Casualties

Army Sgt. Michael Kyle Clark put his young son and family above everything but service to his country. Clark, 24, probably could have avoided his second tour in Iraq. Just after Thanksgiving in 2006, shortly after coming home from his first deployment, he shattered his pelvis while horsing around with buddies on his Yamaha motorcycle. "We thought we were going to lose him," recalled his wife, Nalini. "Then we thought he would never walk."

Despite a rising death toll from wildfires, the premier of the southern Australian province ravaged by the blazes defended the policy of allowing homeowners to stay and protect their homes. Police have confirmed 181 people died in the fires, with at least 50 still missing. Officials have said the death toll could reach 300. More than 900 homes have been destroyed, and 7,000 people have registered for assistance with the Red Cross, officials said.

A female suicide bomber who infiltrated a crowd of Shiite Muslim women and children making their pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala left 35 dead and 80 wounded Friday in the deadliest attack in Iraq this year, officials said. The bombing occurred in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, at a roadside rest area that served cake, tea and water to women and children, authorities said. The incident marked the third day in a row that Shiite pilgrims were attacked.

Every week, Air Force cargo jets land and taxi down the runway at Dover Air Force Base, Del., carrying the remains of fallen U.S. troops. After a chaplain says a simple prayer, an eight-member military honor guard removes the metal "transfer cases" from the planes and carries them to a mortuary van. The flag-draped coffins are a testament to the toll of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as of the sacrifice borne by those who serve in the military and their families.

Three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter were killed Monday in fighting northeast of the Iraqi capital, the military announced. The statement did not provide details of the incident in Diyala province. According to the independent website icasualties.org, at least 4,250 members of the U.S. military have died in the war since it began in March 2003.

A car bomb exploded at a crowded livestock market south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 13 people in a mainly Shiite Muslim area that the U.S. military has described as one of the safest in Iraq. The blast, which injured 57 people, struck the market at the height of trading, scattering animal carcasses and human remains across the dirt.

A suicide bomber in Sri Lanka attacked a Muslim religious procession Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than three dozen, including a government minister, officials said. The army blamed the Tamil Tigers separatist group, which for a quarter of a century has been fighting for a homeland in the northern part of the South Asian island nation. Tiger militants, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, are on their heels.