the gainers. The S&P 500…

Mallacoota, Australia (AP) Wildfires burning across Australia's two most-populous states have trapped residents of a seaside town in apocalyptic conditions, destroyed many properties and caused at least two fatalities. About 4,000 people fled to the waterfront of a southeastern town as winds pushed an emergency-level wildfire towards their homes. The town of Mallacoota was shrouded…

New Your, NY (AP)  Authorities say a man charged with federal hate crimes in a bloody attack on a Hanukkah celebration had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references and had used his phone to look up information on Hitler. Federal criminal charges were filed Monday against 37-year-old Grafton E. Thomas. He was being held without bail…

An Iranian-backed militia says the death toll from U.S. military strikes in Iraq and Syria against its fighters has risen to 25. The militia is vowing to exact revenge for the "aggression of evil American ravens." Monday's announcement in Baghdad came a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said U.S. military strikes targeted the…

Washington, D.C. (AP) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. has carried out military strikes in Iraq and Syria that send the message that the U.S. will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardize American lives. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says the strikes targeted an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia blamed for an attack that killed…