MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/: Three Ukrainian Tochka-U operational-tactical missiles were destroyed by Russian air defense systems over the Belgorod region, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Saturday.

"At around 10:00 a.m. today, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack on Russian Federation targets using three Tochka-U operational-tactical missiles was thwarted. Air defense systems on duty destroyed all three Ukrainian missiles over the Belgorod region," the ministry said.

06 October 2023; MEMO: The United States, on Thursday, shot down an armed Turkish drone that was operating near its troops in Syria, US officials said, the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of NATO ally, Turkiye, Reuters reports.

A Turkish Defence Ministry official said the drone shot down by the US-led coalition did not belong to the Turkish armed forces but did not say whose property it was.

BEIRUT, Oct 7 (NNN-NNA) – The Lebanese navy, yesterday rescued 124 Syrians and one Lebanese, on board an illegal immigration boat, off the shores of al-Mina, in the northern city of Tripoli, near the Palm Islands.

The boat had set off from al-Abda Beach, however, its engine broke down yesterday afternoon. The passengers called for help from the army naval forces, whose members immediately intervened and rescued them.

The boat and passengers were transferred to the port of Tripoli, and were provided with first aid immediately.

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden offered Israel on Saturday "all appropriate means of support" after a deadly attack from Palestinian militant group Hamas and warned "any other party hostile to Israel" not to seek advantage.

The attack from the Iran-backed Islamist group erupted amid efforts by Biden and his team to negotiate a landmark normalization agreement between foes Israel and Saudi Arabia and a U.S.-Saudi defense pact.

07 October 2023; MEMO: The National Election Authority (NEA) yesterday opened the door for candidates who fulfil the candidacy requirements for the upcoming presidential election, however, none of the presidential hopefuls submitted their papers, Egypt’s State Information Service reported.

06 October 2023; MEMO: Israeli forces fatally shot two Palestinian men this yesterday after attacking their vehicle during a raid near the village of Shufa, south of the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm.

According to Wafa news agency, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that Huthayfah Fares, aged 27, and Abd Al-Rahman Atta, aged 23, were shot after the occupation army stormed the refugee camp in Tulkarm and deployed snipers in several places.

06 October 2023; MEMO: A Turkish-flagged general cargo ship that was sailing on Thursday in the Black Sea en route to Ukraine’s Izmail port did not sustain damage from an explosion, Turkiye’s maritime authority and the ship’s captain told Reuters on Friday.

“An explosion occurred 15-20 meters behind the Kafkametler ship en route to Izmail port from Batumi port while it was cruising off the coast of Romania/Sulina (port),” the authority said.

08 October 2023; MEMO: Turkiye will host the third international gathering aimed at building support for the Global Peace Summit that Ukraine plans to hold later this year, Bloomberg reports.

According to the report, the meeting is tentatively scheduled for later in October in Istanbul and will follow similar gatherings in Denmark in June and in Saudi Arabia in August, the news outlet said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A massive health care strike over wages and staffing shortages headed into its final day on Friday without a deal between industry giant Kaiser Permanente and the unions representing the 75,000 workers who picketed this week.

The three-day strike carried out in multiple states will officially end Saturday at 6 a.m., and workers were expected to return to their jobs in Kaiser’s hospitals and clinics that serve nearly 13 million Americans. The two sides did not have any bargaining sessions scheduled after concluding their talks midday Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is officially backing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the pugnacious House Judiciary Committee chairman and longtime Trump defender, to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

“Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., representing Ohio’s 4th Congressional District,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site shortly after midnight Friday. “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — In the partisan politics of education funding, the school choice movement has pressed states for decades to send taxpayer money to private and religious schools and long had to concentrate its efforts on states where a Republican governor was an ally.

That suddenly changed over the summer.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — a first-term Democrat seen by his party as a rising star nationally — forcefully put his weight behind a Republican-backed proposal to send $100 million to families for private school tuition and school supplies.

MANILA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - An anonymous bomb threat that prompted the Philippines to put all its commercial airports on heightened security alert is "most likely a hoax", the aviation police chief said on Friday.

Authorities ordered 42 airports across the country to step up security after receiving an anonymous email threat that planes flying out of Manila to several tourist destinations could explode.