Rich rewards in truant hunt

Kyle Lynde knew he shouldn't have skipped school - there was a price on his head. It didn't take long for Central Linn High School's bounty hunters to spot him and send the 18-year-old back to class.

"If I could have got away, I probably would have," Lynde said glumly. "There really was no way out."

For each student returned to class, Donna Bronson, 39, and Marie Ekenberg, 48, are paid $300 (pounds 200); monitoring the pupil's progress is worth another $200 to the team and a diploma means a $500.

"I love doing this," Ms Bronson said. "I consider it a privilege spending time with these young people. If we didn't approach them, no one else would." Brownsville, Oregon - AP