Hal Bernton

SEATTLE -- Since the first of July, five soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord have died in apparent suicides, part of an Army-wide upsurge in such deaths despite stepped-up prevention efforts.

Their memorial services came so close together that one bereaved mother, at a hotel in DuPont where the Army had her stay, encountered another couple struggling with the loss of their son.

"This is just too much in too short a time," said Karrie Champion, whose 21-year-old son, Spc. Jonathon Gilbert, died July 28. "This is just not right."

In recent weeks, commanders have met with soldiers stricken by grief over the passing of their comrades, and a recent directive at the base put a heightened focus on an Army-wide effort to reduce suicides.

The Army suicide rate has nearly doubled during a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which has seen more-frequent overseas deployments for soldiers and a broader range of recruits.

OCEAN SHORES, Wash. -- The sign in front of the stone entry to this beach town says, "TsunamiReady Community." But Ocean Shores is ill-prepared to face the onslaught of waves that would be spawned by a big quake from a major fault zone just offshore.

SEATTLE -- The German news organization Der Spiegel has published three photos depicting U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan that the Army had sought to keep secret during prosecution of a war-crimes case.

One photo shows two Afghans, who appear to be dead, leaned up against a post.

The other two photos show two soldiers accused of killing an unarmed Afghan in January 2010 kneeling next to the body of the slain man.

The two soldiers depicting kneeling by the corpse are:

--Spc.

SEATTLE -- Federal agents in Seattle have seized $2.75 million worth of Russian king crab, most of which was allegedly poached, according to a civil complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

The seizure results from a joint U.S. and Russian effort to crack down on the illegal harvest of the valuable crustacean at a time of diminished supplies and record-high prices.

SEATTLE -- In hearings this fall, Army prosecutors, armed with sworn statements about plots to kill innocent civilians, have laid out their cases against soldiers accused of murder, conspiracy and other wrongdoing while serving in Afghanistan.

But the hearings inside an aging brick building at Joint Base Lewis-McChord also have brought out some vulnerabilities in the government's case.

One setback involves the case against Staff Sgt.

SEATTLE -- They retrieved two severed fingers from a hiding place at an Army base in southern Afghanistan, ventured to a remote village to search for forensic evidence of murder and traveled to eastern Oregon to look for an e-mailed photograph of an Afghan corpse.