Disciplined for saving a life | Recreating Alamo in India

• Once again, public service personnel were disciplined for violating rules even though perhaps saving a life. In March, a captain and a sergeant in the Falmouth Volunteer Fire Department near Fredericksburg, Virginia, were suspended for rushing an infant girl (who was having a seizure) to the hospital in their fire engine despite rules requiring that they wait for an ambulance (which they ascertained was still 10 to 15 minutes away). The firefighters administered oxygen and delivered the girl safely to the ER 13 minutes after the 911 call, though she had suffered another seizure in the hospital's parking lot. Said the grateful father, "My wife and I feel terrible for the fallout ... to these two gentlemen." [WTTG-TV (Washington, D.C.), 3-6-2016]

• India (especially in Bihar state) has been plagued by legendary school-cheating scandals -- with parents last year even seemingly re-creating the scene of the siege of the Alamo by using tall ladders en masse to climb the walls of a testing center to pass cheat sheets to students. In February, on recruiting day for prestigious army jobs in Bihar, wary officials administered written tests in a field with all aspirants sitting cross-legged and clad only in underpants, balancing exam papers on their thighs. Officials thus avoided needing to frisk the large number of applicants. [Agence France-Presse via The Guardian (London), 3-1-2016]