Police in France stand accused of using excessive force in their bid to quell what many have described as the most intense wave of student protests in years. More than a quarter of a million demonstrators took to the streets across France on Tuesday (Oct. 6) as unions and teachers joined high school students demanding better learning conditions. Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.

The French Interior Ministry said 6,100 people have been arrested since the protests began in late September, the overwhelming majority of them minors. The injured include 215 teenagers, 89 school staff and over 700 police officers. While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have lit dustbin fires, destroyed bus shelters or clashed with police, who have responded with batons, tear gas grenades and riot-control rounds.

Opposition parties in India were prevented from marching to the country's Election Commission, whose chief they accuse of revising electoral rolls using the controversial SIR (Special Intensive Revision) method to benefit India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The commission said it was willing to meet the opposition, but objected to their proposed 240-member delegation meeting at the parliament. Apart from the opposition, the Cockroach Janta Party organised demonstrations in Mumbai and Delhi, also demanding the CEC's resignation.

The EC maintains that the revision was intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters from electoral rolls. More than 130 million names have so far been removed from draft voter lists nationwide. Opposition parties and activists allege that many eligible voters have been excluded and accuse the poll panel of conducting the process improperly. An investigation by the Indian Express reported that two election commissioners had formally objected at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders issued in the commission's name without their knowledge.

The World Health Organisation has said it does not have the "full picture" from Russia following the suspected death from plague last week of a 28-year-old laboratory worker in Siberia. Darya Shipilova died two days after falling ill with cold-like symptoms. She was an employee at the anti-plague research institute in the eastern city of Irkutsk, with some reports suggesting she was infected after a workplace accident.

The Russian authorities have denied a connection with the institute and say Shipilova died from "pneumonia of an unknown aetiology". They insist there is no danger of a plague outbreak and have described the "sanitary and epidemiological" situation in the region as stable. At the same time, officials have imposed sweeping quarantine restrictions at the lab where Shipilova worked and in nearby hospitals. Staff were locked down inside the institute for three days, sleeping on the floors and on chairs, while tests were conducted.

The US Department of Homeland Security proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the United States, the latest effort from the Trump administration to crack down on foreign enrollment. A proposed rule would require schools to pay the fee for every student who participates in the optional practise training programme, known as OPT, which allows students to work in jobs related to their major during or after their time in school.

Schools would be required to pay the $70,000 for each new student's initial application to the programme, and a $30,000 fee for each renewal. Students are generally eligible for one year of work post-graduation, though certain science, technology, engineering and math majors are eligible for an additional two years. American colleges and universities heavily recruit students from overseas as a source of tuition revenue. Tech companies and other industries also hire many international students for technical roles.