Prostitution | featured news

A dance instructor accused of using her Zumba fitness studio as a front for prostitution pleaded guilty Friday to 20 counts in a scandal that captivated a quiet seaside town. The plea agreement spares Alexis Wright from the prospect of a high-profile trial featuring sex videos, exhibitionism and pornography, and more than a thousand texts and emails detailing the operation. Prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of 10 months.

Italian ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi hosted prostitution parties at his Milan villa, where he paid women with favours and cash, prosecutors at his trial say.

Amsterdam plans to raise the minimum age for prostitutes from 18 to 21 and force brothels to close during early morning hours....

A three-time U.S. Olympian has reportedly spent the last year working as a $600-per-hour call girl, a double life she now classifies as a “huge mistake.” The Smoking Gun reports that runner Suzy Favor Hamilton, 44, has been employed with one of Las Vegas’ premier escort agencies since last December and has booked dozens of “dates” there and elsewhere throughout the United States, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

A Homeland Security review says agents hired prostitutes the past several years in other countries, including China.

French prosecutors say they are dropping an investigation into former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn over a "gang rape" alleged to have taken place in Washington. The woman who made the complaint has retracted her evidence, they added. Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, is still under investigation with three other men over their alleged roles in a prostitution ring. He denies the allegations.

No parent should be shocked that five high school football players hired prostitutes while on a road trip to North Carolina last week. Nor is it especially surprising that the little johns were from football powerhouse DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville. Religion and prestige are rarely shields from temptation and stupidity.

Chinese authorities have released a woman sent to a labor camp for challenging the sentences handed down to the men who abducted, raped and prostituted her 11-year-old daughter. Tang Hui was ordered last week to serve 18 months in a labor camp for "disturbing social order and exerting a negative impact on society." The crusading mother's case has aroused widespread public outrage and thrown a spotlight on China's controversial reeducation through labor camps.

Seven Army soldiers and two Marines have received administrative punishments, but are not facing criminal charges, for their part in the Secret Service prostitution scandal in Colombia this year, The Associated Press has learned.

The government is revealing details of serious allegations since 2004 against Secret Service agents and officers, including claims of involvement with prostitutes, leaking sensitive information, publishing pornography, sexual assault, illegal wiretaps, improper use of weapons and drunken behavior. It wasn't immediately clear how many of the accusations were confirmed to be true....