MESA, Ariz. (AP) — A suspect has been arrested in connection with five separate shootings in the Phoenix metro area that left four people dead and a woman wounded, authorities said. Mesa police said 20-year-old Iren Byers was taken into custody Sunday on suspicion of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder. A motive for the shootings wasn’t immediately clear, but police said Byers took responsibility for the shootings and told officers where they could find the clothes and gun used in the crimes. Police said video surveillance footage showed the suspect wearing the clothing reported by witnesses at multiple shooting scenes. The names of the victims were being withheld Sunday until relatives could be notified. It was unclear Sunday if Byers has a lawyer yet who could speak on his behalf.

 

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine officials began evacuating thousands of villagers, shut down schools and offices and imposed a no-sail ban Monday as Typhoon Mawar approached the country’s northern provinces a week after battering the U.S. territory of Guam. The typhoon is packing maximum sustained winds of 155 kpm (96 mph) and gusts of up to 190 kph (118 mph) but is forecast to spare the mountainous region a direct hit. Current projections show the typhoon veering northeast toward Taiwan or southern Japan. Although it’s expected to slow down considerably, authorities warned of dangerous tidal surges, flash floods and landslides as it blows past the northernmost province of Batanes from Tuesday to Wednesday. Disaster-preparedness officials said the typhoon’s course could change abruptly and there was no room for complacency.

 

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TRIPOLI (AFP) -- Drone strikes in Libya killed at least two people and wounded others, including an MP’s nephew, the lawmaker said, days after accusing the Tripoli-based government of targeting his home. The strikes near the western city of Zawiya were part of an operation that the authorities said was targeting smuggling networks. But lawmakers in the country’s eastern-based parliament accused the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) of hitting the home of Zawiya representative Ali Bouzribah. Bouzribah said in a Facebook post that his nephew had been injured and two other men killed in the strikes Sunday. Images and video circulated on social media of both those killed and the lawmaker’s injured nephew in a hospital bed. The strikes targeted Al-Maya, a small port between Zawiya and the capital that has seen repeated clashes between rival militias in recent weeks.

 

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JIUQUAN, China (AFP) -- China will send its first civilian astronaut into space as part of a crewed mission to the Tiangong space station on Tuesday, its Manned Space Agency announced, as Beijing pushes ahead with its extra-terrestrial ambitions. The world’s second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars into its military-run space program, trying to catch up with the United States and Russia after years of belatedly matching their milestones. Until now, all Chinese astronauts sent into space have been part of the People’s Liberation Army. “Payload expert Gui Haichao is a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,” China Manned Space Agency Spokesperson Lin Xiqiang told reporters Monday. Gui will be “mainly responsible for the on-orbit operation of space science experimental payloads”, Lin said. The commander is Jing Haipeng -- on his fourth mission into space, according to state media -- and the third crew member is engineer Zhu Yangzhu.

 

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 MINSK (Reuters) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that if any other country wanted to join a Russia-Belarus union there could be “nuclear weapons for everyone.” Russia moved ahead last week with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, in the Kremlin’s first deployment of such warheads outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, spurring concerns in the West. In an interview published on Russia’s state television late on Sunday, Lukashenko, President Vladimir Putin’s staunchest ally among Russia’s neighbors, said that it must be “strategically understood” that Minsk and Moscow have a unique chance to unite. “No one is against Kazakhstan and other countries having the same close relations that we have with the Russian Federation,” Lukashenko said. “If someone is worried ... (then) it is very simple: join in the Union State of Belarus and Russia. That’s all: there will be nuclear weapons for everyone.”

 

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CARACAS (AFP) -- Indigenous locals attacked a military outpost in the Amazon with bows and arrows, Venezuela’s military reported. The incident occurred on Friday, a source linked to indigenous rights defenders told AFP. No injuries were reported. The attack with traditional weapons was in retaliation for the armed forces confiscating “contraband materials” meant to be used in illegal mining, regional General Domingo Hernandez Larez posted on Twitter. The materials were being sent to illegal mining camps in the Yapacana National Park, in Amazonas state, on the border with Colombia and Brazil, he added. Some five tons of food and various supplies were seized by the armed forces in the previous days during military operations against illegal mining, he added.