Wednesday, May 18, 2011
"Ce qu'un étranger comprend avec le plus de peine aux États-Unis, c'est l'organisation judiciaire", notait Tocqueville. Depuis l'arrestation de DSK, les Français sont abreuvés de savantes exégèses sur le fonctionnement de la justice américaine.
Des avocats, professeurs de droit et spécialistes de tout poil se relaient inlassablement - au risque de lasser - pour expliquer doctement le cheminement compliqué de la procédure qui frappe le patron du FMI. Nos compatriotes ne devraient plus rien ignorer des subtilités de l'arraignment (lecture de l'acte d'accusation) du grand jury, du rôle du procureur, de celui des avocats, des arrangements possibles. » | Pierre Beylau, rédacteur en chef monde | Mercredi 18 Mai 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Manhattan hotel chambermaid who was allegedly sexually attacked by Dominique Strauss-Kahn has had her 'world turned upside down', her lawyer said.
In his first public comments since taking on the 32-year-old Sofitel maid's case, Jeffrey Shapiro said the trauma she experienced during and after the alleged assault had been "extraordinary".
The maid alleges that when she arrived to clean the IMF managing director's suite at noon on Saturday, he locked her inside, attempted to rape her and forced her to give him oral sex.
Before the alleged attack, she lived in a small flat in The Bronx, the northernmost borough of New York City, with her teenage daughter.
"Her world has been turned upside down," said Mr Shapiro. "This is a person who was a hardworking woman, she's a single mother supporting a 15-year-old young woman. They live together.
"And she was grateful to have a job, through which she could provide food and shelter for the two of them," he told CNN. » | Jon Swaine, New York | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
MAIL ONLINE: A British tourist called the Islamic prophet Muhammad a terrorist in a heated row with an electronics salesman in a Dubai shopping mall, a court heard yesterday.
Andrew Graham, 40, faces spending a year in a Dubai jail if he is convicted of insulting Islam.
The holidaymaker was wandering through the Mall of the Emirates when he got into an argument with Hassan Habeeb, a 21-year-old salesman from Pakistan.
During the row, Graham allegedly said that ‘Muslims in Pakistan are not normal because they kill each other and kill people outside Pakistan’.
Mr Habeeb tried to tell the Briton that Muslims are ‘peaceful people and are all brothers who help each other’.
In a written statement produced before the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours yesterday, the Pakistani salesman said: ‘He laughed and said that I’m crazy and that prophet Muhammad was not a peaceful man but he is a terrorist.’
Mr Habeeb then became angry and tried to punch Graham, only for a customer to intervene, it was said.
The tourist was then taken to a police station and charged with swearing in public and insulting Islam.
Yesterday Graham appeared in court wearing shorts and was ordered to change into trousers by the judge on the grounds of decency.
Once in the appropriate attire, he pleaded not guilty to the charges. » | Arthur Martin | Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF chief, was widely expected to run in France's presidential elections next year.
But the sexual assault charges have effectively shattered those ambitions and boosted president Sarkozy's chances of re-election.
But Sarkozy's poll ratings remain low, and a new film about his life is unlikely to help.
Jonah Hull reports on "La Conquete" [sic], or "The Conquest", a less than flattering story of Sarkozy's lust and quest for power. [May 18, 2010]
After three months of conflict and popular protest in Libya, international pressure on Muammar Gaddafi is mounting, and with increased NATO airstrikes and ICC arrest warrants now in the frame.
But how long can NATO keep up the bombardment, with a limited mandate to operate in, and Gaddaffi showing no sign of stepping down?
Inside Story, with presenter Kamahl Santamaria, discusses with Tarik Youssef, senior research fellow at the Dubai School of Government; David Metham, UK director for Human Rights Watch and Saad Djebbar, international lawyer, and deputy director for the Centre of North African studies at Cambridge University.
This episode of Inside Story aired from [sic] Tuesday, May 17, 2011.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: SINCE Sunday, when Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested on sexual assault charges in New York, French politicians have been loudly expressing their horrorat his “violent” treatment at the hands of America’s criminal justice system. It must be a shock to them: the sight of a top French establishment figure being treated like an ordinary criminal is about as rare as a photo of the Queen of England in a bikini.
But they are not merely voicing their concern for an esteemed colleague; many of them are also thinking, “There but for the grace of God (or rather the grace of living in France and not the United States) go I.”
France may think it had a revolution, but in fact it just got a new, and even more powerful, elite. They believe themselves so indispensable to the running of the country that trying to topple one of them is a bit like threatening to shoot a prize racehorse for nibbling your lawn. You’re meant to shut up and let them nibble.
This is why the French establishment sees Mr. Strauss-Kahn — rather than the traumatized chambermaid the police say he attacked — as the victim. The same case would never have come out in the open in Paris. The woman would have been quietly asked whether she thought it was worth risking her job and her residence permit. She would have been reminded that it was her word against his, and frankly, whom would people believe? The witty, famous man with the influential friends, or the nobody? » | Op-Ed | Stephen Clarke* | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
* Stephen Clarke is the author of “1,000 Years of Annoying the French.”
MAIL ONLINE: DSK Shouldn’t Lead Women Claims Blonde Banker »
MAIL ONLINE: An Avalanche of Women Point the Finger at DSK »
MAIL ONLINE: A Whole Prison Wing to Himself: The Extraordinary Measures Being Taken to Ensure DSK’s Safety »
MAIL ONLINE: French Furious over US’s Handling of DSK’s Case, Claim French Law Is Superior »
Considered the Socialist party’s leading candidate for president of France, Mr. Strauss-Kahn identified three threats to his aspirations in an interview with the newspaper Libération, held on April 28 but published only this week. “Money, women and my Jewishness,” he said. “Yes, I like women,” he went on. “So what?”
Mr. Strauss-Kahn added, “For years they’ve been talking about photos of giant orgies, but I’ve never seen anything come out.”
Today, Mr. Strauss-Kahn sits in a jail cell on Rikers Island in New York, his reputation — and any political ambitions — perhaps irreparably tarnished by his arrest on charges of attempted rape of a hotel maid in Manhattan last weekend.
It is a humbling comedown for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, whose rise on the world stage has been marked by contradictions. » | Landon Thomas Jnr. and Steven Erlanger | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Powerful and Primitive » | Op-Ed | Maureen Dowd | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Pressure is building on Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund, with the US treasury chief and European finance ministers questioning if he can carry on in the light of his arrest.
In a speech in New York on Tuesday, Tim Geithner, the US treasury secretary, said Strauss-Khan was "obviously not in a position to run the IMF". He said: "I think it's important that the board of the IMF formally put in place for an interim period somebody to act as managing director."
Geithner's comments came after Austria's finance minister, Maria Fekter, and others, said Strauss-Kahn was damaging the IMF: "Considering the situation, that bail was denied, he has to figure out for himself, that he is hurting the institution," she told journalists at a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels.
Strauss-Kahn is being held in isolation at the notorious Rikers Island in New York, having been refused bail after denying charges of a sexual assault on a 32-year-old chambermaid. His lawyers are expected to reapply for bail on Friday; one New York tabloid reported they might be preparing to argue sexual contact was consensual.
A grand jury is meeting in private to decide whether evidence is strong enough for a case to proceed over the alleged attack in a luxury Manhattan hotel suite. Jurors will announce their decision on Friday. » | Dominic Rushe in New York and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is now on a suicide watch after spending his first full day in a New York City jail.
The International Monetary Fund chief is accused of trying to rape a hotel maid.
Strauss-Kahn is under increasing pressure to resign.
Timothy Geitner, the US treasury secretary, says he's obviously not in a position to run the institution.
Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey reports from New York.
EURONEWS: US Treasury Chief Calls on IMF to Replace DSK: The media frenzy continues to swirl around Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The pressure has mounted to such an extent that the Secretary of the US Treasury now says the IMF should appoint an interim chief to replace the 62-year-old Frenchman. (+video) » | Wednesday, May 18, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Dominique Strauss-Kahn maid 'feels alone in the world': Hotel maid from Guinea feels 'threatened' by global attention and wants to remain anonymous, says lawyer » | Associated Press | Wednesday, May 18, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Denmark plans to lay claim to the North Pole and other areas in the Arctic, where melting ice is creating new shipping routes, fishing grounds and drilling opportunities for oil and gas, according to a leaked government document.
The draft document titled "Strategy for the Arctic" said Denmark's Science Ministry has started collecting data to formally submit a claim for several areas to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf no later than 2014.
To be successful, the Danes will have to present evidence proving that the North Pole is geologically linked to Greenland - which has been part of Denmark for more than 600 years[.]
Russia, Norway, Canada and the US have their own claims - sometimes competing - in a region believed to hold as much as 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.
The Danish government confirmed the authenticity of the document, which was first obtained by Danish Radio and published online by newspaper Information.
Denmark has for years explored potential claims to areas off Greenland, a semiautonomous territory, but this is the first time the government explicitly states it will make a claim for the North Pole, said Martin Breum, a Danish journalist who has written a book about Denmark's interests in the Arctic. » | Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Stefan De Clerck, a Flemish Christian Democrat, has polarized Belgium, fuelling the country's one year political crisis, by supporting a blanket amnesty for the 56,000 Belgians who were convicted of collaborating with the Nazis after the war.
"Perhaps we should be willing to forget, because it is the past. At some point one has to be adult and be willing to talk about. perhaps to forget, because this is the past," he said at the weekend.
The Simon Wiesenthal centre has sent a letter to Yves Leterme, the Belgian Prime Minister, accusing the minister of a "betrayal of history, his obfuscation of its lessons and his contempt for the very concept of justice."
Around 25,000 Belgian Jews were deported to Auschwitz from the Mechelen army barracks, north of Brussels, after being rounded up by authorities that often enthusiastically collaborated with the Nazis despite strong resistance from Belgium's people. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Today has been a very difficult blogging day: Posts have suddely appeared from nowhere; blogs have suddenly disappeared to somewhere. Fact is, someone is hacking my website. Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell exactly who it is. What is easy to tell is this: It is most unpleasant. It causes work without need; it causes too much disruption. I therefore ask the SOB to cease and disist. Ultimately, he will gain nothing from his small-minded endeavours.
Meanwhile, you, dear reader, if you find something strange going on, please bear in mind that this site is being hacked. Therefore, strange things can happened at any time, anywhere. I’ll keep you posted. – © Mark
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, is to make a public apology for abuse of power and offer to hand back his wealth in a bid to win an amnesty from the country's new rulers, according to reports.Mr Mubarak has offered to read a statement on state television apologising for "misconduct" arising from listening to poor advice, the Shorouk newspaper said.
Indications that this was part of a plea bargain were strengthened when the justice ministry released Mr Mubarak's wife, Suzanne, from custody, after she handed investigators power of attorney to clear out her bank account of £2 million and take possession of a house in Cairo.
Under Egyptian law, prosecutors can waive charges for financial crimes if the money involved is restored.
Mrs Mubarak, 70, joined her husband under arrest in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh, where they have been living since he was forced from office in February, on Friday. It was feared she had suffered a heart attack after suffering chest pains during interrogation.
The report in Shorouk claimed that the attempt to forge a deal to avoid the Mubaraks being jailed was mediated by "other Arab and Gulf states". Saudi Arabia, one of Mr Mubarak's principal backers in his 30 years in power, was known to be furious that he was ousted from office. » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
It was a Hollywood marriage with a shock ending - after splitting up from his wife of 25 years, Arnold Schwarzenengger has admitted he fathered a child with an ex- employee.
The former governor of California has confessed to an affair with a woman who worked for the family for twenty years.
And ten years ago, that affair produced a baby.
Al Jazeera's Gerald Tan reports.
DIE PRESSE: Der Ex-Präsident entschuldigt sich, auch im "Namen seiner Familie" und bittet um Vergebung. Seine Frau ist wieder auf freiem Fuß.Der ägyptische Ex-Präsident Hosni Mubarak (83) will angeblich um Gnade für sich und seine Familie bitten. Außerdem sei der im Februar entmachtete Staatschef dabei, eine Audio-Botschaft aufzunehmen, die er über ägyptische und arabische Sender verbreiten lassen will. Darin bitte er die Bevölkerung für jegliches Unrecht um Verzeihung, auch im Namen seiner Familie, berichtete die Kairoer Tageszeitung "Al-Shorouk" am Dienstag.
Er entschuldige sich für Fehler. In dieser Botschaft wolle Mubarak, der fast dreißig Jahre lang Präsident von Ägypten war, an seine früheren Verdienste als Soldat erinnern. Außerdem werde er versprechen, im Falle einer Amnestie den gesamten Besitz seiner Familie dem Staat zu überschreiben und sich
Mubaraks Frau Suzanne überschrieb ihre Vermögenswerte bereits dem Staat, die Anti-Korruptionsbehörde ließ daraufhin den Haftbefehl gegen die 70-Jährige nach vier Tagen wieder aufheben. Der Wert des überschriebenen Besitzes wurde mit umgerechnet knapp 2,9 Millionen Euro angegeben. » | Ag. | Dienstag, 17. Mai 2011
lePARISIEN.fr: «Épouvantable. Abracadabrantesque. » Jointe hier par téléphone, Brigitte Guillemette, deuxième épouse de Dominique Strauss-Kahn ne trouve pas d’autres mots pour commenter le maintien en détention de l’homme qui a partagé sa vie dans les années 1980. « Il a proposé de laisser son passeport, tous ses papiers d’identité, une caution de 1 million de dollars.Comment considérer ces garanties insuffisantes? » s’interroge cette spécialiste en communication et qui ne souhaite pas « trop en dire pour laisser parler Anne (NDLR : Anne Sinclair, l’épouse de DSK depuis 1991) et les avocats de Dominique. » » | Violette Lazard | Mardi 17 Mai 2011
Related »
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's second wife has admitted her former husband had an eye for the ladies but that it was "unthinkable and impossible" he would have raped a chambermaid.
The 62-year old International Monetary Fund chief and French presidential hopeful has been remanded in custody on Rikers Island after being denied a $1 million bail and faces sexual assault charges.
As graphic details of his alleged attack on the 32-year old Sofitel hotel maid emerged, Brigitte Guillemette, whom he married in 1984, leapt to her ex-husband's defence.
"The facts related by the American police are not compatible with the man I know and with whom I lived for more than ten years," she said.
Camille, the pair's daughter – one of Mr Strauss-Khan four children – is a PhD student at Columbia University and met her father for lunch in a New York restaurant "minutes after his alleged assault".
Mrs Guillemette said that she did not deny her husband was a charmer. "But that doesn't mean to say he could have done what he is accused of doing. I don't think I've ever seen him lock a door. He's someone who is gentle.
Violence is not part of his temperament. He has many faults, but not that one." Referring to the lunch he had with Camille, she said: "Can you imagine that a father could do what they accuse him of and then go for lunch with his daughter a few minutes later?
"It makes no sense. It's unthinkable and impossible," she added. Continue reading and comment » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Libya's oil minister has defected and fled to Tunisia, becoming one of the highest profile figures to abandon Muammar Gaddafi's government.
Shukri Ghanem, the head of Libya's National Oil Company, crossed into Tunisia by road on Monday and defected, a Tunisian official said.
Ghanem is one of the most prominent members of the government to leave amid fighting between the military and rebels seeking to end Gaddafi's more than 40-year rule.
Others who have defected include Moussa Koussa, the foreign minister, one of Gaddafi's earliest supporters; Abdel-Fatah Younes, the interior minister; Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the justice minister, and Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former UN General Assembly president. A number of ambassadors and other diplomats also have resigned their posts. » | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Queen is making a four-day visit to Ireland, the first by a British monarch in 100 years, in the shadow of threats by dissident republicans.
LE POINT: Le Français est en détention à Rikers Island, la prison la plus grande au monde. Pour beaucoup, là-bas, c'est l'enfer sur Terre.Tous les fans des séries télé policières qui se passent à New York la connaissent bien. Régulièrement, les détectives se rendent à la prison de Rikers Island pour y interroger un détenu. C'est là que DSK a été conduit lundi soir, après la décision du juge de le maintenir en détention. Pas tout à fait un hôtel 5-étoiles. À lire la littérature sur le sujet, c'est même l'enfer sur Terre. Cet énorme complexe pénitentiaire, le plus grand au monde dit-on, sur une île près de l'aéroport de La Guardia date des années 1930 et compte 10 prisons sur 168 hectares. En tout, il abrite près de 11 000 détenus, la plupart en attente d'un procès ou purgeant de courtes peines. À côté, Fleury-Mérogis, la plus grande prison européenne, est conçue pour 2 800 places.
Rikers est une vraie ville avec des coiffeurs, des terrains de sport, un centre de désintoxication, des chapelles, une centrale électrique, une imprimerie et même un lavage auto ! "C'est surpeuplé et la nourriture est infâme. Et le danger, c'est que les gens célèbres s'y font attaquer", explique à Reuters Gerald Lefcourt, un avocat. Continuez à lire et ajouter un commentaire » | Hélène Vissière | Mardi 17 Mai 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: He was supposed to be in Brussels, musing with fellow members of the global elite on how to spend the hundreds of billions of pounds that were at his disposal just 48 hours earlier.Instead, at 10.50am on Monday, the head of the International Monetary Fund was led into the drab room 130 at Manhattan criminal court and placed beside a drug dealer who delivered takeaways for Texas Fried Chicken.
When it came to his turn, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was formally charged with six crimes relating to the alleged sexual attack of a hotel maid on Saturday, including unlawful sex and attempted rape.
He was remanded in custody after being deemed a “flight risk” by the judge, who denied him bail for $1m that had already been wired to the US from his wife’s personal bank account.
Mr Strauss-Kahn faces up to 74 years in prison if convicted. He denies the charges, claiming he was eating lunch with his daughter at the time. » | Jon Swaine, New York | Monday, May 16, 2011
When this blog was set up many years ago, a person was given permission to write on it. Until today, he has never written anything on the blog. But some ten or so minutes ago, I noticed that he had written his opinion on DSK. I was rather shocked to see it there, for his opinion does not reflect my own. I am keeping an open mind on the matter. He, by contrast, appears to have made up his mind already.
I had forgotten that this person had permission to write here, and when I had remembered about it in the past, out of a courtesy to him, I allowed the name to stay there as a contributor for old times’ sake.
However, without intending to be discourteous to the man, I do not feel comfortable with others contributing to this site, especially when I have not read what has been written before it is published. There are legalities to consider. This is not America. We do not enjoy the First Amendment rights that our brothers in America do. Therefore, we as Brits have to be more circumspect.
I wish to be in full control of what is published on this website for this reason, and for other reasons also. I therefore must apologise to my readers for this interruption in the normal flow of posts. I must also apologise to the contributor for removing his post. I trust he will understand why I have done this.
As I am writing this now, I should like to add something else, something totally irrelevant to this matter. I should like to inform my visotors that I am unable to make up any new labels for each post I put up. This is because I have reached the maximum allowed. Therefore, when a new story breaks, I am unable to use new labels. If a suitable label is not in the bank of labels I have, I have to find a way around it. So if you think it is strange that I don’t make up a label for DSK, for example, this is why. I cannot.
This happened because when we started blogging, we were not told that there was a limit to the number of labels one could use. The limit was enforced a long time later. Had I known that a limit would be enforced at some point, I’d have been rather more sparing in my use of labels from the start. Alas, this wasn’t so.
So now, the only way I can free up space for new labels is by deleting unwanted old ones. I have spent many, many hours doing this, but I haven’t yet made a dent in them. Believe me, it is a laborious task.
Kind regards,
Mark
LE MONDE: Le père de Nicolas Sarkozy, Pal Sarkozy, a confirmé, dans le quotidien allemand Bild la grossesse de l'épouse de l'épouse du président français, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. "Je me réjouis de l'arrivée de mon petit fils", a-t-il assuré. Une confirmation qui intervient après trois semaines de rumeurs persistantes.
Quand Closer annonce vendredi 22 avril au soir ce "scoop" sur son compte Twitter, lecteurs et observateurs font circuler l'info avec un mélange d'excitation et d'incrédulité. La nouvelle, qui n'est pas confirmée, n'est encore qu'une rumeur. Et de plus, certains se rappellent que cette exacte même information a déjà été annoncée plusieurs fois... et donné lieu à des emballements médiatiques en 2008 eten 2009. "Si j’ai pris du ventre, c’est uniquement parce qu’il m’arrive de boire une bière", avait dit la première dame dans une interview à Métro en juillet 2008, tout en affirmant qu'elle "aimerait être enceinte". Retour sur trois semaines de rumeurs. » | LeMonde.fr | Mardi 17 Mai 2011
METRO.fr: Pal Sarkozy confirme la grossesse de Carla Bruni : Le père du chef de l'Etat a confirmé la grossesse de sa belle-fille dans un quotidien allemand paru ce mardi. » | Mardi 17 Mai 2011
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Sarkozy's father says Carla Bruni pregnant: Bild » | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Irish army forced to make safe a viable bomb found on bus near Dublin on eve of historic royal visitA bomb has been found near Dublin as the Queen is due to arrive inIreland for a historic visit that has been hailed as an "extraordinary moment" in the country's history.
The Irish army was forced to make safe a viable improvised explosive device found on a bus in County Kildare late on Monday night.
The discovery threatens to overshadow the Queen's four-day visit, the first by a British monarch to the Republic of Ireland, although the Foreign Office has said she will still travel to Dublin on Tuesday.
An unprecedented security operation, costing about €30m (£26.2m), is in place to safeguard the Queen and Prince Phillip. It includes land, air and sea patrols and a "ring of steel" around the centre of the Irish capital, where the main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street, has been closed to traffic.
The bomb was discovered in the luggage compartment of the vehicle at a bus stop on the outskirts of Maynooth. An engineering unit from the Irish Defence Forces arrived at 11.10pm after receiving a request from the Garda Síochána.
An Irish military spokesman said a controlled explosion was carried out close to a hotel and the scene was declared safe at 1.55am. The remains of the device were handed over to the Gardai for investigation. » | Adam Gabbatt, Henry McDonald and agencies | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a man accustomed to luxury hotel suites and first-class plane travel, will make his home for now at New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail.Mr Strauss-Kahn will be transferred from a detention centre attached to the Manhattan Criminal Court to Rikers Island on Monday, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Correction said.
A judge earlier on Monday denied Strauss-Kahn bail on charges that he attempted to rape a hotel maid and set his next court date for Friday.
Defense lawyers said they were considering whether to appeal the bail ruling. Should the judge uphold his ruling, Mr Strauss-Kahn could be held at Rikers throughout any trial.
Mr Strauss-Kahn will probably be held in isolation with 24-hour watch, in large part for his own protection from inmates who might seek fame by attacking someone famous, according to people familiar with the jail operations who would not speak on the record.
A complex of 10 jails on a 415-acre (168-hectare) island near LaGuardia airport, Rikers is well-known to watchers of television and film crime dramas as the place where criminal suspects are sent pending trial or to serve short jail sentences. The island can be reached via bridge from the borough of Queens. » | Monday, May 16, 2011
My comment on this:
Whilst the man has got a dubious pedigree when it comes to women, and I am certainly not making any excuses for him – if he has done what is alleged he has done, it is utterly inexcusable – but one cannot help but have a nagging doubt that he might have been set up. After all, DSK had one hell of a lot to lose, and the chambermaid had a hell of a lot to gain.
It has been said she was a black single mother of one, and possibly two children. It has also been said that she recognised him. If she recognised him, she also knew how wealthy he was. She might have have just seen her exit from poverty before her very eyes. For now, one thing is for certain: whatever happens, she can make big bucks out of this sordid story. She'll be able to milk it for all it's worth. She'll gain notoriety/ celebrity, and pots of gold. He, meanwhile, will languish in the slammer. What a sad, sad end to an illustrious career. Whatever the man is or has done, it's a sad ending. But don't get me wrong, if he really has done what is alleged of him, he will deserve all he gets. But before I finish, how likely is it really that a mega-rich Frenchman, notorious as the French are for being a tad superior, to have thrown himself at a humble, lowly black chambermaid, when he had all the money in the world to have been able to buy himself the most expensive hussy in town, and all the secrecy and discretion that would have brought with it? We should all slow down before we rush to judgement. Let the facts unfold. Time will tell whether he has been set-up, or not. Time will tell whether he’s a dirty old man. – © Mark
This comment appears as a response to someone else's comment here
Monday, May 16, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The extent of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's womanising has in the past been hidden because of a convention that the French press reports little on politicians' private lives and the fact that its privacy laws are among the strictest in Europe, commentators and legal experts said on Monday.Commentators were asking why the public not been better informed about his apparently uncontrollable libido.
In a Le Monde article titled "The strange media omerta over the DSK case", journalist and author Christophe Deloire said he had been astonished at the lack of media coverage of a chapter in his 2006 book 'Sexus Politicus' dedicated to Mr Strauss-Kahn's womanising.
"The scenes recounted were not limited to simple salon seduction. This chapter brought our editor and ourselves under intense pressure given the sensitive nature of the information," he said.
However, it was barely picked up on by the press which was "more than discreet" on the chapter. "If tomorrow the French, readers and voters, accuse us once again of keeping a secret to ourselves ... what will we reply?"
Jean Quatremer, the journalist at Libération newspaper was the first French journalist to warn that Mr Strauss-Kahn's treatment of women risked causing his downfall in Washington. However, he was only allowed to publish the information on his blog.
On Monday, he told the Daily Telegraph the Strauss-Kahn affair could be a "turning point" in France's approach to its politician's private lives. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Monday, May 16, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Syria's brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests took a chilling turn on Monday with the discovery of a mass grave in Dera'a, the town at the heart of two-month-long protests, an activist said.
"The army today allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours daily," said Ammar Qurabi of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria.
"They discovered a mass grave in the old part of town but authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies, some of which they promised would be handed over later," he said on the phone from Cairo.
Qurabi said the Syrian regime must bear full responsibility for the crimes committed against "unarmed" citizens and urged the international community and civil society to pressure it to stop the "brutal repression" of its people.
He was unable say how many people were buried in the alleged mass grave.
His account could not be independently verified as Syrian authorities have all but sealed off the country to foreign journalists amid a brutal crackdown against unprecedented protests threatening the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. » | Monday, May 16, 2011
STERN.DE: Sie ist die zentrale Figur im Skandal um IWF-Chef Strauss-Kahn: das angebliche Opfer, das Zimmermädchen. Sie stamme aus Afrika, heißt es. Und sie habe eine Tochter - oder zwei.Hat Dominique Strauss-Kahn versucht, sie zu vergewaltigen? Wenn ja, ist das politische Schicksal des IWF-Chefs und Präsident-schaftskandidaten in spe besiegelt. Wenn nein, dann ist er das Opfer eines Rufmords, der seinem Image auch ohne gerichtliches Urteil schon jetzt schweren Schaden zufügt. Das Zimmermädchen des New Yorker Sofitel-Hotels, das mutmaßliche Opfer von Strauss-Kahn angeblichem Übergriff, ist die Schlüsselfigur der Affäre - und über sie ist bislang wenig bekannt. Polizei und ihr Arbeitgeber halten sich bedeckt. Als das derzeit weltberühmteste Zimmermädchen Strauss-Kahn bei einer Gegenüberstellung identifiziert hatte, verließ sie die Polizeistation mit einer Decke über dem Kopf.
32 Jahre, das ist laut "New York Times" immerhin bekannt, ist die Frau alt. Laut Polizei ist sie in Afrika geboren und wohnt seit einigen Monaten im New Yorker Stadtteil Bronx. Sie soll eine Tochter im Teenager-Alter haben. "Das sind gute Leute", sagte ein Nachbar der Zeitung. "Sie hat nie irgendwelche Probleme gemacht. Nie laut, immer nett." » | fgüs/dpa | Montag, 16. Mai 2011
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: In der Affäre um einen angeblichen Vergewaltigungsversuch sind zwar Berichte über ein Alibi von IWF-Direktor Dominique Strauss-Kahn aufgetaucht. Dennoch bleibt der Franzose vorerst in Haft. Auch gegen eine Kaution wollen die New Yorker Richter ihn derzeit nicht freilassen.Dominique Strauss-Kahn bleibt vorerst in Haft. Nach einem angeblichen Vergewaltigungsversuch verweigerte eine New Yorker Richterin dem Chef des Internationalen Währungsfonds (IWF) am Montag die Entlassung auf Kaution. Bei dem international vernetzten und vermögenden Franzosen bestehe Fluchtgefahr. Nun soll am Freitag zum ersten Mal eine Grand Jury zusammentreten, die letztlich über einen Prozess gegen den 62-Jährigen entscheiden wird.
Strauss-Kahn, der als Nachfolger des französischen Präsidenten Nicolas Sarkozy gehandelt wurde, werden sechs Straftaten zur Last gelegt. Allein für die schwerste Anschuldigung, „sexuelle Belästigung ersten Grades“, drohen ihm 25 Jahre Haft. Strauss-Kahn werden versuchte Vergewaltigung, sexueller Missbrauch und Nötigung eines Zimmermädchens in einem New Yorker Hotel vorgeworfen. (+ Video) » | dpa | Montag, 16. Mai 2011
RUSSIA TODAY: After creating much controversy and a circus of media frenzy over the past few months billionaire Donald Trump has announced he will not be running for the office of US President in 2012.“After considerable deliberation and reflection, I have decided not to pursue the office of the Presidency. This decision does not come easily or without regret; especially when my potential candidacy continues to be validated by ranking at the top of the Republican contenders in polls across the country,” he said in a public statement.
Trump argued he would have won both the Republican primary and the general election, but he could not commit to a campaign at this time.
In the end, business beats politics for Trump. » | Monday, May 16, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: America risks unravelling the world's financial system should the country fail to increase its legal borrowing limits, President Barack Obama has warned.The warning from The White House comes as the US moves ever closer to a $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which Congress needs to increase in a matter of weeks to prevent the government defaulting on its borrowings for the first time in history.
Given US government debt, or Treasuries as they are known, are considered the safest asset in financial markets and held by investors and central banks around the world, few want to imagine the consequences of a default.
"If investors around the world thought that the full faith and credit of the United States was not being backed up, if they thought that we might renege on our IOU's, it could unravel the entire financial system," President Obama said at a town hall meeting late yesterday.
"We could have a worse recession than we already had [have], a worse financial crisis than we already had [have]."
The US Treasury has projected that the debt limit will be reached this month, though Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, has said he can juggle accounts until early August to avoid a default. » | Richard Blackden, US Business Editor | Monday, May 16, 2011
My comment:
I find it rather interesting, yet very disturbing, troubling, that this president warns that the world’s financial system will be in trouble if the US doesn’t increase its legal borrowing limits. How perverse is that? That’s like a householder being in deep debt and coming to the end of his credit limit; but instead of paying off the debt, he goes to the bank manager to cajole him into increasing his credit limit to avert the crisis. That way he gets deeper into debt! Where the hell did this guy Obama learn his economics? Which Ivy League university was that now? As all sane, sensible people know, what he needs to do is start paying off the nation’s debts. America needs to learn to live within its means. That way the US will distance itself from its borrowing limits. Living within one’s means is sound economics. It was ever thus. – © Mark
This comment also appears here
THE GUARDIAN: Chief prosecutor requests crimes against humanity arrest warrants for Libyan leader, son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi
Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his brother-in-law and intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, have been named as suspects for crimes against humanity by the chief prosecutor for the international criminal court in The Hague.
Presenting his request for arrest warrants to the ICC, the chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said the men formed an inner circle who carried out the Libyan leader's orders to crush peaceful protests by ordering attacks with live ammunition and heavy weapons.
"His second eldest son Saif al-Islam is a de facto prime minister and Abdullah Senussi is his right-hand man, the executioner. [My] office documented how the three held meetings to plan and direct the operations," Moreno-Ocampo said. The prosecutor said he had "direct evidence" of the three men committing the crimes.
A panel of three ICC judges will now decide whether to grant the arrest warrants, after which Moreno-Ocampo said it was primarily up to Libyans themselves to enforce them.
However, the naming of Saif al-Islam as a prime suspect in crimes against humanity will alone be enough to cause shock and embarrassment to his prominent and wealthy circle of friends in Europe and the US, and particularly in the UK, where he studied at the London School of Economics and lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb, an exclusive district of London.
"His address book is going to be bulging with significant contacts. The question is going to be how long those contacts stayed in touch and at what point they cut him off," a source familiar with the investigation said. Those questions may be answered in part by a study of Saif al-Islam's mobile telephone records and other communications by the ICC investigators. » | Julian Borger, diplomatic editor | Monday, May 16, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, has been remanded in custody by a New York judge, following allegations of sexual assault.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, is accused of an illegal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment by a 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel, near Times Square.
New York prosecutors said on Monday that IMF chief Mr Strauss-Kahn, who is facing charges he sexually assaulted a hotel maid, may have engaged in similar conduct once before and they are investigating.
Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Benjamin Brafman said he is "disappointed" but the battle "has just begun".
Mr Strauss-Kahn did not flee his hotel after the alleged assault but was rushing to a lunch appointment with a witness who will testify to that affect, Mr Brafman told the court.
"The reason he was rushing was because he had a luncheon appointment and the person he had lunch with will testify," he said. » | Jon Swaine, New York | Tuesday, May 16, 2011
THE AUSTRALIAN: THE nation's peak Muslim group is using the Gillard government's re-embracing of multiculturalism to push for the introduction of sharia in Australia, but it says it would be a more moderate variety of Islamic law that fits with Australian values.
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the government's new multiculturalism policy, argues that Muslims should enjoy "legal pluralism".
In an interview with The Australian, the organisation's president, Ikebal Adam Patel, who wrote the submission, nominated family law and specifically divorce as an area where moderate interpretations of sharia could co-exist within the Australian legal system.
In the submission, the AFIC acknowledges some Muslims believe Islamic law is immutable, regardless of history, time, culture and location.
"They claim that Muslims may change, but Islam will not," it says.
The AFIC argues this is not the case and sharia can be applied in a way that fits in to Australia and is not extreme.
"This means most of the regulations in Islamic law may be amended, changed, altered, and adapted to social change.
"Therefore, Muslims Australia-AFIC takes the position that Islamic law is changeable according to the requirements of different places and times, and therefore suits the values shared by Australian people," the submission says.
A hardline reading of sharia confers unilateral divorce rights on men, while women who initiate divorce are stripped of their property and financial entitlements.
A more moderate interpretation and common practice in Islamic countries is to recognise divorce by mutual consent.
In the interview, Mr Patel said: "I'm saying that instead of letting the extremists within Islam take over the agenda, we are saying there is a path whereby it will work for all the communities in a moderate way. » | Patricia Karvelas | The Australian | Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Beware Australia! Beware Australians! Introducing any aspects of sharia law will be the tip of the iceberg. Further, do not be lulled into believing that there is a moderate form of sharia law. Sharia law is what it is: harsh and unforgiving and brutal in its treatment of transgressors. If you want Australia to remain free and whole, keep sharia law well and truly OUT of your wonderful country! Do NOT make the mistakes that we in Europe have made. Be WISE! Learn from our mistakes. Make Muslims abide by your liberal, democratic laws. In any case, no sensible lawmaker would consider allowing different, parallel laws for different groups of people. Any country will eventually become ungovernable like that, and it will fragment, too. – © Mark
THE AUSTRALIAN: MUSLIM groups are worried by a new nationalist body that claims Australia is in danger of being Islamicised.Australian Defence League supporters clashed with Left-wing protesters in the city yesterday as the group held its first local rally, sparking a warning from the Baillieu Government that bigotry would not be tolerated.
A small team of police initially kept the groups apart, but ADL supporters were forced to end their protest early when activists encircled them and tore up placards.
The ADL is an offshoot of the English Defence League, which has staged demonstrations in areas of high Muslim concentration in the UK.
About 40 ADL members, including women dressed in mock hijabs, protested in Federation Square yesterday over issues such as the certification of halal meat and concern sharia law would be introduced.
Protest organiser Martin Brennan claimed the group had 1400 members but denied it was anti-Muslim.
"We are not racist whatsoever, we are against radical Islam infiltrating Australia," he said.
Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said the group was provocative and wrong to believe that most Australian Muslims wanted to bring in sharia law. » | John Masanauskas | Herald Sun | Sunday, May 15, 2011
INTERNATIONAL CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE: Earlier today [Sunday] members of the Australian Counterjihad demonstrated against Islamisation in the city of Melbourne in the State of Victoria. Australia lags behind Europe and North America with regard to the intensity of Islamisation but its political elite seem determined to follow their lead and make the same disastrous mistakes that have strengthen[ed] the hand of Islamic fundamentalists.
The demonstration was compact but included key activists from across Australia and marked the public launch of the Australian Counterjihad. A broad range of Australians were present at the ADL demo from many age groups which illustrates the range of the population that is concerned about the Islamisation of Australia. This is how movements in Europe and North America were established and which now have tens of thousands of activists. Key regional organisers will go back to their local areas and grow their Divisions locally. The demonstration in Melbourne has been a good focus and a key catalyst for the strategic organisation of activists across Australasia. Networks are developing and the key nodes are now in place. This is just the beginning and we expect impressive progress with the Australian Counterjihad in the months and years ahead. » | Aeneas Lavinium | Sunday, May 15, 2011
REUTERS: Four years after they first frightened France, Muslim creationists are back touring the country preaching against evolution and claiming the Koran predicted many modern scientific discoveries.Followers of Harun Yahya, a well-financed Turkish publisher of popular Islamic books, held four conferences at Muslim centers in the Paris area at the weekend with more scheduled in six other cities.
At a Muslim junior high school in this north Paris suburb, about 100 pupils -- boys seated on the right, girls on the left -- listened as two Turks from Harun Yahya's headquarters in Istanbul denounced evolution as a theory Muslims should shun.
"We didn't descend from the apes," lecturer Ali Sadun told the giggling youngsters. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, he said, was "the scientific basis to defend atheism."
Harun Yahya, one of the most prolific publishers in the Muslim world, gave proudly secularist France a scare in January 2007 by mass-mailing thousands of free copies of his "Atlas of Creation" to schools and libraries across the country.
The Education Ministry quickly ordered headmasters to seize and hide copies of the large format book that, over 768 pages of glossy photographs and easy-to-read text, argues that all living things were created by God exactly as they are formed today.
It followed up with a special seminar to train teachers how to counter a small but growing group of pupils who challenge evolution with creationist theories.
In October 2007, with strong French support, the Council of Europe denounced the creationist views laid out in the "Atlas of Creation" as a religious assault on science and human rights. » | Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton | AUBERVILLIERS, France | Monday, May 16, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: IMF head facing second sexual assault charge as his lawyers claim to have proof he was in a restaurant with his daughter at the time of the alleged New York attack.The lawyer for a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn nine years ago says she wants to file a legal complaint against the International Monetary Fund chief.
Lawyer David Koubbi says Tristane Banon did not file suit earlier due to "pressures" she faced over the alleged 2002 sexual assault by Strauss-Kahn and was dissuaded by her own mother, a regional Socialist official.
Mr Koubbi told RTL radio on Monday he is likely to file suit for Ms Banon now because "she knows she'll be heard and she knows she'll be taken seriously".
The IMF chief – a possible Socialist contender in France's 2012 presidential race – is in custody in New York after being accused of a weekend sexual assault against a hotel maid.
Lawyers for Mr Strauss-Kahn have proof the IMF chief was at a restaurant having lunch with his daughter at the time he was alleged to be sexually assaulting a hotel maid, France's RMC radio reported on Monday. » | Monday, May 16, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Large parts of central London have been cordoned off after Irish republican dissidents issued a bomb threat, police have disclosed.
Bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion as a security alert closed down the centre of the capital around Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square.
A suitcase was discovered abandoned outside a hotel and was destroyed in a controlled explosion at 9.30am.
It comes a day before the Queen is scheduled to make her first ever visit to the Republic of Ireland.
Security was heightened after a "non-specific" threat was issued to authorities last night.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "A bomb threat warning has been received relating to central London today. The threat is not specific in relation to location or time." » | Monday, May 16, 2011
THE SACRAMENTO BEE: MANAMA, Bahrain -- Bahrain's special security court has adjourned the trial of 21 opposition leaders and political activists, mostly Shiites, accused of plotting against the state.
The suspects - 14 in custody and the others charged in absentia - are accused of attempting to overthrow the 200-year-old Sunni dynasty and having links to "a terrorist organization abroad." » | The Associated Press | Monday, May 16, 2011
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