Oddly Enough

Violent burial: A South Korean school boxing coach has been charged with "acts of violence" after burying five of his students up to their necks in the school grounds when they lost a local tournament. "The students were not really hurt but suffered a few bruises," a police official said.

Bee sting: Which country in the EU has the largest population? For answering that question correctly, Petko Peev, 13, won the US National Geography Bee last week. In the championship round, the other finalist, JB Kizer answered "Russia" which is not in the EU. Peev won a $25,000 scholarship and a trip to Hong Kong for answering "Germany".

Lords at play: In a debate on the educational value of games, Baroness Blackstone said: "There is no reason why children should not opt for chess instead of football." She later added: "I played a lot of Monopoly in my time. But I think I would rather prefer to see children learning to play Bridge ... I had even wondered whether we ought to be introducing poker in schools, but perhaps that's a little dangerous." She then revealed that her grandmother made a lot of money playing poker every afternoon.

Bomb surprise: Lessons in several Russian schools have been disrupted in recent months by a series of fake bomb scares, but bomb-squad operatives were surprised by an incident last week at School No.6 in the city of Votkinsk in western Russia. The explosives were real. The authorities suspect that the perpetrators are the same as in most school bomb scares - students eager for a day off.