PHILADELPHIA

Teachers’ union plans fight to retain free health benefit

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers plans to fight the district’s sudden decision Monday to cancel their contract and force them to pay health care premiums.

Teachers say they did not create the district’s financial crisis and should not be left to fix it.

Thousands of teachers, nurses, counselors and school staff would pay about $55 to $140 per month toward their health premiums.

They currently pay nothing, but say they are paid lower salaries in return.

The decision Monday by the School Reform Commission follows nearly two years of stalled negotiations between the district and union.

Superintendent William Hite says he supports the move to raise more than $50 million a year for classroom needs.

Union president Jerry Jordan calls the district’s hastily-called meeting and vote Monday “cowardly.”

NEW YORK

Dead bear cub discovered in Central Park raises questions

A bear cub has been found dead under a bush inside New York City’s Central Park, and authorities suspect animal cruelty played a role in its death.

Police say the cub was found Monday morning by a dog walker who notified a Central Park Conservancy employee. There were signs of trauma to the body. Authorities say it may have been dumped there.

They’re not among the park’s known wildlife population, and there are no bears at the Central Park Zoo right now.

The animal was being sent to Albany, where the state Department of Environmental Conservation was taking over the case and performing a necropsy on the 3-foot cub.

PARIS

Eiffel Tower face-lift offers breathtaking perspective

The Eiffel Tower has been given a vertigo-inducing face-lift as organizers celebrate the Paris monument’s 125th anniversary.

The 1,063-foot tower now has see-through glass floor panels on its first level. The four small viewing sections, which cost $38 million, were unveiled to visitors Monday.

Though the first level is only 187 feet high, it’s not for the faint-hearted.

One Jordanian tourist, Yousef Mobaidin, said he was “terrified. It looks really scary,” gripping his friend’s arm as he walked on the glass.

The iron-lattice tower is the world’s most-visited paying attraction, and was erected for the 1889 World Fair.

ATLANTA

No charges recommended in grenade-playpen raid

A grand jury in Georgia has recommended that no charges be brought against officers involved in a raid that seriously injured a toddler when a flash grenade detonated in his playpen.

WSB-TV reports the grand jury made its recommendation Monday.

Bounkham Phonesavanh was 19 months old at the time of the raid in late May. Family members have said the boy has undergone numerous surgeries.

Members of a law enforcement task force looking for a drug suspect threw the flash grenade into the home where the boy was staying while executing a search warrant. The suspect they were seeking was not in the home at the time.