Education reform was never so exciting. A 14-year-old schoolgirl threw a pitcher of cold water in the face of Chile's education minister Monica Jimenez at an event to discuss reform of a sector that students and teachers complain is underfunded and n
eglects the poor.
Jimenez was not happy. "They could have thrown a pitcher, a glass pitcher and I could be in hospital now," she said. "I particularly blame the teachers union. If they are inciting acts of violence, they should answer for what happened."
The meeting was part of a government effort to calm tensions after sometimes violent student marches in recent weeks to protest an education reform bill they say does not address the shortcomings of an existing dictatorship-era law.
President Michelle Bachelet was said to be dumbfounded.
INDIAThe apparently serene world of tea-growing in Assam has been hit by a violent trend.
Thieves are breaking into tea gardens in India's north-east and plucking leaves, damaging tea bushes and hurting the industry, planters say.
The thieves are believed to be villagers in the tea-growing regions of Assam, some of whom struggle to produce saleable tea in their small backyard tea gardens created as part of an employment scheme a decade ago.
"They clash with our workers whenever they are stopped from stealing. Two of our workers were also killed by them recently," said Rupesh Gowala, who leads a tea workers association. In Assam's Tinsukia district alone, police say about 500 tea garden burglaries have been reported this year. About 50 were reported in 2007.
UNITED STATESFilmmakers looking for an ape may be left scratching their heads after Hollywood's sole supplier of orangutans decided to stop renting them out and send six of them to a sanctuary in Iowa.
Steve Martin's Working Wildlife of Los Angeles has said it will stop providing the fast-disappearing creatures to the entertainment industry, a practice that conservationists have long condemned.
AUSTRALIAMore national stereotypes this week... An Australian man convicted of his seventh drink-driving charge was spending about A$1,000 (£487) a week on beer – enough to buy more than 2,500 small bottles a month.
The construction worker began drowning his sorrows after breaking up with his partner five years ago, the Northern Territory News said.
The magistrate declined to jail the father of four, Michael Leary, noting he had quit drinking since his latest arrest, but he banned Leary from buying or even holding a beer for 12 months.
The magistrate also poked fun at Leary's favourite beer, Melbourne Bitter.
"(That is] poor judgment on two counts there – drinking that much and drinking Melbourne Bitter," magistrate Vince Luppino said.
RUSSIAI'm not sure 'Blinded By The Light' was being played but dozens of partygoers at an outdoor rave near Moscow partially lost vision after a laser show burned their retinas.
Moscow city health department officials confirmed 12 cases of laser-blindness, while another 17 were also hospitalised.
Those at the Aquamarine Open Air Festival in Kirzhach, 50 miles north-east of Moscow, began seeking medical help days after the show, complaining of eye and vision problems.
"They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them," a local ophthalmologist said. "Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80%, and regaining it is already impossible."
Heavy rains forced organisers to erect massive tents for the all-night dance party, and lasers that normally illuminate upwards into the sky were instead partially refracted into the ravers' eyes.
OH, REALLYA koala that cheated death after being hit by a car at about 60mph and dragged with his head jammed through the vehicle grill for seven miles is being dubbed Australia's luckiest marsupial.
The eight-year-old male koala, named Ely 'Lucky' Grills by rescuers, was struck by an unwitting motorist north of Brisbane and found only when the car stopped after being flagged down by another vehicle.
"To have him survive, and virtually unscathed, is quite miraculous," said Australian Wildlife Hospital spokeswoman Carolyn Beaton.
MOVERS & SHAKERSPRINCE ALEXEI
Russia has announced that charred remains found in a pit belonged to Tsar Nicholas II's only son and his daughter, exactly 90 years after Bolsheviks murdered the last Tsar. Moscow's confirmation that the remains included those of Tsar Nicholas's 13-year-old heir, Prince Alexei, came as hundreds flocked to a church built on the site where the family was executed.
QUINCY JONES
The trailblazing Grammy Award-winning producer and composer was feted for his music and humanity at a 75th birthday party in Switzerland last week. The event, at Montreux's Stravinski Auditorium, brought Herbie Hancock, Patti Austin, Paulo Nutini, Petula Clark, Mick Hucknall and more to the stage to perform the hits he has created over the decades.
SALMA HAYEK
The Hollywood actress has called off her engagement to François-Henri Pinault, a French businessman and father of her daughter.
"We are sad to announce the engagement of Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault has been cancelled. There will be no further comment," Cari Ross, Hayek's spokeswoman, said in a statement.
MICHAEL J FOX
The actor, semi-retired from show business due to Parkinson's disease, will return to television next spring as a guest star on the firefighting drama Rescue Me on the FX cable network in the United States.
Fox, 47, will portray the wheelchair-bound boyfriend of the ex-wife of the show's lead character, New York City firefighter Tommy Gavin, played by Denis Leary.
COMING UPSix Indian politicians jailed for crimes from extortion to murder are being temporarily freed to participate in a tight no-confidence vote that will decide the fate of the government.
If the Congress Party-led government loses, early elections will be called and a civilian nuclear deal with the United States could be buried.
One of the most infamous is a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) member Mohammed Shahabuddin from Bihar state. He is serving a life term for murdering a political opponent and faces 40 other cases of murder, abduction and extortion.
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