At least 18 persons including 14 minors were rescued during a a raid at a circus in Margao town and the circus owner along with his aide was arrested for raping a 14-year-old girl, police said today. Besides the 40-year-old owner of the circus, Abdul Khan from Assam, the joint team of Goa women’s police station and district police also arrested three other persons on various charges. “Six minor girls, eight minor boys and four adults who were employed by the circus owner when they were minors, have been rescued during the raid conducted this morning. Local forest department and labour department were also roped in,” Deputy Inspector General of Police O P Mishra told reporters.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that every seven minutes a child is bullied. Bullying became a household term in the 2000’s after the issue rose to national prominence in the wake of tragic stories of children and teenagers who had taken their lives because they were being picked on in school. Bullying is defined as repeated unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance, according to StopBullying.gov. Although countless nonprofit organizations and school programs have sprouted up to tackle the issue, it seems bullying is not going away.

A Union County jury convicted an Indian Trail man Thursday on felony child abuse charges for ramming his 3-year-old stepdaughter’s head through a wall in a fit of rage. Jurors deliberated less than six hours before convicting Joshua Houser of felony child abuse/inflicting serious bodily harm. The case sparked widespread attention, and “Kilah’s Law” legislation named for the victim boosted penalties in North Carolina for severe child abuse cases.

A girl who was sexually abused by a man and later told by police they did not have enough evidence to take him to court persuaded her attacker to confess – and recorded him on tape. Adam Reeves, 45, from Waddesdon, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, today started an eight-year prison sentence after a judge listened to his confession. The young woman was so upset when detectives told her they were dropping the case against the deeply religious Reeves that she embarked on the mission to record his confession.

DOUGLASVILLE, Georgia — Officials say they have arrested a Douglasville elementary school principal as part of a multi-agency child exploitation sting this past week. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that John McGill, 56, of Villa Rica, was arrested for the electronic possession of child pornography during this week’s Operation Broken Heart. The Douglas County School District says that McGill has been suspended from his duties as principal at Mt. Carmel Elementary School. In a statement sent to FOX 5 on Sunday, the district said the “system is cooperating fully with law enforcement”.

A former Army officer who once blamed his twin brother for a string of sexual assaults on young girls in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Aaron Lucas, 32, was sentenced Friday in an El Paso court. He had been assigned to Fort Carson outside Colorado Springs. He said last year his twin was responsible the attacks but in November he changed his mind, dropping the ‘evil twin’ defense and pleading guilty.

A convicted pedophile who fled Britain to Cambodia is behind bars again after being deported and flown back to the UK. Former special constable Ian Bower, 48, from Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, fled the UK eight years ago for Cambodia from a probation hostel after serving time for child sex abuse crimes. He was convicted of similar offences in 2012 in Cambodia, including paying young boys in Asia the equivalent of 8p to perform sex acts on him – and was jailed for two years.

A high school mariachi director has been suspended from his job after federal agents during raid at his home in Mission. U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents raided the East 20th Street home of Jesus Garza late Thursday morning. It’s not clear why agents raided his home but HSI officials confirm that agents were executing a search warrant.

A middle school football coach, summer camp counselor and school chef was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for trying to sexually entice a minor. Michael J. Barndt, 40, of Sellersville, Pa., was arrested last June after he advertised on craigslist.com for a “Real Teen Fantasy,” sent explicit photos to a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl, arranged to have sex at a Wilmington hotel and agreed to meet at Concord Mall in Brandywine Hundred, authorities said.

MIAMI— A West-Miami Dade daycare staffer has been charged in the death of a 3-year old after, police say, he jumped into a pool and drowned. Zobeida Gonzalez, 63, the mother of the business owner, was arrested Wednesday on charges of aggravated manslaughter and child neglect with great harm. Gonzalez bonded out Thursday afternoon, telling cameras “I feel fine” upon bonding out. On December 22, the parents of Jonathan Feliciano dropped him off at the day care located at 2955 NW 99th Street, leaving him in Gonzalez’s care.

Two days after Tanilla Warrick-Deaves should have turned five, her mother’s ex-boyfriend was found guilty of murdering her. The two-year-old was being beaten to death by Warren James Ross, 30, in her mother’s home on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia, after he became frustrated that the little girl was not toilet-trained. Ross abused Tanilla in the weeks leading up to her death in August 2011 as he used brutal methods to try to toilet-train her, forcing her to run laps, whipping her with various implements and hitting her.

A Texas father charged with carving a pentagram into his six-year-old son’s back has been ordered to a psychiatric hospital after being found incompetent to stand trial. Brent Bartel, 40, is accused of using a box cutter to carve a pentagram into his son’s back in December 2012. Doctors have diagnosed Bartel as paranoid schizophrenic, and a judge has ordered him to spend at least one year in treatment at Kerrville State Hospital. According to the Star-Telegram, Bartel has been found incompetent by doctors twice previously since his arrest. In November after he was found incompetent, he was sent to the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon for treatment.

NEW BERLIN/BROOKFIELD – Investigators were looking for evidence related to a burglary in New Berlin — and they did not expect to find horrifying images of a one-year-old being sexually assaulted. Now, a 27-year-old man faces charges — and could spend the rest of his life behind bars. New Berlin police began investigating the burglary of a landscaping business — and issued a search warrant for 27-year-old Michael McMullen — confiscating his cell phone, iPad and laptop.

Who can forget the golden locks of Lucy Ewing? She was the pretty petite blond on the hit series “Dallas” in the 80’s and 90’s. The actress who played the teen Ewing, Charlene Tilton, says found inspiration from her time in foster care. Tilton took time to talk about this dark chapter in her life. She shared it with a teen girl currently in foster care at Doris Bergman’s 6th Annual Valentine and Oscar Style Suite and Lounge at Fig and Olive Restaurant in West Hollywood. She gave Harmony a big hug and words of encouragement. She talked about her own journey of going from foster home to foster home. She describes her mother as severely mentally ill. She remembers deciding as a child that she could never depend on anyone.