Strauss-Kahn, wife take in the symphony: report (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, battling attempted rape charges in New York, has attended two Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Tanglewood Music Festival, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The first concert was a recital by Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider on Thursday at Tanglewood, a famed estate that hosts one of the world's premier music festivals every summer in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts and located 150 miles (225 kilometers) from Manhattan.

On Friday Strauss-Kahn was back at the venue, the Boston Symphony's summer home, for a concert with conductor Kurt Masur and cellist Lynn Harrell, the paper reported.

Strauss-Kahn had orchestra seats with his wife, the former French television journalist Anne Sinclair, who celebrated her 63rd birthday on Friday.

The pair apparently declined to talk to reporters.

The Times published a photograph of the two seated at the venue that showed Strauss-Kahn with a blue sweater casually draped over his shoulders, and Sinclair wearing a white blouse.

Earlier this month Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest, and the travel restrictions that confined him to a townhouse in New York were lifted, after US prosecutors raised concerns about the credibility of the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault.

But the charges made by the Guinean woman have not been dismissed, and Strauss-Kahn is due back in court on August 1.

View the original article here

Strauss-Kahn court hearing: live report (AFP)

1730 GMT: This ends AFP's Live Report coverage Friday on developments in the sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Here is a summary of events in the fast moving case: -- In an unscheduled hearing, New York Judge Michael Obus releases Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance and sets a new hearing for July 18. -- Obus makes his decision because Strauss-Kahn's accuser gave false information to the grand jury. The alleged victim also lied on her application to immigrate to the United States, further undermining her credibility. -- Strauss-Kahn is allowed to end his strict house arrest conditions and go where he pleases, but cannot travel abroad, as Obus retains the ex-IMF chief's passport. -- "This case was not what it appears to be," Strauss-Kahn said attorney Benjamin Brafman tells reporters outside the courthouse, predicting that his client will be exonerated. -- However the victim's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, gives a full-throated defense of his client. "The victim made mistakes, but that doesn't mean she's not a rape victim," he said. -- Thompson points to powerful physical evidence that she was sexually assaulted, including a bruised vagina, and torn shoulder ligament and ripped stockings. -- Thompson claims District Attorney Cyrus Vance is laying the foundation to dismiss the case. -- Vance speaks to reporters but takes no questions. His office is committed "to the truth and the facts" and will continue to pursue the case, he says.

1714 GMT: In a letter to Strauss-Kahn's attorneys, Vance said his office believes the alleged victim gave false information in both her asylum application to enter the United States and in her account to the grand jury about what happened immediately after the alleged assault.

1655 GMT: Thompson, the victim's attorney, claims that district attorney Vance "is too afraid to try this case" after recently losing several high-profile New York cases.

1642 GMT: After vowing to pursue the case, Vance leaves without taking questions from reporters.

1640 GMT : "Today's proceedings do not dismiss the indictment," said Vance. "Our office's committment is to the truth and the facts."

1637 GMT: District Attorney Cyrus Vance speaks to reporters.

1635 GMT: "The complainant has since admitted that this account was false and that after the incident in Suite 2806, she proceeded to clean a nearby room and then returned to Suite 2806 and began to clean that suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor," prosecutors said in court filings.

1634 GMT: Strauss-Kahn's alleged victim gave a false account in testimony to the grand jury, omitting the fact that she cleaned another room before alerting a supervisor of her claims of sexual assault, prosecutors said in court documents.

1627 GMT: .The victim said she is "going to stand in front in the cameras and tell to the world what Dominique Strauss-Kahn did," said Thompson, her lawyer.

1617 GMT: Strauss-Kahn made it back to the Manhattan home where he is staying.

1616 GMT: "We are grateful to the office of the disrict attorney for following up on this investigation and making these disclosures," Strauss-Kahn attorney William Taylor said, adding: "these disclosures reinforce our conviction that he will be exonerated."

1615 GMT: Strauss-Kahn will be exonerated, his lawyers said after a judge freed him on house arrest.

1612 GMT: The victim's credibility "is important. But you cannot discount the powerful physical evidence that was left behind in that assault," said Thompson.

1608 GMT: "The victim made mistakes, but that doesn't mean that she's not a rape victim," said Thompson.

1607 GMT: "We believe the district attorney is laying the foundation to dismiss this case," said Thompson.

1605 GMT: "Her asylum information is not completely accurate," said Thompson, saying that the victim had been raped by soldiers in Africa.

1559 GMT: News reports that the victim is linked to drugs are a lie, Thompson said.

1558 GMT: There is medical and forensic evidence supporting the victim's account that she was sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn, Thompson said.

1555 GMT: Thompson said the victim herself came forward voluntarily to talk about problems on her asylum application that are undermining her credibility.

1552 GMT: "The only defense that Dominique Strauss-Kahn has is that this sexual encounter was consensual. That is a lie," said Kenneth Thompson, attorney for the alleged victim, speaking outside the courthouse.

1549 GMT: A smiling Strauss-Kahn puts his arm around his wife's shoulder as the two leave the courthouse and walk to their car. One of his defense attorneys pats him on the back as the couple enters the car.

1543 GMT: Obus however did not return Strauss-Kahn's passport.

1542 GMT: Strauss-Kahn leaves the courtroom smiling with his wife Anne Sinclair.

1541 GMT: Obus releases Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance, sets the next hearing for July 18.

1537 GMT: Judge Michael Obus arees there are "substantial changes, but the case is not over."

1535 GMT: Prosecutors agree to ease bail conditions against Strauss-Kahn, but say they will not dismiss the case.

1533 GMT: Prosecutors agree to lift Strauss-Kahn's bail.

1529 GMT: The judge and Strauss-Kahn arrive in the courtroom to start the hearing.

1525 GMT: Strauss-Kahn's lawyers enter the courtroom.

1523 GMT: The New York Times reports that prosecutors do not believe much of the version of events told by the Guinean-born chambermaid who claimed that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted and attempted to rape her in his luxury hotel suite in Manhattan on May 14. Although there was clear evidence of a sexual encounter, they suspect she had repeatedly lied to them.

1518 GMT: Reporters are allowed to enter the courtroom in groups of seven under the strict control of security officers.

1513 GMT: The victim's lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, takes his place in the courtroom.

1510 GMT: Strauss-Kahn is wearing a dark suit, a white shirt and a sky-blue tie, and appeared serious but confident.

1509 GMT: Prosecutors agreed to free Strauss-Kahn from house arrest and return his bail money after admitting the accuser had lied repeatedly, Bloomberg TV reports.

1508 GMT: About 100 journalists packed the viewer's gallery of Room 51, on the 13th floor of the courthouse in Manhattan, while a throng of television cameras and reporters clustered outside.

1503 GMT: The unscheduled hearing, set for 1530 GMT, will likely alter Strauss-Kahn's strict bail conditions, allowing him to travel freely within the United States. His lawyers were reportedly discussing a dismissal of the felony charges.

1455 GMT: Strauss-Kahn walks into a New York court for a special hearing in his sexual assault case, amid revelations that charges against him were unravelling on doubts about his accuser's credibility. He is accompanied by his wife, journalist Anne Sinclair.

Welcome to the AFP Live Report for Friday on a surprise US court hearing on the sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

View the original article here

Exclusive: Sofitel waited hour to report crime: source (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York investigators are questioning why the Sofitel hotel in New York waited an hour to call police after International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn left the hotel in a hurry on Saturday following an alleged sexual assault of a chambermaid.

A law enforcement source told Reuters that investigators believe that the Sofitel maid entered Strauss-Kahn's penthouse suite shortly after midday.

By 12:29 p.m. or 12:30 p.m., hotel video and witness accounts show that Strauss-Kahn left the hotel without visiting the front desk to check out, and he hailed a New York "Yellow Cab" taxi. Investigators believe the maid almost immediately reported the alleged assault to several other members of the hotel staff, the source said.

The hotel's first call to a police emergency number was received at 1:32 p.m, according to official reports cited by the law enforcement source who spoke to Reuters. During the 911 call, hotel security said they wanted to report an alleged sexual assault. The first police units arrived at the hotel 13 minutes later, the source said.

There are at least two explanations for why the hotel waited an hour to phone police, the law enforcement source said.

One possibility is that the alleged victim was so upset, and her report of mistreatment so startling, that it took managers an hour before they felt comfortable alerting authorities about her claims.

An alternative explanation, which the law enforcement source said police currently believe is more plausible, is that management of the French-owned hotel were reluctant to rush to report damaging allegations against such a prominent Frenchman.

Strauss-Kahn, currently held in a grim jail at Rikers Island in New York on charges of attempted rape and sexual assault, is not only the IMF chief, but was also a front-runner for the French presidency before his arrest.

The law enforcement source said the issue is still under investigation. Officials at the Sofitel in New York were not immediately available for comment.

TIME GAP

Also still under investigation is what Strauss-Kahn did in the four-hour period between what police say appears to have been his hasty exit from the hotel and the moment when Port Authority police officers, who patrol New York's John F. Kennedy airport, boarded his Paris-bound aircraft, located Strauss-Kahn's first-class seat, and asked him to step off the plane.

In a new bail application filed with an appeal court on Wednesday, lawyers for Strauss-Kahn said their client checked out of the Sofitel at 12:28 p.m. and headed to a previously scheduled lunch "a few blocks away" at around 12:45 p.m. Police have yet to fully verify Strauss-Kahn's movements, the source told Reuters.

The law enforcement source said investigators believe that Strauss-Kahn at 3:30 p.m. phoned the Sofitel, presumably from the airport, and asked if he had left anything at the hotel.

Police at the hotel requested that Sofitel personnel ask Strauss-Kahn to tell them where he was and to tell him that they had his cell phone and would bring it to him. Instead, New York Police arranged with the Port Authority to have Strauss-Kahn's plane held at the gate until detectives arrived.

At the request of New York police, Port Authority officers boarded the aircraft shortly around 4:30 p.m. and quietly asked Strauss-Kahn to disembark. Once off the plane, the IMF chief was turned over to detectives, who handcuffed him and took him in an unmarked police car to a police station in the Harlem area of Manhattan, which houses specialists who investigate alleged sex crimes.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

View the original article here

Mladic's first appearance in court: live report (AFP)

1027 GMT: Some background on Mladic's first appearance in the war crimes court in The Hague today -- Mladic's lawyer Milos Saljic had said Thursday that his client was treated for cancer two years ago while evading genocide charges.

The ex-general had also suffered three strokes and two heart attacks, the lawyer said.

Mladic's full trial is not expected to start for months, and should last several years.

1018 GMT: Bosnian Serbs have reacted with anger at seeing their former army chief Ratko Mladic appear before the UN court in The Hague, looking frail and complaining of ill health, my colleagues report from Banja Luka, the capital of the Serb-run Repulika Srpska.

"My heart breaks when I see him so old and obviously in ailing health. We should not have let this happen", Jovana Ciric, 44, waitress in a bar there says.

"I am so angry that (Mladic) had ended up in The Hague that I would rather want him to die than to get sentenced ... If he dies without a conviction, that will be our victory," says a visibly upset 55-year-old Boris, who did not give his last name, watching in a cafe.

"If there was any justice he would not even stand trial because he is so old," Bozidar, a 49-year-old technician, who also did not want to give his last name, told AFP.

1005 GMT: "I defended my people and my country, not Ratko Mladic," Mladic tells the tribunal in The Hague.

"I did not kill Croats as Croats, I was just defending my country."

0948 GMT: Widows and mothers of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys -- which forms the crux of the genocide charges -- are following proceedings in The Hague live on television in Bosnia.

"I hope God makes him burn in hell," hissed one woman, seated among the gravestones of victims buried at the Potocari memorial centre, my colleagues report from Srebrenica.

"If only we could judge him here. I would like them to bring him here and we would tear him alive into little pieces," added Hanifa Djogaz, glaring at the footage.

0939 GMT: Mladic insists to the war crimes court that he was "just defending my country".

0924 GMT: "I would like to read and receive these obnoxious charges against me. I want to read it with my lawyers," Mladic says on his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

"I need more than a month for these monstrous words that I have never heard of," the ex-general said of the claims, telling a judge he would delay entering a plea.

Judge Alphons Orie, a Dutch national, has set July 4 as the date for Mladic's next appearance, by when he will be required to enter pleas on the 11 charges against him.

Failing to do so, an automatic not-guilty plea will be entered on his behalf.

0916 GMT: More on Mladic's next appearance before the UN court -- the wartime Bosnian Serb army chief will appear again on July 4, when he will be required to enter a plea to genocide and war crimes charges, the judge says.

0910 GMT: Mladic refuses to enter a plea to genocide and war crimes charges in The Hague, denouncing the allegations against him as "obnoxious".

0907 GMT: Mladic's next court appearance will be on July 4, the presiding judge tells the court.

0905 GMT: Mladic has denounced the "obnoxious" charges against him, my colleagues report from The Hague.

0900 GMT: Wartime Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic says he is a "gravely ill man" as he makes his first appearance before a UN court in The Hague after 16 years on the run from genocide charges.

"I am a gravely ill man," the man dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia" told judge Alphons Orie of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

"I was in such a poor state," he added, describing his arrival at the tribunal's detention unit in The Hague on Tuesday.

The 69-year-old is accused of masterminding the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys -- Europe's worst mass killing since World War II -- and the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 died.

View the original article here