AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Gunfire at a huge prom after-party at a home in Texas injured nine teenagers, and a second shooting in a nearby city is being investigated for a possible connection, officials said. Sheriff’s deputies in Jasper County, in East Texas, arrived at a home where about 250 people were partying, authorities said. They found nine victims with gunshot wounds that didn’t appear to be life-threatening, according to a statement by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office. Eight people were taken in personal vehicles to Jasper Memorial Hospital, and at least one of them was transferred to a hospital in nearby Beaumont, Jasper County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Karli Cherry said. One person did not go to the hospital, she said. A second shooting within the city of Jasper occurred shortly after the first, the statement said. There were no injuries in the second shooting, but a connection is being investigated because of a “common vehicle at both locations,” the statement said.

 

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SEOUL (Reuters) -- The United States should redeploy tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea to send a clear message to North Korea and alleviate growing calls in the South for developing its own bombs, former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday. Bolton’s remarks came as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is in Washington for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden. Bolton said re-stationing U.S. tactical nuclear weapons would help reassure South Koreans, while sending a warning to Pyongyang. The United States deployed tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea in 1958 and pulled them out in 1991. Yoon had said during the election campaign that he would ask the United States to bring nuclear weapons back to South Korea if necessary, but backtracked after taking office in May. His defense minister, Lee Jong-sup, said in November that Seoul was not considering such a move.

 

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia has begun using its new T-14 Armata battle tanks to fire on Ukrainian positions “but they have not yet participated in direct assault operations,” the RIA state news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting a source close the matter. RIA said that the tanks have been fitted with extra protection on their flanks and crews have undergone “combat coordination” at training grounds in Ukraine. The T-14 tank has an unmanned turret, with crew remotely controlling the armaments from “an isolated armored capsule located in the front of the hull.” The tanks have a maximum speed on the highway of 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour, RIA reported. The Kremlin ordered production of 2,300 of the tanks – first unveiled in 2015 - by 2020, but this was later stretched to by 2025, according to Russian media reports. The Interfax news agency reported in December, 2021, that the state conglomerate Rostec had started production of some 40 tanks, with an anticipated delivery after 2023.

 

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MAMOUDZOU, France (AFP) -- A French court halted the controversial clearance of a slum due Tuesday aimed at expelling migrants from its Indian Ocean island territory of Mayotte -- a plan that has sparked clashes between locals and security forces and sparked tensions with neighboring Comoros. The operation, called Operation Wuambushu (“Take Back” in the local language), aims to expel migrants from urban slums on Mayotte to improve living conditions for locals in France’s poorest department. Some 1,800 members of the French security forces have been deployed for the operation, including hundreds sent from Paris, with young locals and police clashing in the district of Tsoundzou outside the main town of Mamoudzou since Sunday. AFP journalists reported clashes outside slums in Mayotte’s main city on Tuesday. Barricades of tires and dustbins lined the road and protesters threw stones at police, who fired tear gas.

 

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TAIPEI (AFP) -- Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei pledged support on Tuesday for “solid diplomatic ally” Taiwan during a visit to the self-ruled island that has been slammed by China. The Central American nation is one of the few remaining countries to recognize Taiwan, a list that has shrunk in recent years as Beijing moves to isolate Taipei on the international stage. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory to be taken one day, and does not allow nations to recognise both Beijing and Taipei. Giammattei, who arrived Monday for a four-day visit, vowed to “stand by the Republic of Taiwan as a solid diplomatic ally” at a military welcome ceremony in Taipei. Tsai travelled this month to Guatemala and Belize, the only other Central American country that recognizes Taipei, to firm up diplomatic relations after Honduras switched allegiance to Beijing in March.

 

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PADANG, Indonesia (AFP) -- A 7.1-magnitude earthquake rattled residents on islands west of Indonesia’s Sumatra on Tuesday, forcing them to flee to higher ground before an hours-long tsunami warning was lifted. The epicenter of the quake, which struck at 3 am (2000 GMT Monday), was in the sea near the Mentawai islands at a depth of 15.5 kilometers (more than 9 miles), the United States Geological Survey said. No casualties or severe damage were reported. Indonesia’s geophysics agency (BMKG) issued a tsunami warning that lasted around two hours after initially reporting a higher quake magnitude of 7.3. There were several aftershocks, he added. Indonesia experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide. In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake struck Aceh province on Sumatra island, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.