Strauss-Kahn opens up in new book

Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn says his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid was “consensual but stupid” and cost him his chance to be the next French president, according to a biography to be published today.

The book, written by Michel Taubmann who says Strauss-Kahn confided in him, covers sex scandals that have dogged the former French finance minister even after the US assault case ended his career as IMF head and wrecked his chances of running in France’s 2012 election.

US Republican hopeful Cain’s wife: He would not harass women

Herman Cain at a Republican party presidential debate in Spartanburg, South Carolina on November 12, 2011.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is not the type of person who would sexually harass women, his wife Gloria Cain said in excerpts of a Fox News interview released yesterday.

Cain’s wife of 43 years has remained hidden from public eye as her husband seeks the party’s nomination to run against President Barack Obama in 2012. She addressed the allegations that have roiled her husband’s campaign in a rare interview.

“You hear the graphic allegations and we know that would have been something that’s totally disrespectful of her as a woman. And I know the type of person he is. He totally respects women,” Gloria Cain said.

US Republican hopeful Cain under new pressure

Congressional Health Care Caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington in this November 2, 2011 file photo.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain faced possibly damaging allegations yesterday from the former boyfriend of a woman who has accused Cain of sexually inappropriate behaviour.

The ex-boyfriend of accuser Sharon Bialek, speaking at a news conference in Louisiana, corroborated Bialek’s claim that Cain made improper advances to her when she sought help finding a job.

Cain, who leads some Republican polls for the 2012 nomination, has denied even knowing Bialek, who held a news conference live on television to accuse the candidate of groping her in 1997.

Woman accuses US presidential candidate Cain of groping

Radio talk show host and former chief executive officer of Godfather's Pizza Herman Cain, speaks during the Reagan Centennial GOP presidential primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California September 7, 2011.


A woman accused US Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain yesterday of reaching under her skirt in 1997, adding to sexual harassment allegations that are threatening to derail his campaign.

Cain, a former pizza company executive, has led many opinion polls in the race to be the Republican nominee to face President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in next year’s election.

Sharon Bialek said Cain made the unwanted advance after dinner in Washington when she asked for help finding a job after she was laid off by the National Restaurant Association, which he then headed.

Bialek, who identified herself as a registered Republican and single mother from Chicago, put a public face on a growing problem for Cain’s campaign. The 65-year-old candidate quickly denied her account, saying all allegations of sexual harassment against him were “completely false.”

Bialek, looking composed and confident before a phalanx of television cameras, said she had not filed a complaint against Cain but was now coming forward to “give a face and a voice to those women” who did not wish to go public.



Two other women lodged formal complaints against Cain when he headed the restaurant association. One said through her lawyer last week she received a series of unwanted advances.

“I want you, Mr Cain, to come clean, to admit what you did, admit you were inappropriate to people and then move forward,” Bialek said. “Mr Cain, I am for you. Make this right.”

Bialek, appearing with celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, said that after the dinner in July 1997, Cain drove her toward the restaurant association offices, parked nearby and offered what Allred called his version of a “stimulus package.”

“Instead of going into the offices, he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt and reached for my genitals. He also grabbed my head and brought it toward his crotch. I was very, very surprised and very, very shocked,” Bialek said.

“I said: ‘What are you doing? You know I have a boyfriend. This isn’t what I came here for.’ Mr Cain said: ‘You want a job, right?’ I asked him to stop and he did. I asked him to take me back to my hotel, which he did right away.”

Allred said she had signed declarations from Bialek’s boyfriend at the time, a paediatrician, and a businessman whom Bialek viewed as a mentor. Both said Bialek told them about the incident shortly after it happened.

“She told the businessman that Mr Cain had been aggressive with her,” Allred said.

Allred said Bialek does not want to file a lawsuit against Cain and is not seeking any money.

CAIN DENIAL

Cain never harassed anyone, spokesman J.D. Gordon said, and the candidate attacked the news media for its focus on “gaffes, gotcha questions and time devoted to trivial nonsense.”

Cain said, as an executive, he had turned around Burger King and Godfather’s Pizza.

“At some point during a career like this, someone will not like things you do or how you do it. Someone will complain,” he said. “That is just the nature of things if you’ve ever done much in your life.”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed the percentage of Republicans who viewed Cain favourably dropped 9 points, to 57 per cent from 66 per cent a week earlier.

A majority of Republican voters, and nearly six in 10 Tea Party supporters, say they are not concerned about the allegations against Cain, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released yesterday.

“It’s attempted sexual assault if it happened,” Bernie Grimm, a criminal defense lawyer in Washington, said of Bialek’s accusation.

He said there is a statute of limitations of five years but, even when an accusation is timely, prosecutors rarely bring a case if the only evidence is the accuser’s word.

Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said the latest accusations “can’t be good for Cain’s campaign.

“He’s now going to be asked about those questions again and, whatever the truth is, the more there are, the more they create doubt among people who might be inclined to support him,” Black said.

Bialek said she last saw Cain at a Tea Party event in Chicago a month ago and asked him: ‘Do you remember me?’“

“I guess I wanted to see if he was going to be man enough to own up to what he had done 14 years ago,” she said.

Bialek said Cain replied that he remembered her from the restaurant association’s education foundation and “looked uncomfortable” before being whisked away by handlers.

One of Cain’s Republican presidential adversaries called on Sunday for more information on the allegations.

“It has got to come out in total,” Jon Huntsman told NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme. “Legitimate questions have been raised and that information has to come forward.

'Sex gang groomed girls of 13': Asian men accused of luring teens and turning them into prostitutes

A gang of Asian men went on trial yesterday accused of a sickening catalogue of child prostitution offences against vulnerable teenage girls as young as 13.

The nine – six are married and one is a grandfather – face 55 charges, including inciting child prostitution, grooming and rape between 2007 and 2009.

The girls – who cannot be named for legal reasons – were said to have received cash, alcohol, drugs, meals and mobile phone credit in exchange for sex with some of the defendants.

Three of the men – Ahdel Ali, 23, his brother Mubarek Ali, 28, and Tanveer Ahmed, 39 – allegedly acted as ‘pimps’, passing two of the young girls among their friends and using them as sexual commodities.

Mubarek Ali is also accused of trafficking one of the girls, while Abdul Rouf, 34, and Mohammed Younis, 59, are accused of using their homes as brothels for child prostitution.

Deborah Gould, prosecuting, said: ‘The Crown say that the men in the dock variously trafficked, raped or sexually abused girls both over and under the age of 16 years over a considerable period of time.

‘These men ensnared these girls. They had cars, jobs and money which gave them both freedom and power. They enticed the girls, groomed the girls and then exploited them either for their own sexual gratification or for money.’

 Accused: Mohammed Islam Choudhrey (L) and Noshad Hussain are among the defendants facing trial at Stafford Crown Court

 Also accused: Mohammed Ali Sultan, left, and Marhoof Khan are on trial for sex offences

 Brothels: Defendants Mohammed Yunis, left, and Abdul Rouf are accused of using their homes for child prostitution

'Pimp': Tanveer Ahmed Tanveer Ahmed, 39, allegedly passed two of the young girls among his friends

Miss Gould told Stafford Crown Court that the case was ‘not about race, religion, colour or creed’.

She said some of the seven alleged victims came from troubled backgrounds and their low self-esteem made them ‘highly vulnerable’ to the attentions of the men.

She added: ‘They do not value themselves and therefore have no expectation that they will be valued by others.

'Accordingly when they receive attention from others, particularly what they perhaps perceive to be somewhat exotic older males with money and cars, they soak it up, believing themselves to be the objects of genuine emotions and affections.

‘They believed themselves, and may still believe themselves, to be loved by and in love with some of these men.’

She said the alleged abusers would contact their victims by computer and mobile telephones ‘out of sight, sounds and control of even the most wary parent’.

Some of the girls first met the men in a churchyard in Telford, Shropshire, which had become a gathering place for ‘young Asian males’ who would smoke and drink there.

The court heard the Ali brothers would regularly present one of the girls for other men to have sex with. She was 16 at the time and didn’t realise at first that she was being sold for sex, Miss Gould added.

Men would pay between £20 and £40 and would either hand the money to her ‘pimps’ or pay her. She would then hand the money to them in exchange for mobile phone top-ups.

At one stage, she was 14 weeks pregnant but Mubarek Ali continued to sell her for sex, the jury heard. It is not known what happened to the baby.

After teachers and parents raised fears that the girls were being sexually abused, a police investigation named Operation Chalice began.

In December 2009, officers arrested most of the defendants and charged them with various offences related to child prostitution.

The men on trial – who all used Western nicknames – are Ahdel Ali, Mubarek Ali, Mohammed Ali Sultan, 24, Tanveer Ahmed, Mahroof Khan, 33, Noshad Hussain, 21, Mohammed Islam Choudhrey, 52, Mohammed Younis and Abdul Rouf.

They deny all charges. The trial continues.

Extensive operation: The trial, which is expected to last for several months, is taking place at Stafford Crown Court

US House leader Boehner says Weiner should resign

A man holds a sign out of their car calling for representative Anthony Weiner to resign, outside Weiner's residency at the Queens borough of New York on June 12, 2011.


US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said today he thought Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner, who has been snared in an Internet sex scandal, should resign.

Boehner, a Republican, simply said “yes” when asked by reporters if he thought Weiner should step down.

The House granted Weiner, who has admitted to sending lewd photos and messages to half a dozen women, a two week leave of absence for treatment. The lawmaker has refused calls by Democrats and Republicans to resign but instead said he wanted to get medical treatment to get back on track.



President Barack Obama weighed in an interview yesterday, saying he would resign if he were in Weiner’s position.

Weiner, 46, admitted last week that he sent online messages and photos of himself to at least six women then lied about it.

Weiner’s refusal to resign has angered Democrats, who say his inappropriate online exchanges with women have hurt the party as it looks toward next year’s elections when it will seek to win back the House from Republicans.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who joined with other Democratic leaders over the weekend to urge Weiner to step down, spoke to a closed-door meeting of House Democrats.

Today’s meeting she repeated her position and members of the Democratic caucus praised her handling of the matter, according to a congressman in the meeting.

Democrats had hoped to put an end to the issue, which has been dragging on for weeks, overshadowing other news on Capitol Hill and efforts to focus on the economy.

Nursery worker, 20, admits horrifying rape of toddler in his care and 45 other sex charges

A paedophile nursery worker pleaded guilty today to raping a toddler in his care and a string of offences linked to the online grooming of more than 20 other girls.

Paul Wilson admitted two counts of oral rape of a girl aged two or three years old.

He also pleaded guilty to a further 45 charges of making and distributing indecent images and inciting youngsters to engage in sexual activity on the internet.

The 20-year-old, of Newbold Croft, Nechells, Birmingham, was charged with rape in January after his arrest on suspicion of child abuse prompted an investigation into his employment at the nearby Little Stars Nursery.

During an earlier hearing at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on April 7, a district judge was told the grooming charges related to a total of 22 girls aged between 12 and 15.

Marni Chimba, prosecuting, told the lower court Wilson used multiple identities to befriend the girls on chatlogs and social networking sites, even pretending sometimes to be a previous victim.

The prosecutor said: 'Some of the aliases were female names and he also pretended to be the complainants, encouraging others to send their movies to him.'

Miss Chimba said some of the victims were directed to expose themselves using webcams. Others were filmed and recorded performing and taking part in sexual acts.

Wilson also distributed indecent images and threatened some of the children that he would show images he had already captured to their friends or parents.

Worker: Wilson worked at the Little Stars Nursery in Birmingham where he admitted orally raping the youngster.Rapist: Male nursery worker Paul Wilson admitted attacking a toddler in his care

Scene of the abuse: Little Stars Nursery in Nechells, Birmingham, where Wilson worked as an assistant

Two counts of oral rape: Paedophile Paul Wilson

One victim said she felt shocked, violated and ashamed.

The girl, who cannot be named, also disclosed her 'pure hatred' for Wilson who, after pressuring her into exposing herself via a webcam, threatened to distribute the images if she refused to follow his orders.

Her mother warned other parents to monitor their children's internet use more closely, saying: 'You think they are on sites, safe, just talking to their friends, but there are outsiders who will latch on and pretend to be their friends and take them for what they want.'

Wilson was warned today by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court that he was facing an indeterminate jail sentence.

Dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jeans, Wilson stood with his right arm folded across his chest as he pleaded guilty to a total of 47 charges on a 50-count indictment.

It took the clerk more than 30 minutes to put the details of the charges to the unshaven nursery assistant, who looked downwards for most of the hearing, only raising his head to enter each individual plea.

Remanding Wilson in custody, Recorder of Birmingham Judge William Davis QC said it was highly likely that an indeterminate life sentence would be imposed when the offender is sentenced by a different judge in July.

'The public have to be protected from you,' Judge Davis said.

'It is almost inevitable that there will be what is called an indeterminate sentence.'

Wilson is the second nursery worker to be convicted of child sex attacks in recent years.

Vanessa George is serving an indeterminate jail term after sparking nationwide outrage for abusing toddlers and taking photos at Little Ted's nursery, in Plymouth.

George, formerly of Douglass Road, Efford, Plymouth, was groomed as part of a major paedophile gang, along with three other women, by IT consultant Colin Blanchard.

Blanchard, formerly of Yea Fold, Rochdale, was told by a judge he may never leave jail for his "deep-rooted and long-standing" sexual abuses.

Strauss-Kahn pleads not guilty to sex charges

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (L) stands with his lawyer Ben Brafman at his arraignment hearing in New York Supreme Court in New York, June 6, 2011. Strauss-Kahn entered a plea of not guilty to sexual assault charges and will appear in court again on July 18.


Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty today to charges he sexually assaulted a New York hotel maid in a case that cost him his job and a chance at the French presidency.

Wearing a dark suit, Strauss-Kahn arrived at the courthouse with his wife, French television journalist Anne Sinclair, walking beside him, arm-in-arm. They were flanked by two private security guards hired to prevent him from skipping bail.

The couple walked past a throng of media and a large group of hotel workers there in solidarity with the woman who said Strauss-Kahn attacked her. “Shame on you,” they chanted.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on charges including attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.



Asked to enter his plea, Strauss-Kahn told the court clerk, “Not guilty.” The next date in the case at New York Supreme Court before Judge Michael Obus was set for July 18.

“When the evidence is in, it will be clear there was no forcible compulsion,” defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman told reporters after the hearing, confirming he will contend that any sex with the maid was consensual.

But the maid’s lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, said the notion that the 32-year-old “hard-working single mother” had consensual sex with Strauss-Kahn was “preposterous.”

“All of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s power, money and influence will not stop the truth of what he did to her in that hotel room from coming out,” he said. “She is going to come into this courthouse, get into that witness stand and tell the world what (he) did to her.”

Strauss-Kahn left the court, holding his wife’s hand. the pair looked stoic as they strode to a black Ford SUV as hotel workers shouted at him and news photographers took pictures.

Praised for his role tackling the 2007-09 global financial crisis and attempts to keep Europe’s debt crisis under control, Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director of the International Monetary Fund a few days after his May 14 arrest in the first-class section of an Air France plane, minutes before it was to depart New York for Paris.

He was accused of attacking the maid, an African immigrant, a few hours earlier when she came to clean his suite at the luxury Sofitel hotel in Midtown Manhattan, apparently believing it had been vacated.

Today’s arraignment marks the start of what could be lengthy legal proceedings.

A new IMF chief has not yet been appointed. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens both want to replace Strauss-Kahn.

Peter Ward, president of Local 6 of the New York Hotel Workers Union, was among those outside the court in solidarity with the maid. “She’s our sister and we support her,” he said.

New York hotel worker Beverly Banton said she was once groped by a guest and that while the man was evicted from the hotel, security never called police. “Back then, they said to us, ‘The guests come first,’“ she said. “There’s a lot of people this happened to who didn’t say nothing.”

Until the New York arrest, Strauss-Kahn had been expected to quit his IMF post for a different reason – a bid to become the Socialist candidate for president of France. He had been a strong favourite to beat conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy at the polls next year.

Instead, Strauss-Kahn spent four days in New York’s Rikers Island jail before he was released on US$1 million cash (RM3 million) bail and US$5 million bond and placed under house arrest with 24-hour armed guards and electronic monitoring.

The father of four daughters spent a few days in a Lower Manhattan apartment but is now living in a luxurious townhouse rented by his wife in Manhattan’s TriBeCa district. The townhouse has a gym and home cinema and was last posted for sale for almost US$14 million.

A prosecutor estimated Strauss-Kahn would pay $200,000 a month for his security arrangements.

Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer has said that although his client has a net worth of roughly US$2 million, his wife, an heiress, has deeper pockets. So far, Sinclair has shown no hesitation about using her personal wealth to help her husband.

US congressman Weiner admits online affairs

US Representative Anthony Weiner yesterday tearfully admitted having a number of inappropriate relationships with women over the Internet, saying he was deeply ashamed but would not resign.

Weiner admitted to inappropriate Internet and telephone conversations with six women but said none of them developed into a physical relationship.


“I’m deeply regretting what I have done and I’m not resigning,” Weiner, who had been seen as a rising star among Democrats, told a news conference while wiping away tears as he apologised for his actions and for lying in the cover-up.



The New York Democrat, a leading liberal voice in the US House of Representatives, had been expected to run for mayor of New York City in 2013.

The scandal began more than a week ago when Weiner denied tweeting a photo of a man’s bulging boxer briefs to a 21-year-old female student in Washington state, insisting his account had been hacked.

“I tweeted a photograph of myself that I intended as a direct message as part of a joke to a woman in Seattle,” he told reporters yesterday.

“Once I realised I had posted it to Twitter, I panicked. I took it down and said that I had been hacked. I then continued to stick to that story, which was a hugely regrettable mistake,” he said. “The picture was of me, and I sent it.”

Calling his actions “very dumb” and “destructive”, he stressed he did not have sex with any of the women.

Weiner is married to Huma Abedin, a long-time aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The couple was married in a ceremony officiated by former President Bill Clinton.

“I love my wife very much and we have no intention of splitting up over this,” he said.

Forget about mayor?

Weiner said his affairs were conducted over several years on Twitter, Facebook, email and by phone with women he met online, primarily on Facebook. He said he sent the women explicit pictures of himself but broke no law, mostly used his home computer and never used his congressional mobile device.

“Certainly he can forget about (running for) mayor,” said Doug Muzzio, a professor of public affairs at Baruch College in New York, adding that while Weiner might weather the storm, he would likely face a tough challenge if he sought re-election next year.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called for an ethics probe “to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred”.

Weiner said in a statement: “I welcome and will fully cooperate with an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.”

New York State Republican Party chairman Ed Cox called for his resignation, saying: “His actions are at best despicable and at worst illegal.”

Former Senate Republican aide John Ullyot, a communication consultant at public relations firm Hill & Knowlton in Washington, said: “Weiner’s handling of this situation is an absolute disaster — a textbook example of how not to act in a matter involving personal scandal.

“By holding a news conference and answering 30 minutes worth of questions, Weiner opened up many more lines of inquiry than he resolved: the possibility of underage victims, use of office phones, questions of whether his wife was aware.”

Earlier this year, two other members of Congress, both Republicans, stepped down amid scandal. John Ensign resigned from the US Senate amid an ethics committee probe into his extramarital affair with a campaign aide. And US Representative Chris Lee resigned after he posted a shirtless and flirty photo of himself online.

Yesterday, more pictures of Weiner, this time of him from the waist up sitting at his desk naked, surfaced online.

He characterised his relationships with the women as “a frivolous thing” and admitted that the affairs were conducted both before and since he was married.

Weiner’s denials and eventual admission was evocative of President Bill Clinton, who in 1998 admitted to an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky after vigorous denials.

Unlike Clinton, who was accused of being evasive even after admitting his dalliance, Weiner took many questions from the press yesterday, answering them plainly as he choked back his emotions, pausing to sip water on several occasions.

Unusual revelations by politicians in the New York metro area are nothing new. Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer resigned after frequenting prostitutes, and former New Jersey governor James McGreevey, who was married, tearfully resigned after it was revealed he had a homosexual affair with an aide.

Still, Weiner being undone by his own actions while using social media tools such as Twitter, which he was successfully using to bolster his personal political brand, is certainly a modern twist.

Rep. Anthony Weiner's Sexting Bombshell

Rep. Anthony Weiner encouraged a porn star to lie about their on-line relationship and offered her the help of his public relations team, according to a report on Tuesday. Weiner sent emails to former X-rated ...

New York mayor defends ‘perp walk’ of IMF chief

Journalists work outside the jail at Rikers Island where International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being held after being denied bail subsequent to being arrested and charged on Sunday with sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid, in New York May 17, 2011. Strauss-Kahn faced growing pressure to quit as head of the IMF, both from inside the Fund and from some European officials, even as France urged no rush to judgment. Strauss-Kahn is likely to remain there at least until his next appearance in court on Friday, where his lawyers may again seek bail.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his city’s police for parading a handcuffed Dominique Strauss-Kahn before the media after some French politicians voiced outrage over the IMF chief’s “perp walk”.



The International Monetary Fund managing director, considered a front-runner for the French presidency, was arrested over the weekend and charged with attempting to rape a hotel maid in New York.

His lawyers have denied the charges and said Strauss-Kahn would plead not guilty.

Police transporting him from a jail cell to the courthouse walked him briefly in front of a battery of cameras on Sunday night with his hands cuffed behind the back.

“I think it is humiliating, but if you don’t want to do the perp walk, don’t do the crime,” Bloomberg told reporters in the state capital, Albany, on Tuesday.

“I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that. Our judicial system works where the public can see the alleged perpetrators,” Bloomberg said.

Former French Culture Minister Jack Lang described the treatment of Strauss-Kahn as a “lynching” that had “provoked horror and aroused disgust.” Others considered it degrading and offensive.

Bloomberg said perp walks would be unfair in cases where the defendant was found not guilty.

“The real sad thing is if somebody is accused, does the perp walk, and turns out not to have been guilty. And then society really should look in the mirror and say we should be more careful the next time,” the mayor said.

Schwarzenegger fathered child outside marriage - Arnold Schwarzenegger Fathered a Love Child With Longtime Household Staffer

For more than a decade, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to keep secret the fact that he had fathered a child with a member of his household staff, misleading not only to his family, ...

Strauss-Kahn in jail, French, IMF seek new faces

France’s Socialists and the international financial community grappled for a future without Dominique Strauss-Kahn today after the IMF chief was remanded in a New York prison on attempted rape charges.

Many Socialist leaders voiced outrage at the way the head of the International Monetary Fund, a frontrunner for the French presidency, had been paraded handcuffed and unshaven by US police before he has a chance to defend himself in court.

Strauss-Kahn (picture) was arrested aboard an Air France plane on Saturday and charged with a sexual assault on a chambermaid at a luxury Manhattan hotel. He denies the accusations.



A judge denied him bail yesterday, remanding him to the city’s grim Rikers Island jail, where he spent the night.

An emergency Socialist leadership meeting in Paris staged a rare show of unity amid consternation over the probable loss of the centre-left’s most popular contender to unseat conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in next April’s election.

“Unity, responsibility, combativity, these are the three words which came up the most this morning,” Socialist party leader Martine Aubry told reporters after the session.

“There was emotion, of course, and the shock we all feel, but it is our responsibility to be up to the task,” she said.

“I say to the French people: we will be ready in 2012.”

Strauss-Kahn has neither resigned from the Washington-based IMF nor dropped out of the French race so far, but he seems bound to be sidelined by a prolonged legal case.

Sarkozy, whose approval ratings had slumped to a record low of 20 per cent, received another campaign boost with news that his wife, singer and former model Carla Bruni, is expecting a child later this year.

The president’s father confirmed the widespread rumours to German newspaper Bild and a visibly pregnant Bruni appeared in public today, although Sarkozy’s office declined comment on a matter it said concerned his private life.

Sarkozy urged centre-right lawmakers at a closed-door breakfast to show “restraint and dignity” and refrain from comment on the Strauss-Kahn case, participants said.

Shock and anger

The Socialists agreed they would not change the selection timetable, which calls for candidates to register by July 13 for a primary election to be held in October.

French politicians and some commentators voiced shock and anger at the judge’s decision to refuse Strauss-Kahn bail.

Former Culture Minister Jack Lang described the treatment as a “lynching” that had “provoked horror and aroused disgust”.

The US justice system, he said, was “politicised” and the judge appeared to have been determined to “make a Frenchman pay”. Other senior Socialists said that displaying the IMF chief in handcuffs escorted by burly policemen violated his right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a court.

Strauss-Kahn denies the charges and his legal team has denied police accounts that he fled the hotel. He is next due to appear in court on Friday.

In an apparent hint at the defence’s strategy, his lawyer Benjamin Brafman told his arraignment hearing: “The evidence we believe will not be consistent with a forcible encounter.”

Apart from blasting the French presidential race wide open, Strauss-Kahn’s arrest has thrown the Fund into turmoil just as it is playing a key role in helping euro zone states like Greece and Portugal tackle debt woes.

The Washington-based IMF board, which was briefed informally on the case yesterday, has so far held off on deciding whether or not to remove him from his job. If he is forced out, there could be a fierce battle over who would succeed him.

Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg joined a string of European officials today in saying that a successor to Strauss-Kahn should come from Europe because of the IMF’s deep involvement in the euro zone debt crisis.

Western Europe has had an effective lock on the job since its creation after World War Two but faces a growing challenge from the rising economic powers of Asia.

China’s foreign ministry weighed in today, declining to comment on Strauss-Kahn but saying the selection process for IMF leaders should be based on “fairness, transparency and merit”.

Lagarde in focus

Strauss-Kahn had been expected to resign soon in order to run for office in France. Diplomats say French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde had been quietly gathering support as a successor before his arrest, but may now face increased resistance to another Paris nominee in the job.

Another possible choice, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, appears sidelined by the opposition of his own successor in government, David Cameron. Polish central bank governor Marek Belka, a respected former prime minister with recent IMF experience, might be a European compromise figure.

A Berlin newspaper floated the names of Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Germany’s private Deutsche Bank, and Thomas Mirow, a German politician who heads the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a public body. But Ackermann has Swiss citizenship and lacks government experience while Mirow may lack political heft.

The most prominent emerging economy figure mentioned as a possible candidate is former Turkish Economy Minister Kemal Dervis, now at a Washington think-tank.

In France, Aubry is under increasing pressure to contest the Socialist presidential primary herself but said “today is not the moment” to declare a candidacy.

Her reluctance to throw her hat into the ring has led some commentators to question her appetite for a race that many see offering the Left its best chance of winning in a quarter of a century.

Strauss-Kahn’s spectacular fall from grace could benefit Sarkozy, even though the conservative president nominated the former Socialist finance minister for the IMF job in the first place four years ago.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen could also pick up support if voters grow disillusioned with mainstream politics.

“K.O.” headlined the left-leaning Liberation newspaper, reflecting the almost universal view in France that his political career had suffered a knock-out blow.

A French writer is also considering seeking attempted rape charges against Strauss-Kahn that date back almost a decade. Her lawyer said no complaint would be lodged today.

Newspapers were awash with pictures of an unshaven and haggard Strauss-Kahn looked drained and tense during his first court appearance yesterday.

Berlusconi arrives in court for tax trial

Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives at the Justice Palace in Milan April 11, 2011. A defiant Berlusconi arrived in court on Monday to face the latest in a series of trials over the coming weeks on charges ranging from tax fraud to paying for sex with a minor.

A defiant Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrived in court today to face the latest in a series of trials over the coming weeks on charges ranging from tax fraud to paying for sex with a minor.

“I will not be convicted,” Berlusconi told reporters confidently as he entered the courthouse, with a crowd of supporters cheering him on.

He said magistrates, whom he has accused of being politically biased leftists, had hurled “an incredible amount of mud” at him “and the whole country”.






His appearance at the tax fraud trial contrasted with his decision to stay away from the opening of a more embarrassing case last week over his relations with an under-age prostitute, which his lawyers are trying to have quashed.

He called the prostitution charges against him “groundless.”

Today’s trial centres on charges that Berlusconi’s Mediaset broadcasting empire bought TV and film rights at inflated prices through offshore front companies, leaving the difference to be skimmed off to avoid tax and create secret slush funds.

Both Mediaset and Berlusconi deny the charges. Judges were expected to question some defence witnesses at today’s hearing.

The billionaire centre-right prime minister has dismissed opposition calls to resign and, after overcoming a damaging party split last year, appears to have the numbers in parliament to serve out his term until 2013.

The Mediaset trial is one of a series of three connected trials, all linked to the sale of television and film rights dating back to the 1990s.

It is not related to the more sensational “Rubygate” case in which the prime minister is accused of paying for sex with a teenage nightclub dancer when she was under the age of 18 and thus too young under Italian law to be paid as a prostitute.

As he entered the courthouse today, Berlusconi said he was only trying to help the girl, Karima El Mahroug, “because she told me a story that moved me” and he had wanted to help her find a job.

Berlusconi, who has faced at least a dozen trials over the years, denies all charges against him and says he has been victimised by leftist magistrates who are using the legal system to bring him down.

His government has been pushing through legislation to curb the powers of the magistrates, prompting critics to accuse him of trying to pass specially tailored laws that would allow him to escape trial altogether.

The trials were effectively suspended by a measure passed by his government which allowed him to claim that his official duties meant he did not have enough time to prepare his defence and could therefore claim immunity from trial while in office.

The constitutional court ruled against the measure in January, prompting magistrates to re-open the fraud trials and bring the prostitution case to court

American Apparel CEO held teen as sex slave

American Apparel owner Dov Charney speaks during a May Day rally protest march for immigrant rights, in downtown Los Angeles on May 1, 2009.


American Apparel Inc founder and chief executive Dov Charney is being sued for US$250 million (RM757.5 million) by a woman who said he treated her as a sex slave when she was a teenage sales employee at the clothing chain.

Irene Morales of Brooklyn, New York, has accused Charney, 42, of sexual harassment, creating a hostile workplace, gender discrimination and retaliation.

American Apparel and directors at the company have also been named as defendants in the lawsuit, filed in a New York state court on Friday. Morales accused them of failing to protect her, and said they knew or should have known that Charney was a “sexual predator.”



Charney has been repeatedly targeted in sexual harassment lawsuits. He owns about 51.8 per cent of American Apparel, according to a regulatory filing.

Reached on his mobile phone, Charney declined to comment, referring a reporter to his lawyer. The lawyer, Peter Schey, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

American Apparel did not respond to several requests for comment. Eric Baum, Morales’ lawyer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

The lawsuit comes as American Apparel grapples with losses and falling sales. Known for provocative advertising, the company is trying to refinance its debt, and has said there is substantial doubt about its ability to stay in business.

In her complaint, Morales said she started working for American Apparel in 2007, when she was 17 and in high school.

She said Charney demanded that she visit his Manhattan apartment shortly after her 18th birthday, and he answered his door while wearing only underpants.

Morales said in the lawsuit that Charney then forced her to perform oral sex and other sexual acts over several hours, effectively holding her “prisoner” in his apartment.

She said that over the next eight months, she was forced to perform many more sex acts with Charney or else risk losing her job. Morales said she ultimately quit her US$10.25-an-hour job and underwent extensive psychiatric treatment.

American Apparel shares were down 1 cent at US$1.06 in afternoon trading on the American Stock Exchange.

British man jailed for seven years after sexually abusing young girls in Cambodia

A Cambodian court has convicted a British man of sexually abusing two girls and sentenced him to seven years in prison.

Matthew Harland, 38, was arrested in May last year at the house he rented in the capital, Phnom Penh. He was found to be living with two girls aged 11 and 12.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Kor Vandy convicted Harland on charges of buying sex from the girls and ordered him to pay each child compensation of two million riel (£300).

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles because of poverty and poor law enforcement. In recent years police and courts have increasingly targeted sex offenders.

Jail: John Harland (left) arrives at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in Cambodia at an earlier hearing

Teenage belly dancer embroiled in Silvio Berlusconi sex scandal cashes in on new fame by appearing semi-clothed in advert

Reporter Lara Logan leaves hospital six days after Cairo mob sex-attack

* Was set upon by mob of more than 200 in Tahrir Square
* 'Thugs yelled Jew, Jew at her' during attack
* Saved by group of women and 20 Egyptian soldiers

Former GMTV reporter Lara Logan will be released from hospital today as she vows to return to work 'within weeks' following an horrific sex assault in Egypt.

The mother-of-one was hospitalised after the 'sustained and brutal' assault on February 11 as she reported from Cairo on the resignation of President Mubarak.

She was surrounded by a mob of 200 men after becoming separated from her TV crew in Tahrir Square and had to be rescued by a group of women and up to 20 Egyptian soldiers.

 Ms Logan seen here in another image from Tahrir Square moments before she was assaulted. The image was only released yesterday. There is no suggestion any of the men pictured were responsible for the attack

Attack: CBS News correspondent Lara Logan pictured shortly before she was assaulted in Tahrir Square while she was reporting on the Egyptian protests. There is no suggestion any of the men pictured were involved in the attack

According to U.S. website TMZ, Miss Logan is vowing to return to work and has told friends what happened to her in Egypt 'will not destroy her.'

A source told the website that the details of her assault are horrible - but that she is determined to go back to work within weeks.

According to the source, Miss Logan is 'unbelievably strong' and has been candidly discussing what happened.

'She is going to be OK,' added a friend.

The 39-year-old spoke of her safety fears just one day before she suffered a sex attack in Egypt, it also emerged today.

CBS issued a statement yesterday, saying: 'On the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a "60 Minutes" story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration.

'It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy. In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew.

'She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.

'She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.'

Last night, on the 5pm CBS news bulletin, anchor Katie Couric - who herself had been 'manhandled' while reporting from Egypt - said: 'We’re pleased to report she’s recovering well in the hospital.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with her and, of course, we wish her the very best.'

The New York Post reported that a CBS source claims her attackers shouted 'Jew! Jew!' during the assault.

The attack comes just a week after Miss Logan and her crew were detained overnight in Cairo before being interrogated and deported back to New York.

She said she was marched at gunpoint back to her hotel in the Egyptian capital in ‘a very frightening experience and one that was repeated throughout the day for us.

'Everywhere we went we were approached by people,’ she said at the time. ‘We were accused of being more than journalists, very frightening suggestions were being made. Suggestions that really could be very dangerous for us,’ she added.

She and her crew were then deported to New York but were soon planning their return. She then gave an interview with Esquire.com where she spoke of her desire head back to the Middle Eastern country.

The newscaster said it was 'in her blood' to be covering the tumultuous events. The interview was published the day before she was attacked in Tahrir Square where this time Egyptian soldiers rescued her.

'We were not attacked by crazy people in Tahrir Square,' she told the website. 'We were detained by the Egyptian army.

'Arrested, detained, and interrogated. Blindfolded, handcuffed, taken at gunpoint, our driver beaten. It's the regime that arrested us.

'We were accused of being Israeli spies. We were accused of being agents. We were accused of everything.'

Yet despite the traumatic experience Ms Logan said she still felt compelled to return to the country.

She reiterated the sentiments on the Charlie Rose show last Monday saying: 'It's very hard for me to be away from this story,' she said. 'I feel, in one sense, like a failure professionally.

'I feel like I failed because I didn't deliver, and I take that responsibility very seriously.'

The South-African born veteran war correspondent was tipped at one time to be a presenter on GMTV before leaving to work for CBS in 2002.

She found herself at the centre of a row over sexism on the front line after ITV correspondent Julian Manyon wrote in a Spectator article about ‘the considerable physical charms of my travelling companion, the delectable Lara Logan, who exploits her God-given advantages with a skill that Mata Hari might envy'.

Ms Logan angrily hit back at the claim, saying good contacts and a devotion to her job were the reason she enjoyed such good access to Northern Alliance leaders in Afghanistan.

She was also featured in a front-page tabloid report claiming her skimpy tops were upsetting soldiers in the combat zone.

During her two years with GMTV, she covered floods in Mozambique and land invasions in Zimbabwe as well as the war in Afghanistan.

She has regularly filed reports from Afghanistan and Iraq for CBS over the last decade.

Ms Logan was previously married to professional basketball player Jason Siemon, whom she wed in 1998. The pair separated while she was in Iraq.

In 2007, about two years after her separation, she began a short-lived relationship with CNN correspondent Michael Ware, after she began dating Joseph Burkett.

She met Mr Burkett in Iraq, where he worked as a U.S. defence contractor.

Mr Burkett also has a daughter with his ex-wife Kimberly, to whom he was still legally married when he met Logan , although they had been separated for years.

Ms Logan became tabloid fodder in early 2008 when Kimberly overdosed on tranquilisers after her husband filed for divorce.

She recovered and her lawyer reportedly told a US publication that 'Kimberly believes Lara stole her husband.'

Ms Logan and Mr Burkett married in autumn 2008 and in December 2008 Logan gave birth to son Joseph Washington Burkett V.

Prior to Mubarak stepping down, the Egyptian military had been rounding up members of the press for their own safety after several were stabbed, punched, kicked, marched back to their hotel by gunpoint or hijacked in their cars.

Pro-Mubarak supporters had blamed the press for encouraging the uprising and publishing pro-democracy views.

CNN's star reporter Anderson Cooper was pulled out of Egypt ten days ago after he was physically assaulted.

Cooper described how he was 'roughed up by thugs' and hit in the back of the head in the pro-Mubarak crowd, calling it 'pandemonium' and 'out of control'.

ABC's Katie Couric and Christiane Amanpour were also physically attacked.

Miss Couric was said to have been manhandled in the city while Miss Amanpour's car was surrounded by rioters shouting they hated America, though she escaped unhurt.

A Greek photographer was stabbed in the leg, while the BBC's Jerome Boehm was also targeted by thugs.

Reuters said one of its television crews were beaten up close to Tahrir Square while filming a piece about shops and banks being forced to shut during the clashes.

Mob: CNN's Anderson Cooper was filmed by his crew as they were attacked by pro-Mubarak supporters in Egypt. He left the country shortly afterwards. Last night he sent Miss Logan his best wishes via Twitter

Crowd: The scene in Tahrir Square minutes after the resignation of President Mubarak - and shortly before Miss Logan was attacked. She was saved by a group of women and 20 Egyptian soldiers

Ms Logan at Bagram air base when she was covering the conflict in Afghanistan for GMTV

Ms Logan delivering a report for GMTV on immigrants trying to get into England from France

Brave: Miss Logan reporting from South Africa in 2002 for British morning news programme GMTV. She has reported extensively from Iraq and Afghanistan and is now chief foreign correspondent for CBS News

Ms Logan, pictured when she was pregnant, with her husband Joseph Burkett, whom she met while they were both working in Iraq. Right, the former model, on her wedding day in 1998 to American-born basketball player, Jason Siemon. The pair separated while she was in Iraq covering the war there

Ex-GMTV reporter Lara Logan leaves hospital six days after Cairo mob sex-attack

Berlusconi’s woes likely to lead to early elections

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is likely to dig in his heels after being ordered to stand trial but ultimately he will not be able to stem the tide heading toward early elections, commentators said today.

“Objectively speaking, Berlusconi is worn down and gasping for breath,” wrote Massimo Franco, a leading political commentator for the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

In perhaps the hardest blow in a string of judicial problems, a judge ordered Berlusconi (picture) to stand trial in April on charges of paying an underage girl for sex and abuse of office for intervening with police to get her freed from custody.

He has so far not commented on the indictment but his lieutenants have blasted the trial order as what they call another calculated move by leftist magistrates to destroy his political career.



But the momentum against him seems to be building. The trial date was set two days after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated throughout the country demanding his immediate resignation.

“Berlusconi is now in a defensive position and (the court order) breathes electoral hope into an opposition that smells a precious opportunity to beat him,” Franco said.

Another influential commentator, Stefano Folli of the economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore, said: “It’s obvious that the legislature is over and parliament is heading towards a paralysis.”

The timing of elections before the next scheduled national vote in 2013 depends how long Berlusconi’s increasingly fragile coalition can stick together, commentators said.

The sex scandal has riveted Italy and, commentators say, caused untold damage to the country’s image abroad.

Much will depend on the position of the Northern League and its mercurial leader Umberto Bossi.

Bossi, speaking after centre-right leaders held crisis talks with Berlusconi yesterday night, was quoted as telling the prime minister that “the moment is difficult but I am standing by you”.

Commentators say Bossi is biding his time until federalists reforms are in place to placate his northern constituents and then will pull the plug on the coalition, as he did in 1994 when he provoked the collapse of Berlusconi’s first government.

“EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF”

“Let’s get federalism passed and then it’s every man for himself,” the La Republica newspaper quoted Bossi as telling his lieutenants before Tuesday night’s meeting.

Berlusconi’s legal problems have added a complicating factor to a political situation already tangled by a split in the People of Freedom coalition last year, which left Berlusconi barely clinging to power.

The government survived a no-confidence motion in parliament in December by a small margin. Since then, Berlusconi has gradually built up support by winning over deputies from smaller centrist parties and splinter formations.

Italian media have been dominated for weeks by the alleged prostitution affair, which turns on the case of a teenaged Moroccan nightclub dancer named Karima el Mahroug, whose stage name Ruby has become a household term in Italy.

Prosecutors say they have ample evidence that Berlusconi paid el Mahroug for sex when she was under 18 — an offence in Italy — and also telephoned a police station to pressure officers to release her after she was held on theft allegations.

She denies having sex with Berlusconi but admits receiving at least €7,000 euros (RM29,000) after attending a party at the premier’s luxurious private residence at Arcore near Milan.

Berlusconi has denied doing anything illegal in the case and says he has been targeted by politically motivated judges backed by the left who are determined to bring him down.

He says he has never paid for sex and says that when he telephoned the Milan police station it was because he believed el Mahroug to be the granddaughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and he wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident.