Marshall E. Drummond, who stepped down in July as chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, has been named chief academic officers and provost of the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates, the college announced today. The move is the latest in a series of high-profile hires by higher-education institutions in the Persian Gulf. Mr. Drummond, who was previously chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, left the Los Angeles position, for undisclosed reasons, two years before his contract expired.

City health officials were called in to investigate after Boston University reported that a graduate student had come down with a bacterial infection after conducting experiments with meningitis pathogens, The Boston Globe reported. While the officials found no immediate safety problems, the incident added fuel to tensions between some community members and the university over a new infectious-disease laboratory it has built -- but not yet opened -- to deal with some of the world's deadliest pathogens.

Two attackers hit a cafeteria and a faculty building today at International Islamic University, in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing four and wounding 18, according to the Associated Press. While no one has yet claimed responsibility, the attacks came just days after the Pakistani army began an assault on Taliban strongholds near the Afghan border. "It seems that [militant] sympathizers or collaborators are doing this to divert attention from the military operation," Anwar Hussain Siddiquim, the university's president, told the Associated Press. "They are trying to create panic in the capital city."

Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, which advocates for the use of armed civilian border patrols to stop illegal immigration, was scheduled to speak during a conference on Saturday sponsored by the Harvard Undergraduate Legal Committee. But after protesters objected, the committee disinvited him, saying that his presence "was not compatible with providing an environment for civil, educational, and productive discourse on immigration," according to today's Boston Globe. An appearance by Mr. Gilchrist at Columbia University in 2006 led to a brawl.

India and the United States plan to establish a joint education council of academics and industry experts to pave the way for advanced bilateral relations in higher education, the Press Information Bureau of India said Thursday. The announcement followed a meeting between William Burns, under secretary for political affairs in the U.S. State Department, and Kapil Sibal, India's minister in charge of higher education. Mr. Sibal will travel to the United States this month and plans to visit Harvard, Yale, and George Washington Universities, among others, to shape the council's membership and goals, according to Zeenews.com.

Compared with the previous year, the number of Indian students who secured visas to study in the United States this fall fell 25 percent, according to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. While that is a smaller drop than anticipated over the summer, some observers say that students have been deterred by a decline in financial aid from American institutions, according to The Times of India. Others say that interest in studying in the United States is likely to increase again next year.

Egypt's top Muslim cleric has sparked controversy by saying that he plans to bar women who wear the niqab, or face veil, from entering the facilities of al-Azhar, which includes Al-Azhar University, one of the oldest and most influential centers of learning in Sunni Islam. The Associated Press reports that Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi said this week that the niqab "has nothing to do with Islam and is only a custom." The AP notes, however, that Egypt's supreme court has ruled that a total ban on the niqab was unconstitutional, after a researcher wearing one was denied entry to a library at the American University of Cairo.

The University of Washington, which has dealt with problems in study abroad in recent years, has increased its oversight of the programs, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. New rules include mandatory training for faculty members who lead trips and better communication procedures.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has fired a hardline Muslim cleric from the influential council that sets religious policy in the kingdom, after he railed against the mixing of male and female students at the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Agence France-Presse reported. King Abdullah opened the $7-billion institution last month. It is the first coeducational college in Saudi Arabia. No reason was given for the dismissal of the cleric, Sheikh Sa'ad al-Shethry, but it came a week after his televised comments that such mixing was "evil" and a "great sin," which ignited a firestorm among progressive Saudi commentators.

Palestinian students in Gaza have appealed to Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing so they can begin studying at Egyptian universities. Dozens of students with valid Egyptian residence permits who are enrolled in college in Egypt told the Ma'an news agency their classes had already begun but they were unable to reach them because of border restrictions that limit the number of Palestinians entering Egypt to a few hundred each day, even when the crossing is open.