Six killed in Mexico teacher protests

Violent clashes between police and members of a radical teachers’ union who blockaded a highway in southern Mexico have left six people dead and 100 injured.

The activists, from the National Co-ordinator of Education Workers, or CNTE, are opposed to the mandatory testing of teachers as part of education reform, and are also protesting the arrest of union leaders on money-laundering charges.

In clashes in the southern state of Oaxaca, protesters threw stones and petrol bombs, and burned vehicles, while riot police were said to have fired on protesters.