■ <B> INDIA. Caste spat over school puddings.</B> Indian officials are investigating reports villagers in one of the most backward states stopped a school giving lunch to its students because lower caste Dalits, or untouchables, cooked the desserts. Two Yadavs, a cow-herd caste just above Dalits, forced a government school to stop serving the federally mandated lunches after they found out Dalit women had been hired to make the rice puddings, local newspapers reported. District official Chaitanya Prasad told Reuters education authorities were looking into the incident at Pathari, 130 km from Patna, the capital of Bihar, a state where hundreds of people have died in caste wars over recent decades. Although caste discrimination is outlawed, some Indians regard Dalits – more than 16 percent of the country’s one-billion plus people – as less than human and abuse and even murder are still common.

■ <B> EDUCATION.Teachers wear aprons so that male students do not get distracted. </B>Women teachers at a school in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar have been told to wear aprons so that senior male students do not get distracted by their bodies, Indian newspapers reported Tuesday. “The unconscious exposure of a body by a lady teacher during teaching could be an object of amusement for male students inside the classroom,” KC Satpathy, the principal of DAV Public School, was quoted in The Times of India newspaper as saying. “By wearing an apron, the quality of teaching could improve.” Satpathy said the decision by the school in the eastern city was the result of a two-year study that showed adolescent boys in higher classes were “losing concentration” inside the classrooms of some female teachers. In India, many women teachers wear saris which can cover up as well as reveal a woman’s figure, depending on how they are worn.

■ <B> ITALY. Viagra-fueled stallions seized by police.</B> Italian police have discovered a mob-linked race track where they say horses were pumped full of Viagra and other drugs to fix races. The illegally built and operated track, known locally as “Miss Charmet,” is located on the outskirts of Naples city. “We are able to ascertain the use of the famous (drug) Viagra to increase the performance of these horses,” police commander Mario Pantano told local television. It was not clear how Viagra affected the horses’ speed. The track and its horses, worth an estimated 5 million euros were seized by authorities investigating illegal doping of horses, according to local media.