U.S. & World News Digest, 9-1

— Somali militants attack African Union’s region

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Al-Shabab overran an African Union base in southern Somalia early t0day, a Somali military official said, in the latest display of the Islamic extremists' capacity to hit back amid a prolonged offensive against them.

The attack in the small farming town of Janale started with a suicide car bombing at the base's gate, followed by a firefight which lasted more than an hour, said Col. Ahmed Hassan.

The African Union force in Somalia, known by its acronym as AMISOM, insisted on Twitter that it is still in control of the base.

However, Hassan told The Associated Press by phone that the militants overran the base after bombing a nearby bridge to prevent troops from escaping.

Al-Shabab said it killed about 50 AU troops from Uganda at the base.

Ruling: Ga. cop was shot by other officers

ATLANTA (AP) — Investigators say police officers who arrived at the wrong metro Atlanta home for a report of suspicious activity shot the man who lives there and "likely" shot one of their own, leaving him seriously wounded.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation officials said DeKalb County police received a report of a suspicious person Monday night in a southeast Atlanta neighborhood where many of the single-story homes look similar.

They said police entered the back of a house, where two officers shot a dog and officers also shot the resident in the leg when he exited a room off the kitchen. That man, whose name was not released, returned home early Tuesday but declined to comment.

Woman kills kids due to them being unloved

PHOENIX (AP) — A woman accused of drowning her 2-year-old twin sons told police she did it because nobody loved them or her, according to a court document released Monday.

Mireya Alejandra Lopez, 22, was arrested Sunday at a home in the Phoenix suburb of Avondale. A judge on Monday ordered her jailed on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, with bail set at $2 million. In addition to being accused of killing her sons by holding them underwater in a bathtub, Lopez is accused of trying to drown a 3-year-old boy identified as her stepbrother.

According to a police probable cause statement released after Lopez made an initial court appearance, she told investigators she killed her sons because nobody loved them or her, and she didn’t want her sons to grow up living a difficult life. The statement also said Lopez stated she takes medication for mental health conditions.

Lopez’s mother discovered the twins’ naked bodies in a bedroom. She initially thought they were sleeping but then realized they weren’t breathing, the police statement said.

The grandmother yelled for help and began life-saving measures on the twins before hearing Lopez in the bathroom, where she saw Lopez holding down the third boy in the bathtub, according to the statement.

The grandmother “had to physically grab (the third boy) away from Ms. Lopez and pick him up to safety,” the statement said.

Shots hit four vehicles on I-10 in Arizona area

PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities are trying to determine if the same person fired gunshots at four vehicles along a Phoenix freeway over a three-day span.

Only one person was hurt in the shootings that began Saturday along Interstate 10, and that unidentified person suffered a non-life-threatening injury, according to authorities.

Authorities are asking for information from anybody who saw anything unusual on the freeway around the times when the shots were fired. Two vehicles were struck within a half hour around 11 a.m. Saturday on I-10 between 19th and 59th avenues, and a third vehicle was hit on I-10 near 16th Street about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, according to the DPS.

A fourth vehicle was shot at around 4:25 a.m. Monday near 14th Avenue and I-10.

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