Burundi students fight back

Police in Burundi last week opened fire on a group of 5,000 second-level students who were staging a protest to demand payment for cleaning up the capital, Bujumbura, protesters said.

But interior minister Salvator Ntihabose said a 13-year-old youth who was injured when the demonstration was violently dispersed was not fired on by the police.

"I understand why these young people are angry," the minister added.

The organiser of a campaign to clean up Bujumbura had "promised each student 2,000 Burundian francs (€27) and school equipment, and he did not keep his promise," he said.

A local organisation called "Youth in reconstruction for a world in destruction" organised the three-day clean-up operation that involved all the second-level schools in the north of the capital and promised to pay students who took part in the big sweep.

But after the demonstration, the head of the organisation denied having ever promised any rewards to those who took part.

He was, however, arrested and held by the police for several hours "to protect him from the angry youths", Ntihabose said.

Canada 'sex teacher' banned

Teacher Amy Gehring, who was cleared of having sex with two underage British students, has fallen foul of disciplinary charges in her native Canada.

The 26-year-old was found guilty of seven counts of professional misconduct relating to her behaviour in Britain at a hearing of the Ontario College of Teachers. She is now banned from the classroom in Canada. Gehring was cleared in February of indecently assaulting underage brothers, aged 14 and 15, in her class at a Surrey school. The biology teacher later admitted having sex with a 16-year-old pupil at a previous school and confessed that she was too drunk to remember if she had slept with a 15-year-old boy.