Good Morning Australia!! - Lehmann takes responsibility for Cricket's woes - Russia strikes back at the West, expels dozens of Americans - A prison fire kills dozens, and families are outraged - Malala goes home - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Australian Cricket coach Darren Lehmann is stepping down, declaring that "Australian cricket needs to move forward" after the ball tampering scandal "and this is the right thing to do".   Despite AC determining that Lehmann had no role in the scandal that has rocked the sport, he told reporters:  "I'm ultimately responsible for the culture of the team and I've been thinking about my position for a while."  Earlier, Steve Smith repeatedly broke down in tears after arrival back home in Australia after getting the bum's rush out of South Africa:  "I made a serious error of judgement and I now understand the consequences.  It was a failure of leadership, on my leadership.  I'll do everything I can to make up for my mistake and the damage it's caused," he said.  Smith and David Warner are banned from Australia Cricket for twelve months; Cameron Bancroft got a nine month ban.

Russia is retaliating against the coordinated international response to the chemical agent attack a former double in southern England.  The Foreign Ministry in Moscow says 150 diplomats will be expelled, beginning with 60 Americans.  The US Consulate in Saint Petersburg will also be closed, after the US closed the Russian Consulate in Seattle.  Earlier this week, Australia joined the UK and US, plus NATO and more than 20 other allies in giving the Russians the boot, so Australian diplomats in Russia will be impacted.  But the tit-for-tat move by the Kremlin suggests that President Vladimir Putin doesn't want to directly escalate the row.  The US State Department said Russia had no basis for its retaliation, considering the reason for initial expulsions, and said:  "Russia is further isolating itself following the brazen chemical attack".

One of the victims of that chemical agent attack is rapidly improving.  The BBC is reporting that 33-year old Yulia Skripal is awake and talking, suggesting that she will be able to speak with investigators.  She still requires 24 hours after being exposed to the Russian nerve agent Novichok earlier this month.  Yulia's father Sergei - the former double agent who appears to be the target of the attack - is still in a critical condition.

Former French president Nicholas Sarkozy will stand trial for alleged corruption and influence peddling; he's accused of offering to help a judge to get a promotion in exchange for revealing details of an investigation against him.  This is a separate case from earlier this week, when police detained the former leader for questioning about illegal campaign funding from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, since overthrown and killed by his own people.  Sarkozy faces other legal problems over campaign spending.  He denies all allegations.

Venezuela has assigned four prosecutors to investigate the jail fire that killed 68 inmates in Carabobo state.  Angry families are demanding answers after the horrific fire, and many have no idea if their inmate relatives inside were among the living or the dead.  "They have told us nothing.  Instead the police have treated us like dogs," said Lissette Mendoza, mother of a 19-year old detained on robbery charges.  This fire was reportedly caused by some inmates setting their mattresses ablaze in an escape attempt.  Another account said the melee started when inmate grabbed a guard's gun. 

Kenya's High Court has fined three top officials for repeatedly deporting an opposition politician.  In the latest episode, Miguna Miguna says he was beaten and drugged, and woke up on a plane for Dubai where Kenyan officials are demanding he fly on to London.  Mr. Miguna is a dual citizen who also holds Canadian nationality, but authorities loyal to President Uhuru Kenyatta confiscated his Kenyan passport and claim he is only Canadian.  It's the latest battleground between Kenyatta's government and the courts which have been more sympathetic to opposition leader Raila Odinga.

A French woman was given a suspended seven-month jail sentence for saying that a butcher killed in last week's terror attack in a supermarket was "justice".  The woman is a Vegan animal rights activist who wrote on social media that she had "zero compassion" for the victim; prosecutors swooped in, using France's strict laws against condoning terrorism.  Two days ago, a far-Left activist one a one year suspended sentence for appearing to celebrate the death of the police officer in that attack - gendarme Lt. Col. Aunald Beltrame was given a hero's funeral in Paris yesterday.

Malala Yousafzai has returned to Pakistan to visit for the first time since being shot in the head by the cowards of the Taliban.  "I am very happy that, after five-and-a-half years, I have set foot on the soil of my nation again," said the youngest winner of the Nobel peace Prize, wiping away tears.  "Today is the happiest day of my life, because I have returned to my country."  She attends Oxford University in England and campaigns around the world for girls education.  The Malala Fund has invested US$6 Million in that cause in Pakistan.