CHANDLER, Ariz.

Shootout at upscale mall ends with no one injured

A shootout at an upscale shopping center in suburban Phoenix sent shoppers fleeing and prompted a mall lockdown Wednesday as the suspect who had exchanged gunfire with officers holed up in a fast food restaurant, authorities said.

The suspect surrendered Wednesday afternoon and no injuries were reported, officials said.

Hours after the noon-hour, parking lot gunbattle, authorities reopened the Chandler Fashion Center following a search that had been made to confirm only one suspect was involved in both the shooting and the standoff.

“Thankfully, nobody was shot and nobody got hurt,” Chandler police Sgt. Joe Favazzo said.

Witness Katie Corbin, who was inside Chandler Fashion Center at the time of the shooting, told KTVK-TV that people went to the back of the Victoria’s Secret store after shots were fired.

WASHINGTON

Poorly considered decisions cited as cause of BP blowout

The presidential panel investigating the BP oil well blowout says that a series of risky decisions that saved time and money caused the disaster — and the incident could happen again without significant reforms.

That conclusion is the final word on what led to the massive Gulf oil spill from the seven-member panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate.

In a 48-page excerpt obtained by The Associated Press, the commission says that the largest offshore oil spill in history can be explained by a single failure — industry management.

Personnel working for the three main companies — BP, Halliburton and Transocean — did not adequately consider how decisions would increase risk. If they had, the blowout would have been prevented, the commission says.

KABUL, Afghanistan

Spending on security forces up sharply as deadline nears

The United States and its NATO allies plan to spend $11.6 billion this year building Afghanistan’s security forces, the largest yearly sum to date, as pressure mounts to shift responsibility for fighting the Taliban away from the U.S.-led force and toward local troops.

The new funding pushes the total for 2010 and 2011 to nearly $20 billion, as much as in the seven previous years combined, according to Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, the commander of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan. Funds have bought, among other things, 24,000 Ford Rangers, 108,000 9mm pistols, 74,000 hand-held radios, 44 helicopters and four bomb-sniffing robots.

LONDON

Contraceptive implant working fine, maker says

Hundreds of women in Britain have complained to the medical regulator after becoming pregnant despite using a contraceptive implant that is supposed to work for years.

But the implant’s maker, Merck & Co., says the failure rate isn’t exceptional, and that women should continue to use it.

Implanon contains synthetic progesterone and is inserted underneath the skin in the upper arm, where it is supposed to stop pregnancies for up to three years. More than 1 million implants have been sold since it was licensed in Britain in 1999.

On Wednesday, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said 584 women said they had suffered unplanned pregnancies.