Expulsions

An Associated Press correspondent left Ethiopia Sunday under an expulsion order after the government called his reporting "hostile" to its interests. The Ethiopian government in recent weeks has cracked down on other journalists. Independent writers and editors were among 129 people arrested in November and December and charged with treason, genocide and other offenses.

Earnest and God-fearing, jungle missionary Gary Greenwood may not look like a spy for the CIA. But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the lanky young man from central Michigan is no less than an advance scout for an imminent U.S. invasion of this South American country. Last month, Chavez ordered the expulsion of about 200 evangelical Baptist missionaries from the country's Amazon rain forest.

As high school athletes in California suit up this fall, they are facing an unprecedented crackdown on the growing use of steroids. This school year, a California Interscholastic Federation policy requiring student athletes to pledge not to use steroids makes the state the first in the nation with such a requirement. Penalties for violating the contract include suspension or expulsion. Some school districts are going further.

A Canadian lawyer for jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was expelled from Russia on Friday after a post-midnight visit to his hotel room by plainclothes police. The confrontation, reminiscent of law enforcement tactics during the Soviet era, came hours after the denial of Khodorkovsky's appeal of his conviction on fraud and tax evasion charges. The case ended his control of Yukos Oil Co. and transferred the bulk of the company's assets back to state control.

A judge ordered a school district Wednesday to readmit a 14-year-old student expelled for writing violent, profane rap lyrics, finding that his songs didn't amount to "true threats" against the school and so were protected by the 1st Amendment. The Riverside Beaver County School District kicked out Anthony Latour because officials believed his lyrics constituted threats to shoot up the school and another student.

USC cornerback Eric Wright, who faced possible suspension or expulsion from school for his role in an alleged incident that occurred in late March, has withdrawn from classes and will seek to continue his career elsewhere, Coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday. "He came to the conclusion it's the right thing to do, and I agree," Carroll said. Wright, 19, was scheduled to meet with school disciplinary officials June 15.

Children attending preschool in California and the nation are expelled at three times the rate of older students, according to a landmark new study that is provoking surprise and alarm among educators and parents. In a report scheduled for release today, the Yale Child Study Center found that nearly seven preschool children per 1,000 are being expelled -- for behavioral problems -- from state-funded programs, compared with 2.1 per 1,000 elementary, middle and high school students.

The International Olympic Committee's ruling executive board recommended the expulsion Thursday of South Korea's Kim Un Yong, long one of the most influential figures in international sports, in the wake of Kim's conviction last year in Seoul on corruption charges. Saying that Kim, an IOC vice president, had "seriously tarnished" the "reputation of the Olympic movement," the board voted unanimously to recommend expulsion to the full IOC general assembly, which meets in July in Singapore.

Two Moroccan men were taken off a flight from Paris bound for Washington after officials determined one of the men was on the U.S. no-fly list. Air France Flight 026 was diverted to Bangor on Saturday night, and the two men were detained at a local jail. They were being transported to Massachusetts on Sunday as officials investigated why the passenger was allowed to board the plane in Paris. The second man detained was traveling with the banned passenger.

Brazil's government decided Friday not to revoke the visa of a New York Times reporter who wrote an article suggesting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had a drinking problem. The decision was made after lawyers for correspondent Larry Rohter wrote a letter to the government saying the article was not written to offend Lula.