All's fair in love and war

PURBALINGGA, Central Java (JP): Two love sick elementary school teachers showed their pupils that fighting is okay as long as what is at stake is a woman.

Kandar, 34, and Guntur, 33, were engaged in a duel in front of scores of their students earlier this week in an attempt to win the heart of a fellow teacher who had become everyone's sweetheart at the school.

The teachers savaged each other in the school yard as the pupils hysterically cheered them on, eyewitnesses said.

When Kandar seemed to have the upper hand, his "supporters" screamed "Long live Pak Kandar!". The fight was stopped by a pedicab driver before either of the contesting teachers was knocked out.

Chief of the Purbalingga education office Sudiono, said he was aware of the incident but begged journalists not to "blow it out of proportion." (45)