Brussels
European Commissioner Günter Verheugen's hopes of becoming E.U. foreign policy chief were dimmed this week after a magazine said it had photos of him and his female chief of staff at a nude beach. Verheugen, the German representative on the E.U.'s executive body, had already sparked gossip when he appointed his "close friend" Petra Erler to the job, which pays $185,000 a year. Now Focus magazine says it has pictures of Verheugen, clad only in a baseball cap, and Erler, totally naked, lying close together on the sand during an August vacation in Lithuania. Verheugen's wife shrugged off the news as "old hat." But German politicians who have seen the photos are demanding Verheugen's resignation.
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