The Chatterbox | December 14

These just in:

• Earlier today, a team of about 100 doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists in Santiago successfully separated a pair of 10-month-old conjoined Chilean twins. The girls survived a marathon 18-hour procedure at Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital, where staff have an impressive track record in this arena: Three other sets of conjoined twins have been successfully separated by the hospital’s miracle-workers. According to Time magazine, the survival rate for such siblings is between just five and 25 percent worldwide.

• This morning at CPS headquarters, the school board ended its meeting abruptly after being repeatedly interrupted by upset parents and union workers who showed up to protest planned school closings and consolidations. According the this report from the Tribune, at least 10 people were escorted out of the meeting by security.

• The Washington Post offers this look at last night’s Geminid meteor shower, during which stargazers witnessed between 80 and 120 meteors shooting through the night sky.

File under: “What part of ‘keep out of the reach of children’ didn’t you understand?”

• Though smoking is less pervasive than it once was, and CFLs are far more common than candelabra, that didn’t stop a 6-year-old girl in Austin from getting her hands on a lighter on Monday. She set her shirt on fire and is now recovering from “severe burns” on her body, hands and face.