Maybe it’s the caiprinhas, but just when it seemed the media mills were running short of pulp on United States civil servants behaving badly in the tropics, now comes word that another bunch of America’s top guns may have stepped over the line with sex workers in one more Latin American port of call. Except this time the setting, circumstances, and fallout were far more serious and nearly created a diplomatic incident.
According to local police, attorneys, and media, three U.S. marines went on an afterhours romp late last year that started at a strip club in Brasilia, spilled over to the police blotter, and landed Romilda Aparecida Ferreira, a 31-year-old exotic dancer, in the hospital with multiple injuries. This story comes in the wake of scandal over Secret Service personnel carousing with call girls at the Americas Summit in Colombia in mid-April, as well as reports of a similar episode at a strip club in El Salvador. But the imbroglio in Brazil was a jolt.
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(Reuters) - From a peroxide-blonde stripper who wants to get bankers meditating to a Rastafarian advocating tantrism as a national religion, a string of colorful outsiders are vying for a place in France's 2012 presidential election.
One wants to bring back the monarchy, another says leaders should be picked by lottery and a third is a clown who doesn't actually have any campaign proposals.
None are likely to drum up the 500 mayoral signatures required to run in the April-May election, but they all hope to strike a chord with voters fed up with mainstream politics.
"A clown won the last election, and we'll only get another one this time, so why not vote for me instead?" said Mimi the Clown, who is standing for a second time, complete with black-and-white panstick makeup, red nose and super-hero garb.
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