A Bangladeshi lawmaker has been expelled from university after allegedly hiring as many as eight lookalikes to take exams in her place, officials said Monday.
Tamanna Nusrat, from the ruling Awami League party, is accused of paying the lookalikes to pretend to be her in at least 13 tests.
The scandal emerged after private broadcaster Nagorik TV entered a test hall and confronted one of the women posing as Nusrat, in a video that went viral.
Nusrat, who was elected to parliament last year, was studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bangladesh Open University (BOU).
"We expelled her because she has committed a crime. A crime is a crime," BOU head M.A. Mannan told AFP. "We have cancelled her enrolment. She will never be able to get admitted here again." "The proxy students were protected by the MP's musclemen when they sat for the tests. Everybody knew it but nobody uttered a word because she is from a very influential family," a college official said.
Nusrat could not be ...

Bangladesh MP 'hired lookalikes' for uni exams

PTI Automatic

US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper arrived Monday in Saudi Arabia, state television said, days after the Pentagon said it was bolstering its forces in the kingdom amid tensions with Iran.
Al-Ekhbariyah television gave no details on the previously unannounced visit, which comes after Esper visited Afghanistan.
On October 11, the Pentagon said it was deploying new US troops to Saudi Arabia after Riyadh asked for reinforcements following a mid-September drone and missile attack on Saudi oil plants, which Washington blames on Iran.
Esper said that two fighter squadrons and additional missile defence batteries were being sent to Saudi Arabia, bringing to about 3,000 the total number of troops deployed there since last month.
The September 14 attack knocked out two major processing facilities of state oil giant Aramco in Khurais and Abqaiq, roughly halving Saudi Arabia's oil production.
Washington condemned the attacks as a "act of war" but neither the Saudis nor the United States have ...

US defence secretary in Saudi Arabia on unannounced visit

Andy Murray has been selected for Britain's Davis Cup squad 24 hours after winning his first tournament since 2017.
Former world number one Murray clinched his first ATP Tour title for over two years on Sunday when he beat Stan Wawrinka in the European Open final in Antwerp.
It was only the sixth singles event the 32-year-old Scot has competed in since returning from the hip resurfacing operation he had in January.
GB captain Leon Smith on Monday named four of his five-man team, with two-time Wimbledon champion Murray alongside his brother Jamie, Dan Evans and Neal Skupski.
The group will compete in the new-format Davis Cup in Madrid next month as Murray looks to emulate his star role in Britain's 2015 victory in the competition.
"I'm delighted to name our first four players to represent GB for the Davis Cup Finals," Smith said.
"Dan is playing some of the best tennis of his career and firmly deserves his place back inside the world's Top 50.
"It's been absolutely fantastic to see ...

Murray in Britain's squad for Davis Cup

World number two Rafael Nadal has been named in the Spain squad for the Davis Cup finals in Madrid next month.
Nadal was included in a list of five Spanish players, with Roberto Bautista, Pablo Carreno, Feliciano Lopez and Marcel Granollers also picked by coach Sergi Bruguera.
A wrist injury forced Nadal to withdraw from the Shanghai Masters three weeks ago and it remains to be seen whether the 19-time grand slam champion is fit enough to play.
World number 40 Fernando Verdasco said he was "very disappointed" to be left out.
"Very sad and disappointed not to be in the team of @CopaDavis and that the captain #SergiBruguera doesn't count on me," Verdasco wrote on Twitter.
"I was very excited to possibly play my last Davis Cup in my city (#Madrid). Thanks to all those that do believe in me!" The Davis Cup starts on November 18 at the Caja Magica and Spain have been draw alongside Russia and Croatia in Group B.
Controversial changes to the format of the 119-year-old tournament mean 18 ...

Nadal named in Spain squad for Davis Cup

Ashfaq Ahmed on Monday became the fourth United Arab Emirates cricketer suspended as part of an anti-corruption investigation.
Ahmed opened the batting in their first two matches at the T20 World Cup qualifying tournament. He scored four as UAE lost to Oman on Friday and three as they beat Ireland on Saturday.
He was not in the team on Monday as UAE beat Hong Kong by eight wickets.
"Further to the ongoing investigations led by the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit, Emirates Cricket Board has today provisionally suspended Ashfaq Ahmed with immediate effect," the UAE Cricket Board said in a statement.
They added that "no formal charges have been laid against the player, and the Board will wait for the conclusion of proceedings before making any further comment." Last Wednesday, captain Mohammed Naveed, batsman Shaiman Anwar and right-arm pace bowler Qadeer Ahmed were charged with corruption by the International Cricket Council.
The three players face a total of 12 counts of breaching the ...

Fourth UAE cricketer suspended for corruption

Two men have been arrested over alleged racist abuse that forced Saturday's FA Cup qualifier between Haringey Borough and Yeovil Town to be abandoned.
Haringey manager Tom Loizou said defender Coby Rowe suffered racial abuse while Cameroonian goalkeeper Douglas Pajetat was also spat at.
Metropolitan Police said on Monday that two men, aged 23 and 26, have been detained on suspicion of racially aggravated common assault.
Both sides left the field after 64 minutes when Rowe and Pajetat were abused shortly after Yeovil took a 1-0 lead.
The Football Association (FA) decided on Monday that the tie will be replayed on October 29.
"I was angry and upset, so wasn't really paying attention to what else was going on around me, then I felt someone pull me and it was my manager," Rowe told the Daily Mail.
"He said, 'We are all going off, we are not playing any more'. Yeovil agreed and we left the pitch as one."
Haringey, who play in the seventh tier Isthmian League Premier Division, and Yeovil, ..

Two arrested over racism that forced FA Cup match abandonment

The United States on Monday began deploying a battalion of troops and dozens of tanks to Lithuania for an unprecedented six-month rotation, a move sought by the Baltic EU and NATO state to deter neighbouring Russia.
Dozens of Abrams tanks and Bradley armoured vehicles arrived by railway at the army training area in Pabrade.
Lithuania's Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis said the deployment of some 500 US troops scheduled to stay through the winter proves that a US military presence on NATO's eastern flank "is no longer a taboo".
"First and foremost, it is a message to Lithuania and neighbouring NATO states that allies are together with us," the minister told AFP.
"And it is also a message to Russia that the US is engaged, and it is an additional deterrence element," he added.
Ben Hodges, the former commander of US Army forces in Europe, said the US deployment was a "manifestation of American commitment to continued deterrence along NATO's eastern flank", at the time when US was ...

US moves troops, tanks into Lithuania in message to Russia

One of Russia's most powerful tycoons, Mikhail Fridman, appeared in Spain's top criminal court for questioning on Monday over allegations he artificially depressed the value of a Spanish takeover target.
Fridman, who has Russian, Ukrainian and Israeli nationality, is suspected of secretly working to engineer the collapse of Spanish digital entertainment firm Zed Worldwide in order to take it over after the company declared bankruptcy.
Spanish prosecutors accuse him of market manipulation, fraudulent insolvency, business corruption and misuse of company assets.
Spain's National Court summoned Fridman to appear for questioning at a pre-trial hearing in Madrid as a person under investigation.
In a statement issued after the hearing, Fridman said he had played "no role in Zed's insolvency".
In May, Fridman's Luxembourg-based investment company LetterOne secured majority control of struggling Spanish supermarket chain Dia via a hostile takeover following a bitter dispute with its ...

Powerful Russia tycoon quizzed by Spain's top criminal court

India plans to build a string of renewable energy projects along its sun-baked, wind-whipped western border, officials said Monday, as New Delhi continues an ambitious programme to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels.
Mired in an economic slowdown, the government has tripled spending over the last three years as part of its push to cut down the use of oil and coal.
"We are studying land feasibility and have identified projects worth 30 gigawatt capacity for Gujarat and 25 gigawatt capacity for Rajasthan," Anand Kumar, new and renewable energy secretary, told AFP.
The government had zeroed in on barren desert areas in a bid to avoid using agricultural land, he said, adding the sunny and windy region was ideally suited to renewable energy facilities.
Work on the projects would begin roughly 18 months after approval from the defence ministry and following land feasibility studies, he said.
"These projects will help reduce India's carbon footprint and adhere to promises made ..

India to build solar, wind farms along Pakistan border

Nine people were killed in northern Burkina Faso late Sunday, in the latest attack in a region struggling with a jihadist revolt, a security official said.
"Armed individuals carried out an attack on the village of Zoura, killing nine people, all of them civilians," the source said on Monday.
A resident in the nearby town of Kongoussi said the assailants "arrived in the village before the start of curfew (at 6:30 pm) and opened fire shortly afterwards.
They also ransacked a shop and made off with cattle."
"Not a day goes by without an gun attack, and the number of displaced people arriving in Kongoussi just keeps going up," the resident said.
Zoura lies in Bam, one of a swathe of provinces in northern Burkina Faso that have been battling with a four-year-old wave of jihadist violence that came from neighbouring Mali.
The attacks -- typically hit-and-run raids on villages, road mines and suicide bombings -- have claimed around 600 lives nationally, according to an AFP toll.
Out of ...

Nine killed in new attack in northern Burkina Faso

The US negotiator whose talks with the Taliban was halted by President Donald Trump is meeting with Russia, China and European allies on ending Afghanistan's war, the State Department said Monday.
Zalmay Khalilzad left Sunday on a trip to Brussels, Paris and Moscow as he looks for "how best to support accelerated efforts to reach peace in Afghanistan," a State Department statement said.
In Moscow, he will meet his Russian and Chinese counterparts to "discuss shared interests in seeing the war in Afghanistan come to an end," it said.
Khalilzad, a veteran US diplomat who was born in Afghanistan, led a year of talks with the Taliban to seek a deal that would see the United States withdraw most of its troops and end its longest-ever war.
Trump said in September that he had invited Taliban leaders to meet but then withdrew the invitation and ended the talks after an attack killed a US soldier.
Despite not reaching an agreement, General Scott Miller, who leads US and NATO forces in ...

US envoy consults Russia, China, EU on ending Afghan war

Lebanon's cabinet Monday approved a raft of economic reforms and agreed on the 2020 budget, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said, after growing protests that fuelled calls for his government's resignation.
The premier told a televised press conference after a cabinet meeting that the measures, including a halving of salaries of MPs and ministers, were not merely an attempt to quell the demonstrations, in which the political class has been the main target.
"These decisions are not designed as a trade-off. They are not to ask you to stop expressing your anger. That is your decision to make," he said.
"Your movement is what led to these decisions that you see today," he added.
The protests which started five days earlier over tax hikes have evolved into an unprecedented push to remove Lebanon's entire political leadership.
Hariri said key measures bring in no new taxes or fees on citizens or public sector employees.
There is to be a 50-percent decrease in salaries of all current and former ...

Lebanon announces economic reforms on day 5 of protests

Thousands of Sudanese rallied in several cities including the capital Khartoum on Monday, urging the country's new authorities to dissolve the former ruling party of ousted Islamist leader Omar al-Bashir.
Crowds of men and women rallied in Khartoum, its twin city of Omdurman, Madani, Al-Obeid, Port Sudan and in the town of Zalinge in war-torn Darfur, expressing their support for the new authorities who are tasked with the country's transition to a civilian rule.
Monday's gatherings also marked the October 21, 1964 uprising that had ousted the then military leader Ibrahim Abboud.
The demonstrators carried banners saying "Dissolve the National Congress Party", an AFP correspondent reported.
The rallies, organised by the umbrella protest movement Forces of Freedom and Change, was also meant to demand "justice for the martyrs" killed during the months-long uprising that led to Bashir's ouster in April.
Some Islamist groups had also called for similar gatherings on Monday in Khartoum but ..

Thousands of Sudanese call for dissolving Bashir's party

Chile's death toll has risen to 11, authorities said on Monday, after three days of violent demonstrations and looting that saw President Sebastian Pinera claim the country was "at war."
Almost 1,500 people were detained in the worst outbreak of social unrest in decades while the capital Santiago was placed under curfew for two nights running.
"We are at war against a powerful, implacable enemy, who does not respect anything or anyone and is willing to use violence and crime without any limits," Pinera told reporters on Sunday after an emergency meeting with army general Javier Iturriaga, who has been placed in charge of order and security in the capital.
Karla Rubilar, the governor of the Santiago region, said eight people had died on Sunday and three on Saturday -- all in the Santiago metropolitan area.
Santiago and nine more of Chile's 16 regions were under a state of emergency, Pinera confirmed late on Sunday, with troops deployed onto the streets for the first time since Augusto .

Chile death toll rises to 11, president extends emergency

China will ask the World Trade Organisation for permission to impose tariffs on USD 2.4 billion worth of US goods as compensation in a dispute that dates back to 2012, documents showed Monday.
In a statement circulated to WTO members last week, but sent to journalists on Monday, China claimed the penalty was justified given the "United States continued non-compliance" with previous WTO rulings.
The move comes as the world's two largest economies continue to seek a deal to resolve a trade war that has seen billions of dollars in tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by both sides.
But the case was initiated in 2012 after former US president Barack Obama's administration slapped duties on Chinese products ranging from thermal paper to solar panels and drill pipe.
The Obama administration argued that the duties were necessary to counter Chinese dumping of low cost goods into the US, unfairly harming American producers.
China took the case to the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), arguing the US .

China seeks WTO okay for USD 2.4 bn tariffs on US goods

The pound hit a fresh five-month peak above USD 1.30 Monday on renewed Brexit optimism after Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested another extension to Britain's scheduled departure from the European Union.
At about 1230 GMT, the pound reached the highest level since May at USD 1.3013.
It later stood at USD 1.2993, up from USD 1.2984 late in New York on Friday.  The euro was down at 85.92 pence.
"Markets (are) starting to price in a best-case scenario in terms of the deal getting passed this week and then a short extension to pass any necessary legislation," CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson told AFP.
"Whether that optimism turns out to be premature is another matter; only time will tell." Johnson was Monday attempting again to push his EU divorce deal through parliament and avoid the political damage of delaying Brexit beyond next week.
Lawmakers on Saturday mandated the prime minister to break his promise and send a letter to Brussels asking for more time.
"The main driver (for ...

Pound strikes five-month peak above USD 1.30

Shares of Boeing tumbled again on Monday over its handling of the 737 MAX crisis after US aviation regulators criticized it for withholding key documents for months.
Both UBS and Credit Suisse downgraded the company following Friday's statement by the Federal Aviation Administration that called Boeing's handling of the documents "disappointing".
The criticism comes as Boeing's efforts to get the FAA to certify the plane to return to service have dragged on. The jets were grounded in March following two crashes that killed 346 people.
The document is an instant message conversation between Boeing's chief technical pilot for the 737, Mark Forkner, who told a colleague that the performance of Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System during a simulation was "egregious" and that he had  "basically lied" to regulators inadvertently.
The MCAS is a flight-handling mechanism believed to be at the center of two MAX crashes that killed 346 people, which led to the plane's grounding since .

Boeing shares tumble again as 737 MAX crisis deepens

Lebanon's cabinet Monday approved a raft of economic reforms and agreed on the 2020 budget, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said, after growing protests fuelled calls for his government's resignation.
Speaking in a televised press conference after a cabinet meeting, the premier said the measures were not merely an attempt to quell demonstrations.
"These decisions are not designed as a trade-off. They are not to ask you to stop expressing your anger. That is your decision to make," he said.
"Your movement is what led to these decisions that you see today," he added.
The protests which started five days ago over tax hikes have evolved into an unprecedented push to remove Lebanon's entire political leadership.
Hariri said he supported the demonstrators' call for early elections.
"We have heard you. If your demand is early parliamentary elections, it is your voice only that decides. I, Saad Hariri, am with you in this demand."
Last year, Lebanon held its first parliamentary polls in nine years 

Lebanon announces economic reforms on fifth day of protests

Representatives from more than 60 countries including Israel but not Iran met in Bahrain on Monday to discuss maritime security following attacks on tankers in the Gulf and Saudi oil installations.
The United States, other Western states and Saudi Arabia blame the attacks on Tehran, which denies any involvement.
"We all must take a collective stand... to take the necessary steps to protect our nations from rogue states," Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa told the meeting.
Although it does not have relations with Bahrain, Israel is attending the two-day meeting.
In June, the Jewish state was represented at a workshop in Manama on the economic component of Washington's as yet unrevealed Middle East peace plan.
"This meeting comes at a critical moment in history," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in a letter to the meeting's participants.
"The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery, whether by air or sea, poses a serious .

Bahrain hosts meeting on maritime security after Gulf attacks

The death toll from a violent weekend of protests in Chile has risen from seven to 11, Santiago governor Karla Rubilar told reporters on Monday.
"There were three deaths the day before yesterday and eight deaths yesterday," all in the greater Santiago area, Rubilar said.
Violent protests, initially against a hike in metro fares, first broke out on Friday with many metro stations attacked, buses torched and traffic lights smashed while several supermarkets were looted and burnt.

Toll from Chile unrest rises to 11 dead: official

The mayor of South Africa's biggest city Johannesburg resigned on Monday, saying he was stepping down from the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) over the party's approach to racial inequality.
When Herman Mashaba was elected in 2016, he became the city's first mayor not from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) since apartheid ended in 1994.
The 60-year-old millionaire, who made his fortune in black hair products, was one of the most senior politicians in the pro-business DA, long considered a party for middle-class white people.
But on Monday he quit the DA, which means he can no longer serve as mayor.
"I cannot reconcile myself with a group of people who believe that race is irrelevant in the discussion of inequality and poverty in South Africa," Mashaba told a press conference in Johannesburg.
He said his decision was sparked by the election of former DA leader Helen Zille as the party's federal council chairperson at the weekend.
The DA has been engulfed by a power ...

AFP

AFP

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