Dunford gets nod for top US military post

WASHINGTON • The US Senate has confirmed Marine General Joseph Dunford as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top officer in the US military, after President Barack Obama chose him for the post in May.

Gen Dunford, 59, currently the commandant of the US Marine Corps, will replace General Martin Dempsey. He will serve as the top military adviser to the US President and the Secretary of Defence.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

China national in US exam scam deported

PITTSBURGH • A judge in Pennsylvania has ordered a Chinese national to be deported for his role in a scam in which clients paid impostors to take tests to win admission to elite United States universities.

Li Biyuan, 25, who pleaded guilty to the scheme on Wednesday, had helped create a fake passport for co-conspirator Tong Han, 24, so that the latter could take a Graduate Record Examination for him, prosecutors said.

REUTERS

2006 poisoning 'put Londoners at risk'

LONDON • Many Londoners might have been put at risk by the 2006 poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, said the lawyer acting for the police. An inquiry heard that traces of polonium, a radioactive isotope, were found in London hotels and offices where the two men thought to have poisoned Litvinenko had been.

REUTERS