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Syrian soldiers backed by tanks entered the Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya on Tuesday, killing at least 20 young men and burning shops and houses before gradually withdrawing from the town, residents and opposition activists said.

Phyllis Diller, the housewife turned humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with her trademark cackle, died Monday morning in Los Angeles at age 95.

An earthquake that struck rural Indonesia left at least four people dead, authorities said Sunday. At least seven others were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. The 6.6-magnitude hit Saturday near the city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

A popular lodging area in Yosemite National Park could be linked to a rare rodent-borne disease that has killed a California tourist who stayed there this summer, officials said. A man who stayed at Curry Village in June died after contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. A woman who also stayed in a canvas tent cabin about 100 feet from him on overlapping days has become seriously ill, park officials said.

Police outside Atlanta say a college student who took in abandoned animals was attacked and killed by a dog. DeKalb County police tell The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 23-year-old Rebecca Carey was killed at her Decatur home sometime over the weekend.

At least 21 people died in a dozen blasts and a series of shootings in cities and towns across Iraq on Thursday.

At least 3 Americans are among the dead. The cause of the crash is being investigated. The NATO-led international military coalition says a helicopter crash in Afghanistan has killed 11 people including seven international service members.

Two sheriff's deputies in Louisiana have been shot to death and two other deputies were wounded in an early morning shootout in St. John the Baptist Parish, west of New Orleans.

Joe Kubert's art seemed tattered at the edges and populated by rangy heroes with haunted eyes. He and his wife founded the only accredited trade school for comic book artists. Joe Kubert was never a superstar comics artist — his work didn't have the necessary bombast or polished edges — but the man who drew ragged, soulful soldiers in "Sgt. Rock," "The Haunted Tank" and "Enemy Ace" did something his characters would have admired: Kubert marched farther and longer than anyone else and proved himself a natural leader.

Ron Palillo, who played nerdy teen Arnold Horshack on 'Welcome Back, Kotter' dies at 63.