WASHINGTON (Reuters/NBC) – A man died by suicide after driving his car into a vehicle barricade near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, police said Sunday morning. As the man got out of his car, it “became engulfed in flames,” the Capitol Police said, and then the man “fired several shots into the air.” As officers started approaching the man, he shot himself, according to the police. No officers appeared to have fired their weapons, the department said, it and did not appear members of Congress were the target. Both chambers are currently out of town on their August recess. Authorities have not released the name of the man. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department, which is handling the investigation of the death, referred to the Capitol Police’s statement on the 4 a.m. incident and said there weren’t other details available yet. In another incident in the U.S., a man drove through a crowd gathered for a fundraising event Saturday, killing one person and injuring 17, before fatally attacking a woman in a neighboring borough, Pennsylvania authorities said. The suspect, identified as Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes, 24, was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Doug Brewer on two open counts of Criminal Homicide, Pennsylvania State Police said in a news release early Sunday, NBC News reported.

 

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto has edged ahead in a tight presidential race, according to official results reported by Kenyan media on Sunday, as more riot police were deployed inside the national election tallying center after scuffles and accusations by party agents. The fracas underscored fraying tempers and high tensions within the national counting hall as the country waits for official results from last Tuesday’s election. There were wry digs online over the melee from citizens pointing out that the rest of the nation is waiting patiently. In the presidential race, official verified results reported by the Nation media group showed Ruto taking 51% of the vote, ahead of left-leaning opposition leader Raila Odinga who had 48%. Confusion over vote tallying in the media and the slow pace of progress by the electoral commission have fed anxiety in Kenya, which is East Africa’s richest and most stable nation but which has a history of violence following disputed elections. Reuters was unable to get access to the official running vote tally for the presidential race on Sunday. A live feed displaying the results at the national tallying center had disappeared hours earlier. When asked about the tally, a spokeswoman for the commission referred Reuters to the live feed. Other electoral officials said they were unable to provide the information.

 

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YEREVAN (AP) – A strong explosion at a fireworks storage area tore through a market in Armenia’s capital on Sunday, killing at least one person, injuring 20 others and setting off a large fire. The city mayor’s office said there were an unknown number of people trapped under rubble. The blast and fire at the Surmalu market sent a towering cloud of smoke over Yerevan. The market is about two kilometers south of the city’s center. Rescue workers were laboring to pull people out of the rubble, said Levon Sardaryan, a spokesman for the Yerevan mayor. The explosion was in an area where fireworks were stored, he said. The Armenian emergency service ministry said at least one person was killed and 20 others were injured.

 

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CANBERRA (AFP) – A gunman fired around five shots inside Canberra’s main airport Sunday, sending passengers fleeing but injuring no one before he was detained by Australian police. Images posted on social media showed a police officer restraining a man on the ground inside the terminal as the emergency alarm sounded in the capital’s main airport. Police said the man was taken into custody and was being held at a station in the city. A firearm was recovered, they added. The gunman entered the airport’s departures area in the early afternoon and sat close to the terminal’s large glass windows, detective acting superintendent Dave Craft told reporters outside the building. He added that the gunman waited five minutes before pulling out his firearm and “let off approximately five rounds” The airport was evacuated and locked down, leading to the suspension of flights Several apparent bullet impacts were visible on the glass front on the second floor of the airport, television images showed. A woman identified only as Helen was quoted as telling The Guardian newspaper that she saw a man “shooting into the air” not far from the check-in counter, describing him as being middle-aged and “clean cut”. After examining the airport’s closed-circuit television images, police said they believed the man had acted alone.

 

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 PARIS (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron has signed the ratification protocols for the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. “This sovereign choice of Finland and Sweden, two European partners, will strengthen their security in the face of the current threat in their immediate neighborhood and will make a significant contribution, given the capabilities of these two partners, to the collective posture and to our European security,” the Elysée Palace said in an announcement on Saturday. France’s parliament had earlier this month ratified Sweden and Finland’s bids to join the military alliance. Both Nordic countries passed with 209 deputies in favor of their accession, and 46 against it. So far, 20 out of 30 NATO member states have ratified the membership of Sweden and Finland. However, all the member states of NATO have to approve of any newcomers to join. The two countries, long resistant to joining NATO, sought membership in the Alliance after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in August.

 

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BEIJING (Al Jazeera) – The Chinese city of Shanghai says it will reopen all primary, middle and high schools, kindergartens and nurseries on September 1, after months of COVID-19 closures. The city will require all teachers and students to take nucleic acid tests for the coronavirus every day before leaving campus, according to a statement published by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission on Sunday. It also called for teachers and students to carry out a 14-day “self health management” within the city in advance of the school reopening. Shanghai shut all schools in mid-March before the city’s two-month lockdown to combat its worst COVID outbreak in April and May. It allowed some students of high school and middle school to return to classrooms in June while most of the rest continued home study for the remainder of the semester. The city, the most populous in China, reported five new local infections of COVID, all asymptomatic, for Saturday, while 2,467 domestically transmitted cases were reported nationwide.