"Dominique Strauss-Kahn questioned by French police; Strauss-Kahn not target of inquiry" by Greg Keller | Associated Press, February 22, 2012
PARIS — French police questioned former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn all day yesterday as part of an investigation into a suspected hotel prostitution ring....
Police are investigating a suspected prostitution ring in France and neighboring Belgium that has implicated police and other officials. They have questioned prostitutes who said they had sex with Strauss-Kahn during 2010 and 2011 at a luxury hotel in Paris, a restaurant in the French capital, and also in Washington, D.C....
Strauss-Kahn lived in the US capital while he was head of the IMF, before resigning his position in May after he was charged by New York police with making a hotel maid perform oral sex. The charges were later dropped.
Related: Sexy Strauss-Kahn
Sickening would be more like it.
Two men with ties to Strauss-Kahn are being investigated for allegedly organizing a prostitution ring and possible misuse of corporate funds.
Strauss-Kahn’s name surfaced in the investigation last fall and his lawyer has asked that his client be allowed to tell his side of the story. One of Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers has said his client never knew that the women at orgies he attended were prostitutes.
“He could easily not have known, because as you can imagine, at these kinds of parties you’re not always dressed, and I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman,’’ Henri Leclerc told French radio Europe 1 in December.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, has been married for two decades to journalist Anne Sinclair.
How can anyone respect that woman?
French newspapers have dubbed the investigation “The Carlton Affair’’ after the name of the expensive Lille hotel where some of the meetings took place.
Investigators are seeking to discover whether prostitutes were paid using corporate funds from a large French construction company, Eiffage.
The case is unconnected to the attempted rape accusations in New York.
New York prosecutors dropped the case against Strauss-Kahn in August, saying the accuser had undercut her credibility by lying about her background and changing her account of her actions right after the alleged attack.
The hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, says she was truthful about the encounter and is pursuing her claims in a lawsuit.
Strauss-Kahn has said the sexual encounter was “inappropriate’’ but consensual and not violent.
In a separate case last October, French prosecutors refused to pursue an allegation by a young French writer of attempted rape by Strauss-Kahn.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said Strauss-Kahn admitted during questioning to actions amounting to sexual assault but did not send the case to trial because it happened too long ago....
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It's always the what not the when, right?
"Investigators release Strauss-Kahn; Former IMF head questioned about prostitution ring" by Greg Keller | Associated Press, February 23, 2012
PARIS - French police released former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn yesterday after holding and questioning him for nearly 30 hours about a suspected hotel prostitution ring.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, is expected to be summoned again next month by judges who will decide if there is enough evidence to press charges in the case, judicial officials said.
The marathon police questioning returned the media spotlight to the sexual dalliances of Strauss-Kahn, a onetime French presidential hopeful whose political career nosedived last spring over a New York hotel maid’s allegations that he sexually assaulted her.
Police asked Strauss-Kahn about suspicions centering on complicity in organized prostitution at hotels in Paris and the northern city of Lille, officials said. One of his lawyers acknowledged that Strauss-Kahn took part in orgies but said his client did not know that the women attending were prostitutes....
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Oh, the poor fellow! The stress has obviously ruined his good looks. Or he was up too late to, well, you know.
Hey, what's in a name?
"‘Mademoiselle’ gets boot in new French rules" Associated Press, February 23, 2012
PARIS - Forget what you learned in French class about “madame’’ and “mademoiselle.’’ The French government now says women’s marital status should not matter, at least when it comes to this country’s far-reaching bureaucracy.
A new directive from the prime minister’s office Tuesday orders officials to phase out the use of “mademoiselle’’ on administrative documents.
Until now, a woman has been required to identify herself as a married “madame’’ or an unmarried “mademoiselle’’ on everything from tax forms to voting cards. France offers no neutral option like “Ms.’’
It’s all the more strange given that French young people widely shun matrimony, and more than half of French children are born to unmarried parents.
Feminist groups have been pushing for the abolition of the “mademoiselle’’ option for years and hailed the mandate.
Still, they were wary that the move was aimed only at vote-grabbing.
“We know we are in an election campaign season. So we will be vigilant to see that it is in fact applied,’’ said Julie Muret of the group Osez le Feminisme.
Her group and a sister movement, Chiennes de garde, are lobbying candidates for the presidential elections in April and May to sign on to other pledges such as reducing the pay gap between men and women, supporting the right to abortion and birth control, and limiting sexist advertising. They also urged private companies to follow the government’s lead and always make it “madame.’’
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Also see: Le Pen backers can't stay anonymous
Soon only war propagandist sources for newspapers will be able to remain anonymous.
