Italian Circus Shut Down After Woman Forced To Swim With Piranhas

From Foxnews.com

Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy after a terrified 19-year-old woman was forced to swim in a tank full of piranha fish while her younger sister endured the company of snakes and tarantulas.

Three men have been arrested and charged with holding the Bulgarian women in slavery and breaching international human rights conventions.

The trio, who are accused of running a “circus of horrors,” were named as Enrico Raffaele Ingrassia, 57, the owner, his son William Ingrassia, 33, and his son-in-law Gaetano Belfiore, 25.

The Marino Circus has been offering shows at Petina, south of Naples in southern Italy, in a tent with 200 plastic seats inside it.

Ingrassia’s daughter, who was not named, told police that a Bulgarian couple and their two daughters, aged 19 and 16, had been held as slaves “in a state of fear” since January.

They were forced to work 15 to 20 hours a day for about $200 a week instead of the promised $957, with $757 deducted as “expenses for their upkeep.”

An appalled spectator tipped off the police after seeing the show, in which Giusi, the 19-year-old woman, tried to escape from the piranha tank “trembling with terror” her head was held down by Ingrassia.

 

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Pentagon Mistakenly Shipped Non Nuclear Missile Parts To Taiwan

From the AP

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it mistakenly shipped non-nuclear components for an intercontinental ballistic missile to Taiwan but has recovered them and launched an investigation.

At a Pentagon news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the misshipped items were four electrical fuses for nose cone assemblies for ICBMs. He also said they were delivered to Taiwan in 2006 and had been sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan.

The fuses were manufactured for use on a Minuteman strategic nuclear missile but contain no nuclear materials.

“This could not be construed as being nuclear material. It is a component for the fuse in the nosecone for a nuclear system,” Wynne said. “We are very concerned about it.”

Wynne said the matter is under investigation. He said the Taiwanese authorities notified U.S. officials of the mistake. He said the fuses had been in a shipping container sent from one U.S. Air Force base to another in 2005 and then delivered to Taiwan in 2006.

The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Taiwan official said Tuesday that the island’s diplomats in Washington typically do not comment on Defense Department matters.

 

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Dalai Lama Threatens To Step Down As Leader Of Tibet

From the AP

The Dalai Lama threatened Tuesday to step down as leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile if violence committed by Tibetans in his homeland spirals out of control.

The rioting prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to denounce the Dalai Lama’s supporters as separatists and accuse them of instigating the violence in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa. It was China’s highest-level response to date to the unrest.

The Dalai Lama, speaking to reporters, urged his countrymen to show restraint.

He said that “if things become out of control” his “only option is to completely resign.”

Later, one of his top aides clarified the Dalai Lama’s comments.

“If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence he would have to resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence,” Tenzin Taklha said. “He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama.”

 

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