Israeli fighter planes apparently attacked targets near Damascus, Syria, overnight. Syrian state media reported that its air defenses repelled a missile attack.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has ordered medical checks on every child in its custody after an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died, marking the second death of an immigrant child in the agency's care this month.
The partial governement shutdown, which began at midnight Friday, has left about 25 percent of the federal government closed, affecting an estimated 800,000 workers. Since the shutdown fell over the weekend, and Monday and Tuesday were federal holidays, most government employees haven't felt the effects yet.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government decided this week to hold early national elections in April six months ahead of schedule.
A federal judge ordered North Korea to pay more than $500 million in a wrongful death suit filed by the parents of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died shortly after being released from that country.
A South Carolina man says he used the $70 he gets each month in food stamps to cook a Christmas meal for his community.
In an open letter to Christians in the United States, the head of the Syriac Union Party pleaded that his people not be abandoned to Turkish forces if US troops pull out of Syria, a move announced recently by President Trump.
A car smashed through a church wall in Ohio during Sunday morning services, injuring six people and shattering stained glass.
President Donald Trump says Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will leave his post on Jan. 1. Trump announced Mattis' new departure date in a tweet, and said he's naming deputy defense chief Patrick Shanahan as acting secretary.
A Minnesota-based poultry producer is recalling more than 164,000 pounds of raw ground turkey products that may be contaminated with salmonella.