WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers who had been sitting in stunned silence gasped at the declaration: The office of speaker “is hereby declared vacant.”

For the first time ever, a House speaker had been voted out of the position, plunging Congress into a new degree of turmoil. “Now what?” someone in the chamber yelled out.

03 October 2023; MEMO: Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that countries seeking to normalise relations with Israel “are betting on a losing horse”, state media reported on Tuesday.

"The definite position of the Islamic Republic is that countries that make the gamble of normalisation with Israel will lose. They are betting on a losing horse" Khamenei said, Reuters reports.

YAOUNDE, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 hostages held by separatist fighters in Cameroon's restive Anglophone region of Northwest have been rescued by security forces, a local official said Wednesday.

Menyong Gilbert Sunday, prefect of the Bui division of the region, said troops conducted an operation overnight into Wednesday, leading the rescue of 10 men and one woman who were held hostage in "a terrorist camp" in Kikaikom locality of the division.

(AP) --- Russian air defenses shot down 31 Ukrainian drones during a concerted nighttime attack by Kyiv’s forces on border regions, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday, as uncertainty grew over Ukraine’s future access to weapons and ammunition from Western allies.

The drone attack appeared to be Kyiv’s largest single cross-border drone assault reported by Moscow since the Kremlin launched its invasion 20 months ago. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Tehran, IRNA – The acting deputy director of transportation and traffic of Tehran Municipality has said that the contract to buy 791 metro cars is the largest contract in the history of Tehran’s metro.

Referring to the allocation of $1 billion for purchasing metro cars with the help of the 13th government in Iran, Mohsen Hormozi said that the contract to buy 791 metro cars is the largest contract in the history of Tehran’s metro.

He expressed hope that the first metro cars will be delivered to the municipality of Tehran in the next year.

BALTIMORE (AP) — A shooting interrupted a homecoming week celebration at Baltimore’s Morgan State University on Tuesday, wounding five people and prompting an hourslong lockdown of the historically Black college.

Students hunkered down for several hours, as police went room to room looking for suspects. No arrests were made.

Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the five victims, four men and one woman, are between the ages of 18 and 22. Their injuries were not life-threatening, he told reporters at a news conference early Wednesday.

02 October 2023; MEMO: The Chairman of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, on Saturday said that there are some who want to “swallow” Sudan.

According to the Arab World Press (AWP), Al-Burhan expressed his determination to end the ongoing war in Sudan and put an end to what he described as the “cancer” that has afflicted the country.

He stressed that no one could reject peace, but “it must be a peace that preserves the dignity, pride, and sovereignty of the country.”

New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the situation in Manipur, and alleged that never before has a PM completely "abandoned" a state and its entire people like now.

Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh said that Manipur coming to such a situation after the BJP was elected to power there 15 months ago is a "most damning indictment of its policies and the prime minister's priorities".

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota lawmaker who had flown to Arizona to be part of his sister’s sendoff before she deployed overseas gave the woman a hug and told her to “stay safe.”

Hours later, state Sen. Doug Larsen, his wife, and their two young sons were killed on their way home when the single-engine Piper Cherokee he was flying crashed in Utah on Sunday after a refueling stop.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan lawmakers said Wednesday that parliamentary approval is required before the deployment of police to the Kenya-led peacekeeping mission in Haiti to combat gang violence that was approved by the U.N. Security Council this week.

Opposition lawmaker Anthony Oluoch told a session of Parliament’s lower house that the conditions for foreign deployment hadn’t been met under the National Police Act.

03 October 2023; MEMO: Former Mexican diplomat Andres Roemer, who has been accused of sexual abuse and rape, has been arrested in Israel ahead of his possible extradition, authorities said yesterday, Reuters reported.

Roemer, a former consul general to San Francisco, became embroiled in one of Mexico’s most prominent #MeToo cases after a woman publicly accused him of sexual abuse, prompting others to present similar allegations.

KINSHASA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Felix Tshisekedi on Tuesday inaugurated the Sakania dry port in the DRC, a Chinese-built megaproject and currently the largest of its kind in Central Africa.

During his field inspection, Tshisekedi described the dry port of Sakania as a modern one, hoping it could serve as an example for other ports of the DRC.

Bordering Zambia, the dry port, located in southeastern Haut-Katanga province, is a main border post of the DRC and constitutes an important mining channel.