VENEZUELA: Thousands of students protest funding cuts

Thousands of university students marched through Venezuela's capital Caracas on Wednesday demanding more state financial aid for public universities after President Hugo Chavez's government reduced funding by 6%, reports Fabiola Sanchez for The Associated Press. The crowd - comprising students, professors and university workers - chanted anti-Chavez slogans as they marched to the education ministry, where they raised their concerns with Higher Education Minister Luis Acuna.

Acuna said funding was reduced as part of a broader initiative to cut overall government spending by 6.7%. Many demonstrators also criticised Chavez for demanding sanctions against the television station Globovision, the last channel on the regular airwaves that remains fiercely critical of the government. They fear the government could sanction - or even temporarily shut down - Globovision to punish the opposition-sided channel.

Shortly after the protest march set out from the Central University of Venezuela, roughly a dozen hooded vandals commandeered three buses inside the campus, and later set fire to them.
Full report on the Associated Press site