ITALY: FUN FAIR ELECTRIC CHAIR

children's and consumer rights associations called for a Milan fun fair to remove its new simulation of a prisoner being executed by electric chair. The mechanical attraction, imported from Los Angeles and successful elsewhere in Europe, has proved wildly popular since it was installed two weeks ago. After paying €1 ($1.65), visitors see the mannequin, naked from the waist up, tremble and convulse whilst strapped in the chair, and its hair begin to burn before finally slumping down dead in a faithful reproduction of a death row execution. La Repubblica quoted the manager of the funfair Yuri Simone as saying there were around 50 "executions" a day, with 150 on Sunday.