UK police arrest 153 during London student budget cut protest Tuesday
LONDON (AP) — Police made 153 arrests during student demonstrations in London on Tuesday against proposed tuition hikes, officials said.
Police reported arrests following a violent standoff in the capital’s Trafalgar Square.
Students are furious over the government decision to triple a tuition cap, allowing universities to charge up to 9,000 pounds ($14,000) per year to reduce the burden on Britain’s debt-laden public sector. British students currently pay up to 3,000 pounds ($4,675).
Earlier this month, activists tried to ransack the governing Conservative Party’s headquarters in London during a protest.
“We need to keep this momentum going, because eventually we’ll get through to them and we can start negotiations,” said Shayan Moghedam, 17, from Woodhouse College in north London. “This is not something that can just be ignored.”
Bolivian officials deny leaked report that country’s president has tumor
 
 
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian officials are denying a report in a U.S. diplomatic cable revealed Tuesday that President Evo Morales had a tumor in his nose.
The U.S. ambassador in Brazil said in a January 2009 dispatch that Brazil’s defense minister confirmed a rumor that the leftist leader was suffering from “a serious sinus tumor” that might explain “why Morales has seemed unfocussed and not his usual self” at recent meetings.
Morales’ spokesman Ivan Canelas denied there has ever been a tumor, saying Morales had surgery last year for a problem with his nasal septum that was causing him constant colds. In a radio interview, he said the leaked cable “had a big dose of speculation.”
Doctors operated on Morales in February 2009. Officials said Morales suffered breathing troubles due to a deviated septum caused by a blow he received playing soccer.
 
 
Escaped inmate terrorizes California preschool class, no injuries reported
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A tranquil day at a Northern California preschool was shattered when an escaped inmate burst through a door and pointed a gun at the head of a teacher caring for several infants, the preschool’s owner said Tuesday.
The inmate, identified as 24-year-old Maurice Ainsworth, had stolen the gun of a deputy overpowered while transporting him to a Santa Cruz hospital, authorities said.
A teacher at The Secret Garden Too preschool was entertaining infants when a man broke through a fire door waving a gun.
A parent picking up her infant and another teacher ran out the back of the room and called 911.
The gunman demanded a teacher’s car keys and tried to flee from the school’s parking lot, but an anti-theft device prevented him from starting the car.
About 30 children were at the school. No one was injured.
 
 
Officer interrupts rape, chases down and apprehends 16-year-old suspect
(AP) — A Baton Rouge police officer responding to a call of a woman being beaten arrived to find what appeared to be a rape in progress.
At 12:45 a.m. Monday, Officer Douglas Chutz saw a man striking a woman on the ground and pulling her pants down.
When the man saw the officer he jumped up and ran. Chutz chased the suspect and arrested him.
The 29-year-old victim told officers she had seen the suspect beating another woman and tried to intervene when the suspect turned on her. Police say the victim suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
The suspect’s first victim fled the scene.
 
 
Number of Louisiana schools called ‘dropout factories’ declines in 2010
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The number of Louisiana schools labeled as “dropout factories” by a national education watchdog group declined from 64 in 2002 to 54 in 2008, according to a study released Tuesday.
The number of students attending such low-graduation-rate schools in the state declined by 15,800 in the same period.
“Dropout factory” schools are defined as having fewer than 60 percent of students who started as freshmen still enrolled four years later.
Louisiana was also praised for its “early warning systems” that flag struggling students in elementary and middle school.
 
 
Teacher charged with stalking after sending sexual texts to his student
MANSFIELD, La. (AP) — A DeSoto Parish teacher has been arrested for sending sexual text messages to a 17-year-old student.
The Times reports 62-year-old Ralph H. Hines, a teacher at Pelican All Saints High School, was booked Monday for stalking and computer-aided solicitation of a minor.
School officials said Hines had been teaching in DeSoto Parish at least 10 years.
 
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