NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks edged lower in light trading on Wall Street as investors returned from the Christmas holiday. The S&P 500 index slipped less than 0.1% Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%. Institutional investors have largely closed out their positions for the year.

SYDNEY (AP) – A briefing for this year’s Sydney to Hobart race began Wednesday with a minute’s silence for the two sailors who died in last year’s event. It ended with hopes that the catastrophic weather conditions will not be repeated in this year’s race starting Friday.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) – Winter rain lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding camps with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by two years of war attempted to stay dry in tents frayed by months of use.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – England bowler Jofra Archer will not play in the remaining two Ashes tests due to a left side strain, a team official said Wednesday.

MISRATA, Libya (AP) – Hundreds of people on Sunday mourned western Libya’s military chief and four others who were killed in a plane crash in Turkey. The coffins of Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad and two others were brought into a stadium in the coastal city of Misrata, their hometown, for a funeral ceremony.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – England’s managing director of men’s cricket Rob Key says he will investigate the drinking habits of the England team following reports that their mid-Ashes beach resort break may have involved over-indulging of alcohol.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – A man accused of shooting dead 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in an antisemitic attack faced a lengthy delay in getting a gun license because of a bureaucratic mishap, not because he raised suspicions, a state government leader said on Tuesday.