Good Morning Australia! - Shocker on Capitol Hill, as the congressional hard-right minority appears to have derailed the next Speaker - Another crisis of leadership is bubbling over in World Football - One of the world football's top players has got some major tax trouble - Hmmm.. Maybe Russian Cruise Missiles aren't all that - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The US Republican party imploded in Washington, DC, as the man widely expected to become the Speaker of the US House of Representatives announced he was not going to run for the position.  Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy arrived at the Capitol in the morning with his family, apparently in full belief that his fellow Republicans would give him the votes to succeed the outgoing speaker John Boehner.  They didn't.  By noon, the party was in shock and McCarthy was making his excuses.  This means that the third job in the US Government line of succession - which goes, President, Vice-President, House Speaker, et cetera - will remain filled by Boehner, who cancelled the vote for his successor and announced he would stay on past his announced retirement date of 29 October, or until a replacement emerges. 

Extreme conservatives - some of whom literally believe that any cooperation with Democrats is treason - withheld those votes from McCarthy, believing him to be too close to the Washington establishment.  They've shut down the US Government in the past, and now have demonstrated they'll shut down their own party.  It hints that the two main factions of the Republican Party - the Eastern business establishment which doesn't care how it gets lower taxes and less regulation; and the Southern/Western extremists more concerned with legislating women's reproductive systems and denying rights to LGBT people and minorities - may no longer be capable of working together in the coalition forged by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.  Or maybe they'll pick a Speaker and this will go away in a few days.

The Pentagon says a few of those brand-new cruise missile launched from Russian Navy ships in the Caspian Sea didn't just miss their marks in Syria - they fell down in the wrong country.  Iran's Irna news agency reported on Wednesday that an unknown flying object had crashed in the village of Ghozghapan in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan.  Moscow denies the Pentagon's assertion, and claims all 26 missiles launched on Wednesday were on target. 

FIFA has suspended its embattled head Sepp Blatter, secretary general Jerome Valcke, and vice-president Michel Platini for 90 days.  Platini was seen by some as the natural successor to Blatter, who faces corruption charges in Switzerland.  But given the corruption allegations against members of the world football body's inner circle in all sorts of different countries, FIFA may end up making a clean break from the past and finding a respected international figure from outside the football world.  Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's name has been mentioned. 

A court in Spain says Argentina and Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi and his father must stand trial on tax fraud charges, overruling the prosecutors who wanted the charges dropped.  Messi and his father Jorge deny defrauding Spain of more than A$6.8 Million.  Tax Authorities allege the men avoided paying tax on his Lionel's earnings by using offshore companies in Belize and Uruguay in 2007-09, and are demanding 22-month jail sentences for the men.  Both Lionel and Jorge Messi deny any wrongdoing.

Police in Sacramento, California are looking for suspects in the stabbing of Spencer Stone outside of a bar.  Stone is one of the brave America soldiers credited with stopping a terrorist attack on a French Train two months ago, suffering numerous stabbing wounds in the process.  This time, he's back in hospital in a serious condition, after tangling with four scumbags who, he tried to stop from harassing a woman.  Police say terrorism does not appear to be a motive.

Guatemala announced it will build new homes for the survivors of last week's mudslide, albeit away from the steep hillsides that collapsed on El Cambray Dos.  At least 200 people were killed and 300 are still missing.

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo is now asking for international help in battling the forest and peet fires that have cast a smokey, sooty haze over the region - all the way to some of Thailand's tourist islands of Phuket and Samui.  Singapore's offer of assistance was initially rebuffed, but Jokowi changed his mind and is also seeking firefighting help from Malaysia, Japan, and Russia.  The fires are the result of annual slash-and-burn practices on palm oil and pulp wood plantations, mainly on Sumatra and Borneo islands.

MPs in Kenya's parliament are angry after the electricity was shut off for three days over A$133,000 in unpaid utility bills.  The opposition is blaming the government, noting that they're still owed their parliamentary allowances.