Late students forced to drink acid

A 41-year-old teacher at a Nagoya municipal junior high school in Japan forced some students to drink diluted hydrochloric acid nearly five years ago as punishment for showing up late to his science class, school officials said Tuesday. None of the former students of Makinoike Junior High School who obeyed and drank the acid diluted in water fell ill from the incident, which occurred around May 1996, the officials are quoted by Kyodo as saying.