NASHVILLE SCHOOL SHOOTING: SIX KILLED BY 28-YEAR-OLD SHOOTER IN TENNESSEE

Six people have been killed in a school shooting in the US city of Nashville, Tennessee.

Three of the victims were pupils aged nine or under at Covenant School, a privately run Christian school.

They were named by police as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.

The adults victims were employees and named as Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.

Covenant School has about 200 students, and teaches pupils from three years old up to around 12.

Ms Peak was a substitute teacher working at the school that day. Mr Hill was a janitor and Ms Koonce is described as the Head of School on Covenant's website.

Police named the suspect as a 28-year-old woman, Audrey Hale, who identified as transgender.

Hale was armed with three guns, including a semi-automatic rifle, and was shot dead by police.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake said the shooter had conducted surveillance, and that maps of the building showing entry and exit points were found at a nearby home.

Police said the suspect got in by firing through one of the school doors, which were all locked.

Hale fired shots on the ground floor before moving to the building's second floor, and was shot dead in a confrontation with police at 10:27. One officer was injured by broken glass during the operation.

A search of a nearby parked car had led officers to "firmly believe" that Hale was a former student of the school.

WEST'S REACTION WON'T CHANGE PLANS TO DEPLOY NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN BELARUS: KREMLIN

Kremlin said on Monday that Russia won't change its plans of deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, the neighbouring nation and a key ally of President Vladimir Putin, despite the growing criticisms globally. West has slammed Putin's announcement, with Ukraine even seeking an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the move.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, "Such a reaction of course cannot influence Russian plans."

Recently, Putin talked about tactical nuclear weapons in a televised interview and said that Russia would deploy the weapons "without violating our international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation". Putin even stated that he spoke to his Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko and that they had "agreed to do the same".

The latest development has led to concerns over the nuclear escalation and also sparked fears that Belarus may join its ally's offensive, but Lukashenko said he would do so "only if attacked".

"Nothing unusual," said Putin, further arguing that the United States has been doing this for decades. "They have long placed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies," Putin added.

ISRAEL PROTESTS: PM NETANYAHU DELAYS LEGAL REFORMS AFTER DAY OF STRIKES

An uneasy calm is returning to Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would delay a key part of controversial plans to overhaul the justice system.

On Monday night he said he would pause the legislation to prevent a "rupture among our people".

However it is unclear what a delay will achieve beyond buying time.

It followed intensified protests after he fired his defence minister, who had spoken against the plans.

In unprecedented events, the country's biggest trade union called a strike, and Israelis watched society close down around them.

From the main airport to shops and banks - even in hospitals - services were stopped. The co-ordinated action was designed to push Mr Netanyahu back from the brink of pushing through the reforms by the end of this week.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called it the "biggest crisis in the history of the country".

SUICIDE BLAST NEAR FOREIGN MINISTRY IN KABUL KILLS 6

Islamabad : A suicide bomber struck Monday near the foreign ministry in Kabul, killing at least six people and wounding several, according to officials. It was the second time this year that there has been an attack near the ministry. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing but the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group has increased attacks since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021. IS has targeted Taliban officials and patrols, as well as members of the country’s minority Shias.

According to Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief, Taliban security forces spotted the bomber before he was able to reach a checkpoint at the Malik Asghar intersection, near the ministry. The attacker then detonated his explosives, killing at least six civilians. Three members of the Taliban security forces were among those wounded in the attack. The Kabul hospital run by the EMERGENCY nongovernmental organisation said it received two fatalities from the explosion and 12 wounded, including a child. In mid-January, an IS attack near the ministry killed at least five people and wounded several others.

MACRON HOLDS CRISIS MEETING AS MORE PROTESTS LOOM IN FRANCE

French President Emmanuel Macron summoned government Ministers for a crisis meeting on Monday, as tensions ran high a day before another major round of strikes against his pension reforms.

Unions have called for a big day of action on Tuesday, the 10th such mobilisation since protests started in mid-January.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, meanwhile, said that while there was no plan to drop the legislation, she was ready for fresh dialogue with unions.

Starting Monday, Ms. Borne has scheduled talks over three weeks, including with members of Parliament, parties, local authorities and unions.

Ms. Borne presented the plan for consultations to the President at Monday’s meeting and was then expected to take it to Mr. Macron’s allies and Cabinet members

MYANMAR JUNTA SAYS CRACKDOWN TO CONTINUE, MAKES PROMISE FOR POLLS

Myanmar’s junta chief, flanked by tanks and missile launchers, vowed no let up in a crackdown on opponents and said elections would be held, weeks after the military conceded it did not control enough territory to allow a vote. He was addressing service members attending the annual Armed Forces Day parade.

PRINCE HARRY, ELTON JOHN APPEAR AT UK COURT IN PRIVACY LAWSUIT

Britain’s Prince Harry and singer Elton John made a surprise appearance at London’s high court on Monday as they and five others began a lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail paper over years of alleged phone-tapping and privacy breaches. Harry, the younger son of King Charles, has brought a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers (ANL), along with John, and his husband David Furnish, as well as actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost. They allege they were victims of “numerous unlawful acts” carried out by journalists or private investigators working on behalf of ANL titles Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. These included hacking mobile phone messages, bugging calls, getting private information such as medical records by deception or “blagging”, and “commissioning the breaking and entry into private property”, their lawyer David Sherborne said. The alleged activity ran from 1993 to 2011, and even up to 2018. ANL, which is seeking to have the case thrown out, said it categorically denied the allegations and would vigorously defend them if necessary. In his claim, Harry accuses the papers of using unlawful means to obtain stories about him from at least early 2001 until at least late 2013, and said his brother William and the mother of William’s wife Kate had also been targeted.

TWITTER SAYS PARTS OF ITS SOURCE CODE LEAKED ONLINE

Parts of Twitter’s source code, the underlying computer code on which the social network runs, were leaked online, according to a legal filing, a rare and major exposure of intellectual property as the company struggles to reduce technical issues and reverse its business fortunes under Elon Musk.

Twitter moved Friday to have the leaked code taken down by sending a copyright infringement notice to GitHub, an online collaboration platform for software developers where the code was posted, as per the filing. GitHub complied and took down the code that day. It was unclear how long the leaked code had been online, but it appeared to have been public for at least several months. Twitter also asked a US court to order GitHub to identify theperson who shared the code.

Twitter launched a probe into the leak and executives handling the matter have surmised that whoever was responsible left the firm last year, two people briefed on the investigation said. Since Musk bought Twitter in October, about 75% of the firm’s 7,500 staffers have been laid off orresigned. Executives were made aware of the source code leak, the sources said. One concern is that the code includes security vulnerabilities that could give hackers the means to extract user data or take down the site, they said.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment abut the Twitter code leak. GitHub declined to comment on the decision to remove the code, but posted Twitter’s takedown request on its website.

N KOREA CONDUCTS 7TH MISSILE TEST IN LESS THAN A MONTH

North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday, as the US aircraft carrier Nimitz sailed toward South Korea for a joint military drill with Seoul. The missiles were launched from Junghwa, south of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and flew 370km to the east before landing off the North’s east coast, the South Korean militarysaid. The North has staged 11 rounds of missile tests so far this year, some involving more than one projectile. The launch on Monday was its seventh test in less than a month. The country last conducted a missile test on Wednesday, when it launched four cruise missiles off its east coast. North Korea later said the strategic cruise missiles were capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER A SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE POINTING DIRECTLY AT EARTH

A team of international astronomers has made a groundbreaking discovery of a supermassive black hole, located 657 million light-years away in the PBC J2333. 9-2343 galaxy, which has changed its direction and is now facing Earth.

The team previously classified it as a radio galaxy but changed the classification due to a unique activity within the core of the galaxy. When two jets (a jet composed of ionised matter travelling at nearly the speed of light) point towards the plane of the sky, they are classified as a radio galaxy, but if one of the jets points towards Earth, then the active galactic nucleus of the galaxy is known as a blazar. The team’s work ispublished in the monthly notices of the UK-based Royal Astronomical Society.

PBC J2333. 9-2343, happens to have a blazar in its core. Blazars are very high energy objects and considered to be one of the most powerful phenomena in the universe. These move in circles around a strong magnetic field, causing the emission of radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The study revealed that in PBC J2333. 9-2343, the jet changed its direction by an angle of up to 90°, going from being in the plane of the sky, perpendicular to our line of sight, to pointing towards the Earth.