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Dominique Strauss-Kahn facing second sex charge
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Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s hopes of entering the French presidential race appeared to be over after a novelist who described him as a “rutting chimpanzee“ said she would make a criminal complaint of attempted rape.
Tristane Banon, a 32-year-old journalist and writer, will file for charges on Tuesday over an alleged attack in a Paris apartment in 2003 during which she claims Strauss-Khan tried to unhook her bra and open her jeans. Her lawyer, David Koubbi said the complaint would reach the Paris prosecutor’s office by Wednesday.
he announcement came just days after it emerged that the sexual assault case by an American hotel chambermaid against the former International Monetary Fund chief was close to collapse. Strauss Khan was freed from his strict bail terms by a New York court on Friday amid doubts over the alleged victim’s credibility.
That had raised hopes in France that the 62-year-old might make a triumphant return to French politics if acquitted in the US, perhaps even running for president next year for the opposition Socialists.
However, the latest development appears to make that extremely unlikely. France’s Socialist party said on Monday that the idea of Strauss-Khan running for President was now the “weakest” of all possible scenarios for his political future.
In an interview on Monday evening, Miss Banon said she had decided to file her complaint after feeling “sick” watching Mr Strauss-Kahn freed without bail last week and dining in a New York restaurant.
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“To see Strauss Kahn freed then straight away dining in a luxury restaurant with friends, that makes me sick,” she told L’Express magazine.
She also recounted details of the alleged attempted rape that she said dated back to February 2003.
Her lawyer Mr Koubbi said: “Tristane Banon has really suffered what she accuses Mr Strauss-Kahn of, which means that the law, in her position as victim, is open to her and that she is exercising her judicial rights in demanding reparation before French justice,” he said.
“These facts do not constitute a sexual assault but attempted rape.”
The complaint fell within the 10-year limitation period for attempted rape charges, he added.
Shortly after Mr Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York on sexual assault charges, Miss Banon’s lawyer said she was “considering” pressing charges but then declined to testify in the US and appeared to withdraw.
Mr Koubbi insisted the decision to file for charges now had been made before the dramatic turn of events over the weekend when prosecutors in New York admitted the case against Mr Strauss-Kahn was falling apart.
He said the timing would not dent Miss Banon’s credibility or make her look opportunistic.
“What is happening in the US doesn’t concern us, I repeat. If the case against Mr Strauss Kahn is empty, ours isn’t. It is extremely solid and thorough.”
Miss Banon said the alleged incident took place when she went to interview Mr Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, in an apartment.
Miss Banon gave a graphic account of the alleged attack in a 2007 television programme, currently posted on the internet.
The politician acted, she said, like a “rutting chimpanzee “.
She alleged that after the attack she was dissuaded from filing charges by her mother, a regional councillor in Mr Strauss-Kahn’s Socialist party.
Mr Strauss Kahn’s lawyers responded to the allegations by saying he intended to sue her for “slanderous denunciation, adding that the alleged events she related were “imaginary”.
The latest twist in the Strauss-Kahn affair came just days after he was given freedom without bail on Saturday.
He remains charged with trying to rape the US maid after she arrived to clean his Manhattan Sofitel suite and forcing her to give him oral sex.
But the case against him is hanging by a thread. Reports claim that soon after the incident, she was recorded telling a drug dealer in Arizona: “Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing”.
A letter filed to court by Cyrus Vance Jr, the Manhattan district attorney, said: “The complainant testified to this version of events when questioned in the Grand Jury about her actions”.
However she “has since admitted that this account was false” and that she went on to clean another room, and returned to clean Mr Strauss-Kahn’s suite, before reporting the incident to her supervisor.
France is divided over how to receive Mr Strauss-Kahn’s likely acquittal.
Some 42 per cent of French people think he has a political future, according to a poll published today in Le Point, while a larger amount, 51 per cent, think the opposite.
With Mr Strauss-Kahn’s prospects for acquittal growing, his Socialist allies have launched a media offensive claiming he was the victim of a plot.
One cited DSK as having warned he was under threat from Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin shortly before his arrest.
Other Socialist MPs questioned the role of the Sofitel hotel’s security chief, a former senior policeman with links to French intelligence.
They asked why hotel management phoned conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office just an hour after the incident, intimating the Elysée may have stage-managed his arrest to maximise damage. The Accor group, which owns Sofitel has strenuously denied any foul-play and threatened to sue for slander anyone making such claims.
Mr Koubbi insisted that there was no political motive in the timing of Miss Banon’s complaint.
“Let me make it clear that I have been contacted by nobody on the Right, that I am under nobody’s orders,” he said.
The DSK affair has sparked soul-searching in France about tolerance to borderline sexual harassment of male politicians, and a litany of women have claimed to have been on the receiving end of Mr Strausss-Kahn’s heavy-handed seduction techniques. Some female politicians and journalists said they refuse to be alone with him.
Clémentine Autain, a feminist politician and founder of the Mix-Cité party, insisted the DSK affair remained “very symbolic” as “it has enabled (France) to denounce machismo in political circles, violence against women. So if it turned out (the US plaintiff) was lying, it would be a harsh blow for women”.
“There is no question of shutting the lid on this new-found freedom of speech in the light of the DSK affair to discuss issues that are serious — notably the 75,000 rapes perpetrated in France every year,” she said.
Only one woman in ten files for charges after being raped, she added.
U.S. to Review Palestinian Aid in Light of Deal
Parties Must Accept Israel, Renounce Violence: Lawmakers
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The United States will keep aid flowing to the Palestinian Authority, but future help depends on the new Palestinian government, the State Department said on Thursday.
One day after a unity deal between rival Palestinian factions, the State Department said roughly $400 million in annual U.S. funding would be reassessed as the policies of the new leadership emerge.
U.S. lawmakers from both parties have warned that the reconciliation deal between the western-backed Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas could imperil U.S. aid if Hamas continues to spurn demands that it renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
The top Republican and Democrat lawmakers on a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee wrote a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urging him to reconsider the Hamas deal and to stop moves to seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state.
"Our ability to support current and future aid would be severely threatened if you abandon direct negotiations with Israel and continue with your current efforts," Republican chairwoman Kay Granger and senior Democrat Nita Lowey said.
"Your current courses of action undermine the purposes and threaten the provision of United States assistance and support."
The Palestinian deal comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit Washington next month and U.S. officials weigh the chances of restarting direct peace talks which collapsed shortly after their launch last year.
The Obama administration has reacted coolly to the Hamas-Fatah announcement.
It insists that any future Palestinian government must renounce violence, respect past peace agreements and recognize Israel's right to exist.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/review+Palestinian+light+deal/4694645/story.html#ixzz1KtVicfEF
Workers to Continue Egypt Strikes
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Egyptian labour unions plan to hold more nationwide strikes for a second day, adding momentum to the pro-democracy demonstrations in Cairo and other cities.
The move comes as the demonstrations calling for President Hosni Mubarak's immediate ouster enters its 17th day.
Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Cairo, said about 5,000 doctors and medical students were expected to come out on Thursday.
"It's certainly increasing the pressure on the government here. I think it's worth making the distinction that the strikes going on are more of an economic nature, they are not necessarily jumping on the bandwagon of the protesters in Tahrir Square, ...many of them are not actually calling for the president to step down, but fighting for better wages, for better working conditions."
Our correspondents, reporting from across Egypyt, said around 20,000 factory workers had stayed away from work on Wednesday.
"[Strikers] were saying that they want better salaries, they want an end to the disparity in the pay, and they want the 15 per cent increase in pay that was promised to them by the state," Shirine Tadros, reported from Cairo.
Some workers were also calling for Mubarak to step down, she said.
Culture minister quits
Meanwhile, Gaber Asfour, the recently appointed culture minister, resigned from Mubarak's cabinet on Wednesday for health reasons, a member of his family told Reuters.
But the website of Egypt's main daily newspaper Al-Ahram said Asfour, a writer, was under pressure from literary colleagues over the post.
Asfour was sworn in following the start of the protests on January 31, and believed it would be a national unity government, al-Ahram said.
Determined protesters continue to rally in Cairo's Tahrir [Liberation] Square, and other cities across the country. They say they will not end the protests until Mubarak, who has been at the country's helm since 1981, steps down.
Protesters with blankets gathered outside the parliament building in Cairo on Wednesday, with no plan to move, our correspondent reported. The demonstrators had put up a sign that read: "Closed until the fall of the regime".
There was also a renewed international element to the demonstrations, with Egyptians from abroad returning to join the pro-democracy camp.
Our correspondent said an internet campaign is currently on to mobilise expatriates to return and support the uprising.
Protesters are "more emboldened by the day and more determined by the day", Ahmad Salah, an Egyptian activist, told Al Jazeera from Cairo. "This is a growing movement, it's not shrinking."
Meanwhile, 34 political prisoners, including members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, were reportedly released over the past two days.
Our correspondent said that there are still an unknown number of people missing, including activists thought to be detained during the recent unrest.
Human Rights Watch said the death toll has reached 302 since January 28. However, Egypt's health ministry denied the figures, saying official statistics would be released shortly.
Egypt President's Son, Family Flee to Britain
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Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's son, who is considered as his successor, has fled to Britain along with his family, a US-based Arabic website reported.
The plane with Gamal Mubarak, his wife and daughter on board left for London Tuesday from an airport in western Cairo, the website Akhbar al-Arab said.
The report came as violent unrest broke out in Cairo and other Egyptian cities and hundreds of thousands of people reportedly took to the streets in a Tunisia-inspired day of revolt.
The protesters want Egyptian government to end its 30-year state of emergency and pass a law preventing a president from serving more than two terms, and want the Interior Minister Habib al-Adly to resign.
Protests in Egypt broke out after opposition groups waged an internet campaign inspired by the Tunisian uprising. Weeks of unrest in Tunisia eventually toppled president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month.
A police officer was killed in clashes Tuesday in central Cairo, Egyptian daily al-Wafd reported.
Over 30,000 protesters gathered in Cairo's Maidan al-Tahrir square to take part in the "day of anger", said the spokesman for Egypt's '6 April' opposition movement, Mohammed Adel.
"Police used tear gas and water canon to break up our protest and they arrested 40 of us, but we don't have official figures on the numbers of arrests across Egypt," said Adel.
Supporters of the '6 April' movement, the opposition al-Ghad party, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the al-Wafd party and supporters of former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohammed El Baradei took part in the protest.
Al-Wafd daily said police arrested 600 people during Tuesday's protests in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Tantan, al-Mahala, Asiut, al-Bahira and al-Quium. More than 200,000 people took part in protests in these cities.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Tuesday Washington believed the Egyptian government was stable and urged restraint on both sides.
In Tunisia, a Warm Embrace of Fresh Freedoms
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TUNIS - Workers stormed out of the state-run shipping company the other day. For decades, they had lived quietly in relative poverty as their bosses, all members of the former ruling party, drove luxury cars and owned mansions.
Only 10 days ago, the police would have suppressed this mini-uprising and arrested them. Now, it was a new order. Pumping their fists, the workers accused the company's chairman of embezzlement and demanded his resignation.
Across this nation, Tunisians are experiencing a blossoming of freedoms after a popular uprising ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali from power on Jan. 14, ending his autocratic rule. Many are voicing their thoughts and ideas after living for nearly a quarter of a century in fear. Others, for the first time in their lives, are demanding justice for relatives killed by his regime.
The happiness is tempered by unease, for their future is still uncertain. Protests are unfolding daily in the capital to demand that the interim government purge all members of Ben Ali's party. The opposition is weak and divided; some fear militias that supported the president might create problems.
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In a crackdown on key allies of Ben Ali, police on Sunday placed two high-ranking officials under house arrest and detained the head of a well-known private TV station for allegedly trying to slow the country's steps toward democracy.
But for now, at least, many here are embracing freedoms they thought they would never have.
"They stole the nation's money. They were a mafia. Our company is like a little example of what was wrong with Tunisia," said Sofiyan Abu Sami, one of the workers who walked off the job the other day. Some carried placards that read "No to corruption."
"Now, we can finally speak our minds," he said.
Under Ben Ali, Tunisia was perceived by the West as a model nation in the Arab world - moderate, relatively prosperous and secular. The autocratic leader, who seized power in 1987, stamped down on Islamic radicalism; he was a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism in a region where al-Qaeda was making inroads.
Ben Ali also lorded over a landscape of repression and corruption. Journalists were censored, harassed and monitored by his intelligence service. Critical voices were silenced.
His family owned more than half the companies in Tunisia, including banks, hotels and real estate development firms. Bribes and good ties with the government were the route to jobs and promotions.
Accounts Update: Customers Accuse Banks of Hidden Agenda
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There is a new dimension to the on-going bank accounts update as customers are accusing banks of hidden agenda.
Some of the bank customers that spoke with our correspondent in Lagos said the fresh hurdles set by banks before the update could be perfected were done against the backdrop that any account that was not updated before Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s January 31 deadline would remain suspended, stressing that it was targeted at fleecing them.
One of the bank customers, Ahmed Onitiri, who was seen complaining bitterly in one of the banks, said the conditions set by the banks for account update was like opening a fresh account.He stressed that the requirements were becoming difficult to meet.
“I don’t know what this bank is up to. I have salary account with them. When I came to update the account, they only told me of utility bill and means of identification. Surprisingly, on presenting those ones, they are again saying I should go and get two guarantors as if I am opening a new account,” he stated.
Speaking in the same light, a petty trader, Mrs Ogechi Ugochukwu, told the Nigerian Tribune that she had given up on updating her account, stating that there was no way she could meet the requirements set by her bank.
“I don’t think I can meet all these requirements. How much do I even have there? It is better for me to leave the money for them and move on with my life,” he said.
Investigations showed that most banks had set difficult hurdles for their customers to meet before the update was carried out. Apart from presenting photocopies of utility bills, they demanded means of identification like national identity cards, international passports or driver’s licences. In some of the banks, customers were issued guarantor’s forms.
New Tunisian Government Could be Announced Monday
CNN
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Tunis, Tunisia (CNN) -- A new Tunisian government could be announced Monday, one day after the country's army clashed with armed gangs and remnants of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's personal guard.
Tanks patrolled the streets of Tunis on Sunday, two days after enraged protesters caused Ben Ali to flee the country. Government troops appeared to be in control of the presidential palace in the seaside suburb of Carthage on Sunday evening, but sporadic gunfire continued around the neighborhood as night fell, said Mohamad Guiga, a nearby resident.
"It is a battle zone," Guiga told CNN by telephone from his home, about 1 kilometer (half a mile) from the palace. "From time to time, we hear some shooting," he said. The sound is very clear, he added.
On Sunday, the country's prime minister said a unity government would be formed soon.
Abdel Latif Abid, a human rights lawyer and an opposition party founder, said the new government was expected to be announced Monday, with three opposition leaders holding ministry posts.
Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday after ruling the country for 23 years. His ouster followed weeks of protest over what Tunisians said were poor living conditions, high unemployment, government corruption and repression.
The demonstrations were triggered by the suicide of an unemployed college graduate, who set himself ablaze in December after police confiscated the fruit cart that was hi
Many Still Missing in Brazil Floods; Criticism Grows
Ttimes News Nigeria
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(Reuters) - Dozens of flood survivors desperate for news of missing relatives lined up outside a morgue in the Brazilian town of Teresopolis on Saturday as criticism grew of authorities' response to one of the country's worst natural disasters.
Nearly four days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides, officials in this scenic mountain town are still struggling to cope with the scale of the catastrophe that has killed at least 564 people in the region north of Rio de Janeiro.
Cemeteries in Teresopolis have been overwhelmed by the number of bodies and Brazilian media reported that residents in isolated areas have been forced to bury victims themselves.
Mortuary officials in Teresopolis, where the official death toll is 238, are using two refrigerated fish trucks to hold dozens of bodies that have still not been identified.
Many residents fear their relatives are still buried under the surge of water, mud and rocks that tore a path of destruction through some villages on the outskirts of the town, suggesting the death toll could rise sharply. Authorities have not given estimates on the number of missing people.
Wemerly Moraes, 37, was waiting with his wife outside the morgue on Saturday morning to identify a body that could be the missing two-year-old son of his sister, whose body has already been buried.
"This happened on Wednesday morning. When I went there on Thursday, there was still no-one working to find victims," the 37-year-old builder said. "Maybe then he was still alive."
Up to half the victims of the disaster are feared to be children, charity Save the Children said.
"WITHOUT WORDS"
Gardener Odair da Silva told Globo television that he had to dig out the bodies of his father and stepmother from the wreckage of their home near Nova Friburgo town, where at least 247 people died. He left their corpses on the side of a road.
"I asked firefighters for help but they aren't giving much priority to helping people," he said.
The extent of the damage has posed a challenge for Brazil's new President Dilma Rousseff and exposed major flaws in emergency planning and disaster prevention in a country that aspires to attain developed-nation status in coming years.
Rousseff visited the region on Thursday and pledged a swift relief effort that has yet to pan out in some of the hardest-hit areas, though anger has so far been mostly directed at state and local authorities. The federal government has earmarked 780 million reais in emergency aid and donations were starting to pour in from around the country.
The torrent of earth and water swept like a tsunami through mostly poor communities, smashing houses and killing whole families as they slept. Some corpses in Teresopolis were found several kilometres away from their houses.
Emergency teams are still struggling to reach some areas and have had to dig through the rubble with their hands because vehicles and heavy equipment could not get through. Steady rainfall is further hampering rescuers.
Jorge Alfonso, a 42-year-old cook, said he lost 14 relatives when a mudslide virtually wiped out the village of Campo Grande, including his mother, two sisters, a brother and two adult sons. So far, only six of the bodies have been found.
"I'm without words," said Alfonso, who has been moving back and forth between the cemetery to bury his relatives and the mortuary to identify them ever since the disaster struck. (Editing by Vicki Allen)
Ivory Coast Unity Government Possible: UN envoy
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LONDON — Ivory Coast's Alassane Ouattara could form a unity government with incumbent Laurent Gbagbo's followers if the strongman drops his claim to the presidency, the country's UN envoy has said.
Ivory Coast UN ambassador Youssoufou Bamba, appointed by Ouattara and admitted as envoy at the UN headquarters in New York last month, urged Gbagbo to concede to Ouattara, in an interview with the BBC released Monday.
Ouattara had won the disputed election, had been recognised by the international community and was the "legitimate president", he added.
"And from there, Mr Gbagbo is not alone," Bamba, who was recently appointed to the UN by Ouattara, told the British broadcaster.
"He has followers, he has competent people in his party. Those people, we are prepared to work with them. In the framework of a wide composite cabinet."
Ouattara is recognised by the UN and most of the international community as the winner of a November 28 presidential run-off in the west African nation, but Gbagbo also claims to have won the vote and is clinging to power.
Repeated efforts by regional leaders to break the political deadlock have so far failed and Ouattara is holed up in a hotel under UN guard in Abidjan, besieged by Ivorian troops who remain loyal to Gbagbo.
The crisis has claimed at least 210 lives and led to more than 22,000 Ivorians fleeing the country amid fears of a return to civil war.
Speaking from UN headquarters in New York, Bamba said Ouattara could work with Gbagbo but insisted that the embattled strongman must concede defeat before any talks on the matter are opened.
"Yes he could work with him [Gbagbo]. Because he is an Ivorian citizen," he was cited as saying.
But he added: "What I am saying should be clear. The win by Mr Ouattara could not be put into question anymore... if Mr Gbagbo accepts that, we could negotiate. Otherwise, I could not understand how it could be otherwise."
If Gbagbo gave up his claim to power, that would be "the starting point" for talks, said the envoy.
"I think from there, everything is open. It?s on the table. But first of all Mr Gbagbo should step down," he added.
Gbagbo and his supporters are becoming increasingly isolated as international powers ramp up pressure on the strongman to step aside.
This was highlighted last week when Gbagbo ordered the expulsion of the Canadian and British envoys -- only to be told that neither London and nor Ottawa recognised the legitimacy of his actions.
Ouattara is protected at the besieged Golf Hotel in Abidjan by around 800 UN peacekeepers as well as the ex-rebel New Forces allied with his camp since troops shot dead several of his supporters on December 16.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo was the latest regional figure to attempt to mediate the crisis. He left Ivory Coast Monday after two days trying to find a way through the deadlock.
West African bloc ECOWAS has said it could use force to get rid of Gbagbo if talks fail.
November's election was supposed to end a decade of unrest that has split the country between north and south, but has instead descended into a tense stand-off.
Obasanjo Leaves Ivory Coast : Gbagbo Stays Put
The Associated Press
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has left Ivory Coast after he tried to persuade sitting president Laurent Gbagbo to step down peacefully.
The staff of the luxury hotel where Obasanjo was staying and a member of his security detail confirmed that Obasanjo had left early Monday for Nigeria.
Gbagbo has stubbornly refused to step down even though results issued by the electoral commission and certified by the United Nations showed he lost to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara by a near 9-point margin.
Obasanjo shuttled between the two men, seeing each once on Saturday night following his arrival, and twice on Sunday. The purpose of the visit was to exhaust the diplomatic options before a military intervention is considered.
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