Judge says NYT reporter must testify, limits scope (AP)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal judge ruled Friday that a New York Times reporter must testify at the trial of a former CIA officer charged with leaking classified information about Iran, but limited the scope of what the journalist could be asked about.

Prosecutors have subpoenaed Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Risen to testify at the September trial of Jeffrey Sterling, an ex-CIA officer from Missouri. Risen's lawyers had argued that the First Amendment should shield him from having to testify about his sources.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said Risen must testify at the trial. But she ruled that his testimony be limited to four topics.

Those topics are that he wrote an article or book chapter; that they are accurate; that statements referred to in Risen's newspaper article or book chapter as being made by an unnamed source were in fact made to Risen by an unnamed source; and that statements referred to as being made by an identified source were in fact made by that identified source.

The government alleges Sterling was a key source for a chapter in Risen's 2006 book "State of War," which details a botched CIA effort during the Clinton administration, dubbed Operation Merlin, to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions by secretly giving the Iranians intentionally flawed blueprints through a Russian intermediary.

"This is an important victory for the First Amendment and investigative reporters everywhere," Risen's lawyer Joel Kurtzberg said Friday evening, referring to the limits on what Risen can be asked to testify about.

Last year, Brinkema quashed a similar subpoena issued to Risen when the case was in front of a grand jury. She ruled that the government simply didn't need Risen's testimony to obtain an indictment in light of other evidence possessed by the government, including phone records showing multiple calls between Risen and Sterling.

Prosecutors had argued that Risen's First Amendment rights paled in comparison to the government's need to prosecute criminals and obtain evidence to which juries are rightfully entitled.

A spokesman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

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Anesthesia killed Vegas woman in cosmetic surgery (AP)

LAS VEGAS – A husband and wife who performed an illegal buttocks enhancement surgery that resulted in a Las Vegas woman's death are expected to plead guilty to manslaughter despite an autopsy report that shows the death was accidental.

Elena Caro, 42, died from an allergic reaction to the tumescent anesthesia commonly used in cosmetic surgery procedures, Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said Friday.

But it is unlikely that Ruben Matallana-Galvas and Carmen Torres-Sanchez would be able to successfully fight the criminal case against them because the death occurred during an illegal operation in which proper safety procedures were not followed, according to Matallana-Galvas' defense attorney, Scott Coffee. The couple will plead guilty to reduced charges when they return to court Thursday under a plea deal, he said

Matallana-Galvas knows his makeshift medical office did not have the proper tools to care for Caro, Coffee said.

"The doctor didn't take the actions that we hope he would take in light of the bad reaction," he said. "He feels terrible for what happened and he wants to take responsibility for what he did."

Matallana-Galvas and Torres-Sanchez are charged with multiple crimes for Caro's death, including second-degree murder and practicing medicine without a license. They pleaded not guilty in May and were scheduled to stand trial in February.

But prosecutors have been working to avoid trial by persuading the husband and wife to plead guilty to manslaughter and practicing without a medical license. Matallana-Galvas attempted to go along with the deal during a hearing last week. He withdrew his not guilty plea and pleaded guilty, but the agreement was dropped when Torres-Sanchez refused to plead guilty. She apparently changed her mind and is expected to take the deal at the hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Under the plea deal, Matallana-Galvas and Torres-Sanchez could each serve up to nine years, Coffee said. A lawyer representing Torres-Sanchez could not be reached for comment.

The husband and wife conducted the procedure on Caro in a temporary medical clinic in the back of a Las Vegas tile shop and were not licensed to practice medicine anywhere in the United States.

Coffee said the autopsy report did not come as a surprise.

"The case is pretty much exactly what we thought it was from the beginning, which is it's a medical procedure where no one intended to do harm to this woman whatsoever," he said.

Josh Tomsheck, a former Clark County chief deputy district attorney, said the autopsy report wouldn't bother him if he was prosecuting the case.

"It's not going to be an issue for the state," he said. "They are saying essentially that there was a felony committed and during the course of that felony the person died. It doesn't matter whether it's intentional or accidental."

Dr. Julio Garcia, a plastic surgeon in Las Vegas of 24 years, said valid medical practitioners know they might be held accountable if a patient is not treated after reacting badly to anesthesia.

"You should monitor them for at least two or three hours after the procedure," he said. "You don't want to do the procedure and leave because the patient could have an adverse reaction, like that patient did."

Tumescent anesthesia is used to make a specific part of a patient's body numb. Unlike general anesthesia, it does not put the patient to sleep.

"It decreases the pain and it decreases the bruising," said Dr. Jeffrey Roth, a Las Vegas plastic surgeon who also uses general anesthesia on patients to ensure they don't feel any pain and monitors their progress with the help of a certified anesthetist. "In other words, we are not going to do surgery in the back of a tile shop."

Caro was found roaming the streets in agony less than four hours after Matallana-Galvas and Torres-Sanchez injected her buttocks with a gel substance on April 9. She was taken to a hospital, where she died that day.

Matallana-Galvas and Torres-Sanchez allegedly cleared out their medical office after treating Caro and headed to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, where they attempted to flee to their native Colombia, according an arrest report. The husband and wife had purchased plane tickets to return to Colombia on April 22 but were trying to catch an earlier flight. They were arrested at the airport.

Matallana-Galvas told detectives that Caro walked away from his office after the procedure. He said he was a homeopathic doctor in Colombia and did not have the proper equipment to perform the buttocks procedure.

Caro was married and had a teenage daughter. A week before her death, she had received facial Botox injections from Matallana-Galvas. When no problems arose, she returned for the buttocks injection.

Botox and similar types of injections are minimally invasive but are still considered cosmetic surgery, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Roth said patients who seek cosmetic surgery need to ensure they are receiving proper care.

"The whole tragedy of this whole thing was that this poor woman went to somebody who was not licensed," Roth said. "This poor lady may have saved a few dollars, but it cost her her life."

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AWOL soldier defiantly shouts '09 suspect's name (AP)

WACO, Texas – Coolly defiant, Pfc. Naser Abdo shouted "Nidal Hasan Fort Hood 2009!" as he was led out of the courtroom Friday, an apparent homage to the suspect in the worst mass shooting ever on a U.S. military installation. He condemned the attack less than a year ago, but is now accused of trying to repeat it.

Investigators say Abdo, who cited his Muslim beliefs in requesting conscientious objector status last year, was found in a motel room three miles from Fort Hood's main gate with a handgun, an article titled "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom" and the ingredients for an explosive device, including gunpowder, shrapnel and pressure cookers. An article with that title appears in an al-Qaida magazine.

Abdo went absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., early this month after being charged with possessing child pornography.

Police and the Army say Abdo admitted plotting an attack, but in Fuhais, Jordan, his father insisted the allegations were "all lies from A to Z."

"My son loved people no matter who they are, whether Jews or Christians," Jamal Abdo said. "Naser is not the kind of a person who harbors evil for the other people, he cannot kill anyone and he could not have done any bad thing."

Jamal Abdo, 52, is a Jordanian who lived near Fort Hood in Killeen for 25 years until he was deported from the United States last year after being convicted of soliciting a minor.

His 21-year-old son was ordered held without bond Friday. He is charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device in connection with a bomb plot and has yet to enter a plea. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

It was not immediately known if he would face additional charges. "Our office will pursue federal charges where the evidence takes us," said Daryl Fields, spokesman for federal prosecutors.

In court, Abdo refused to stand when the judge entered — U.S. marshals pulled him from his seat — but he answered the judge's questions politely.

On his way out, he yelled "Iraq 2006!" and the name of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, a 14-year-old Iraqi girl who was raped that year before she and her family were killed. Five current or former U.S. soldiers went to prison, one for a life term, for their roles in that attack.

He also shouted the name of Hasan, an Army major and psychiatrist who is charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood.

Abdo's court-appointed attorney did not comment. His next hearing was set for Aug. 4.

According to court documents, Abdo told investigators he planned to construct two bombs in his motel room using gunpowder and shrapnel packed into pressure cookers and then detonate the explosives at a restaurant frequented by soldiers.

FBI Agent James E. Runkel said in an affidavit filed in federal court that police found Abdo carrying a backpack containing two clocks, wire, ammunition, a handgun and the "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom" article. Such an article was featured in an issue of Inspire, an English-language magazine produced by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based branch of the terror group.

The allegations and Abdo's defiance in court contrast with the words he used as he was petitioning for conscientious objector status. In an essay he sent to The Associated Press last year he said acts like the Fort Hood shootings "run counter to what I believe in as a Muslim."

He was born in Texas to a non-denominational Christian mother and a Muslim father. Jamal Abdo said they divorced in 1993.

Naser Abdo said he became a Muslim when he was 17. He said he enlisted thinking that Army service would not conflict with his religious beliefs, but reconsidered as he explored Islam further.

"I realized through further reflection that god did not give legitimacy to the war in Afghanistan, Iraq or any war the U.S. Army could conceivably participate in," he wrote in his conscientious objector application.

Abdo was approved as a conscientious objector this year, but that status was put on hold after he was charged in May with possessing child pornography. Abdo denied the charge before this week's arrest.

Abdo went AWOL during the July 4 weekend. FBI, police and military officials have said little about whether or how they were tracking Abdo since he left Fort Campbell.

Jamal Abdo disputed both the child pornography charges and the bomb plot allegations against his son, and said Naser was discriminated against in the Army because of his religion.

"Fellow soldiers slurred him and treated him badly. They mocked him as he prayed. They cursed him and used bad language against Islam and its prophet," he said.

"He reported these incidents, but nothing was done about it," the elder Abdo said. "Therefore he wanted to leave the Army. I always told him to be calm and to focus on his duty and he used to tell me, `Yes, Papa.'"

He said Naser never mentioned al-Qaida and that he last spoke to his son a week ago.

Abdo was arrested after a gun-store clerk told authorities he bought six pounds of smokeless gunpowder, shotgun ammunition and a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol on Tuesday — while seeming to know little about what he was buying. Killeen Police Chief Dennis Baldwin has suggested that without the tip, a terror attack could have been imminent.

Two veterans groups that supported Abdo in his bid to be a conscientious objector said they have not had direct contact with him recently.

"If any of these allegations are true, any sort of violence toward anyone goes completely against what a conscientious objector believes," said Jose Vasquez, executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Another group, Courage to Resist, said in a statement that it had removed Abdo's profile from its website. It said it has paid $800 of Abdo's legal fees in the conscientious objector case.

Vasquez provided a copy of a statement Abdo sent to his group last year that claimed soldiers often associated terror with Islam "during routine training exercises."

"Only when the military and America can disassociate Muslims from terror can we move onto a brighter future of religious collaboration and dialogue that defines America and makes me proud to be an American," Abdo wrote.

___

Associated Press writers Jamal Halaby in Fuhais, Jordan; Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tenn.; Janet Cappiello in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.

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Judge backs Lopez over home video row with ex (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A US appeal court sided with superstar Jennifer Lopez in a privacy dispute with her ex-husband over the use of the former couple's home videos.

The singer and actress, who annnounced last week that she was splitting from actor husband Marc Anthony, is seeking $10 million from her ex, Ojani Noa, and writer Ed Meyer.

Lopez says the video footage, which is not of a sexual nature, contains private information about her and her relationship with Noa, whom she married in 1997 but divorced 11 months later.

The 42-year-old, who originally sued Noa and Meyer in November 2009, alleges that the pair plan to make a movie she says is to be called "How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The J. Lo and Ojani Noa Story."

Noa and Meyer deny they are planning a tell-all movie and say it would not have the title stated in the lawsuit.

On Friday, a three-justice panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal, reversing a lower court's ruling, said Lopez can force Noa and Meyer to resolve the case by arbitration.

The lawsuit was the second Lopez filed against Noa after their divorce: in 2007 she won $545,000 and legal costs for breach of contract over a planned ghostwritten tell-all book.

The book, which was blocked from being published, reportedly recounted how Lopez had had multiple affairs, including with her current husband Marc Anthony whom she is now leaving after seven years of marriage.

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Va. police: Family of 4, friend kidnapped, robbed (AP)

HERNDON, Va. – Police are investigating a report that a family of four and a friend were kidnapped from the family's suburban Washington, D.C. apartment, robbed and left in a remote area.

Fairfax County police said a masked man on Thursday night entered a Herndon apartment through an unlocked door, implied he had a gun, and ordered a woman, her teenage son and a toddler into a back room. Police say the man tied up the teen, and then cut the family friend with a sharp object after he entered and didn't immediately comply with an order to get on the ground.

When the father entered, he too was assaulted, police said in a news release.

Authorities said the man then ordered everyone into the family sedan and demanded they drive to an ATM machine where he withdrew money. He ordered the father into the trunk and made the family friend drive to a secluded business park where all but the father were freed. Family members ran away and flagged down a passer-by who called police, and the father escaped from the trunk when he realized the man had fled.

"The family was terrified, and this appears to be random," Fairfax County police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell told The Washington Post.

Police believe robbery was the motive and are searching for the suspect.

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Iran may release detained U.S. hikers soon: lawyer (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran may release U.S. citizens detained on charges of espionage, their lawyer Masoud Shafiee told Reuters on Saturday, a day before a scheduled court session for the two coinciding with the second anniversary of their detention.

Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd were arrested by Iranian forces in July 2009 on suspicion of spying after crossing into Iran from Iraq. Shourd was freed on bail in September 2010 and returned to the United States.

Under Iran's Islamic law, espionage can be punished by execution.

"Tomorrow it will be two years since my clients were jailed ... I believe their already two years in detention will serve as their sentence," Shafiee said. "I hope it will be their last court session."

In November, Iran's judiciary announced espionage charges against the three. Their families said they were hiking and had strayed across the border accidentally. Washington says the charges are totally unfounded and they should be released.

The last hearing was scheduled for May 11 but was postponed without any explanation. Iranian authorities had previously called on Shourd to return to Tehran to stand trial alongside Fattal and Bauer.

Asked whether Shourd would appear at the session, Shafiee said the court had not demanded that she should attend. "It is one of the signs. In the previous warrants Shourd was asked to return to Iran for the trials ... but this time there is no such demand," he said.

Bauer and Fattal pleaded not guilty at a closed-door court hearing on February 6 but the lawyer said he had had no recent legal access to his clients.

"So far, no permission has been granted to my request for a private meeting with my clients," Shafiee said.

"Despite asking repeatedly, I have not met them since the last trial," he said. "I hope to have a meeting with them even a few hours before tomorrow's trial."

The United States cut diplomatic ties with Tehran after the Iranian revolution in 1979. The two countries are now embroiled in a row over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs. Tehran denies this.

Some Iranian officials and newspapers had suggested that the

Americans may be swapped with jailed Iranians in the United States. But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there were no talks between the United States and Iran on a prisoner exchange.

Iran said in 2009 it believed 11 Iranians were being held in the United States.

(Writing by Ramin Mostafavi and Parisa Hafezi; Editing by David Stamp)

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Andy Dick to stand trial on W.Va. sex abuse counts (AP)

By HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Harry R. Weber, Associated Press – Sat Jul 30, 2:11 am ET

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – A West Virginia judge ordered actor-comedian Andy Dick on Friday to stand trial on felony sexual abuse charges stemming from a nightclub incident last year.

Cabell County Circuit Judge Paul Farrell set trial for Jan. 17 and ordered the entertainer to submit to a urine test. The judge said the test was standard to determine if defendants are positive for drugs, but he also told Dick, "I suspect you may be." Farrell told Dick he would be jailed if he returned to court for a pre-trial hearing in September under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

"I understand. I've been sober," the blond-haired, bespectacled actor, wearing a dark suit and black tie, told the judge.

Prosecutor Sean Hammers said he had no objection to Dick remaining free on bail.

Dick, 45, was not asked to enter a plea. He quickly left the courtroom after the brief hearing and got into an elevator with attorney Marc Williams without speaking to reporters, who peppered Dick with questions.

The comedian is accused of grabbing a bouncer's crotch and groping and kissing a male patron earlier at a Huntington bar in January 2010. He was in town for a performance at the Funny Bone Comedy Club.

Dick has been in trouble with the law several times before.

He's been arrested in California on drug and battery charges, to which he pleaded guilty in 2008, and on charges of being drunk and disorderly in a restaurant in May of this year. A Texas man sued Dick earlier this year, claiming the comedian exposed his genitals at a Dallas performance.

Dick had a long-running stint in the 1990s on NBC's "NewsRadio." He briefly had his own program, "The Andy Dick Show," on MTV. He also has had roles in several movies, including "Dude, Where's My Car?" and "Old School."

___

Follow Harry R. Weber at http://www.facebook.com/HarryRWeberAP

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Presidential historian appears in federal court (AP)

BALTIMORE – A presidential historian charged with stealing historical documents and conspiring to take them from state archives in several states will remain in federal custody over the weekend, but a judge allowed his assistant to be released Friday.

At a hearing Monday, a judge will consider the prosecutors' recommendation that Barry Landau, 63, remain in custody. This will allow pretrial officials time to review his case and interview Landau, who appeared in the same blue-and-white-striped, button-down shirt and khakis that he wore to a bail review hearing in Baltimore Circuit Court earlier this week.

Federal prosecutor James G. Warwick said in court Friday that Landau poses a flight risk and might try to access documents that investigators haven't yet found and destroy evidence. Investigators believe that Landau has tried to tamper with witnesses, Warwick said, but he did not want to disclose details.

Prosecutors are looking at additional federal charges, including mail and wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen goods and theft of government property, Warwick said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey approved an agreement Friday that allows Landau's assistant, Jason Savedoff, 24, be released to his mother on $250,000 cash bail. Savedoff, who appeared in a yellow jumpsuit from the Baltimore jail with a slight beard, has surrendered his American and Canadian passports and will stay at an apartment in the Baltimore area.

The men were arrested July 9 after a Maryland Historical Society employee reported Savedoff took a document out of the society's Baltimore library. When police arrived, investigators found 60 documents inside a library locker Savedoff was using, including papers signed by President Abraham Lincoln worth $300,000 and presidential inaugural ball invitations and programs worth $500,000, Baltimore prosecutors have said.

Landau had signed out many of those documents, according to court documents.

The two men were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday, accused of stealing and selling historical documents that included a Benjamin Franklin letter and speeches by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They also face state theft charges.

The federal indictment charges the pair with stealing an April 1780 letter from Franklin to John Paul Jones from the New-York Historical Society in March. They are also charged with taking a set of signed inaugural addresses from the FDR presidential library in December and later selling them for $35,000.

U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein has said a nationwide investigation is continuing and encouraged anyone with information about the acquisition or sale of historical items by the two to contact the FBI. Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely called "the scope and notoriety" of the documents seized in this case "truly breathtaking."

Before his arrest, Landau appeared on TV programs and was quoted in news articles, particularly for his knowledge of White House social events and drew upon his extensive collection of souvenirs to write a coffee-table book, "The President's Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy."

The investigation included a search of the author's museum-like, New York City apartment that's lined with mementos dating back to Washington's presidency, the FBI said. Black-and-white etchings of 19th-century inaugurations hang from the walls, while a cabinet displays presidential goblets, plates and a skeleton key that purportedly fit the front door of the White House during John Adams' administration, according to a 2007 Associated Press article.

In the wake of the arrests, institutions across the country are reviewing their vulnerabilities. They often have limited money and must balance security measures against giving access to the public.

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Jeffs threatens court with Biblical repercussions (AP)

SAN ANGELO, Texas – A polygamist sect leader defending himself against sexual assault charges broke his silence Friday with a 55-minute sermon defending plural marriages as divine and later said God would visit "sickness and death" on those involved if his trial wasn't immediately stopped.

Warren Jeffs, 55, could face life in prison if he's convicted of sexually assaulting two underage girls. He has been representing himself since he fired his high-powered lawyers Thursday, but he made no opening statement and spent hours sitting alone at the defense table staring into space in silence while prosecutors made their case.

On Friday, however, the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints suddenly cried "I object!" as FBI agent John Broadway testified about seizing eight desktop computers and 120 boxes and large folders of documents from the church's remote compound in West Texas in 2008.

"There is sacred trust given to religious leadership not to be touched by government agencies," said Jeffs, who leads an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The sect's 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet who speaks for God on Earth.

Jeffs then launched into a lengthy defense of polygamy, but Walther eventually overruled his objection. She said court rules prohibited him from testifying while objecting but she let him go on at length because he hadn't offered an opening statement.

Jeffs then said he had no choice but to read a statement from God. Walther dismissed the jury and allowed him to read it.

"I, the Lord God of heaven," Jeffs read, "call upon the court to cease this open prosecution against my pure, holy way."

If the trial continues, the statement said, "I will send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal to make humbled by sickness and death."

Jeffs has frequently said the charges against him are the work of over-zealous prosecutors.

Walther responded to the statement by telling Jeffs he could not threaten the jury.

"If you call for their destruction," she said, "or in any way say that they will be injured or damaged because of their service, you will be removed from the courtroom."

During afternoon testimony from Broadway and other witnesses who detailed documents seized from the FLDS compound, Jeffs objected so much that Walther eventually had a bailiff remove his microphones.

It was a sharp contrast to his earlier silence and halting speech. When answering questions from Walther earlier in the week, Jeffs usually paused for a full minute or two and then spoke in slow, deliberate tones interrupted by long, awkward pauses. But his words flowed freely Friday.

Jeffs, who is schedule for trial on bigamy charges in October, said his church has practiced polygamy for five generations and believes it is the will of God, who is a higher power than courts, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress.

"We are not a fly-by-night religious society . . . We are a community of faith and principles and those principles are so sacred. They belong to God, not to man and the governments of man," Jeffs said. He also noted that polygamy "is not of a sudden happening, it is of a tradition in our lives. And how can we just throw it away and say `God has not spoken?'"

Jeffs said FLDS members believe adhering to God's will, as stated by prophets like himself, is the only way to achieve eternal life in "Zion," or heaven.

"We do not seek your salvation," Jeffs told Walther and jurors, who watched and listened intently but made no visible reaction to his words. The judge turned down his repeated pleas for a separate hearing on freedom of religion.

Jeffs said Texas authorities had unfairly persecuted the FLDS just because its members are different from those of mainstream religions. Women in the sect wear prairie-style dresses and keep their hair tied up in tight buns that conjure images of frontier times.

"We are derided for how we dress, how we go about our laborers in a common society," he said. "The government of the United States had no right to infringe on the religious freedom of a peaceful people."

Jeffs said the courts and society are "not understanding our religious faith, yet judging it."

At the end of his speech, lead prosecutor Eric Nichols rose and said the Supreme Court ruled in the 1890s that religious freedom does not extend to polygamy.

The FLDS made headlines nationwide in 2008, when authorities raided its compound in tiny Eldorado, about 45 miles from San Angelo, after hearing allegations that young girls were being forced into polygamist marriages. More than 400 children were seized temporarily but eventually returned to their families.

Still, Jeffs and 11 other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy.

All seven sect members prosecuted so far have been convicted and given prison terms of between six and 75 years.

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Analysis: Former prosecutors weigh in on Strauss-Kahn case (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even by the standards of a salacious and unpredictable international scandal, it was a whirlwind week in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case.

On Sunday, Strauss-Kahn's accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, 32, broke her silence and anonymity, telling the world in televised and print interviews her version of the incident with the former International Monetary Fund chief. Diallo, a hotel maid, alleges Strauss-Kahn forced her to perform oral sex on him and attempted to rape her at an upscale Manhattan hotel on May 14.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, who had been seen as a possible French president, has denied any wrongdoing.

On Tuesday, prosecutors requested and received a second postponement of the next court date in the case, originally scheduled for July 16. It is now scheduled for August 23.

On Wednesday, Diallo met with prosecutors behind closed doors for more than eight hours.

The next day, a tearful Diallo appeared before a sea of cameras in a Brooklyn church, as her attorney accused prosecutors of abandoning her.

Yet through all the dizzying developments, the case remains in limbo. Despite speculation the prosecution would collapse after significant doubts arose regarding Diallo's credibility, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. insisted the office was still investigating.

Interviews with eight former Manhattan prosecutors found agreement the case was an uphill climb, but no clear consensus on whether Vance should -- or would -- continue to prosecute Strauss-Kahn.

"Every juror has to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that she's telling the truth," said Bennett Gershman, a former Manhattan prosecutor and a law professor at Pace University. "The burden is enormous on the prosecutor. Do they want to go ahead with a case that seems so difficult?"

'TREASURE TROVE' FOR DEFENSE

Several former prosecutors said the decision to allow Diallo to speak publicly about the incident could create inconsistencies the defense would try to exploit at trial. Her credibility is already under siege after prosecutors said she lied about her past and about the immediate aftermath of the alleged attack.

"You're creating a treasure trove of material for the defense to dig into," said Jeremy Saland, a defense lawyer who worked as a prosecutor under Vance's predecessor, Robert Morgenthau.

Others have suggested that the media appearances show that Diallo's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, no longer believes the criminal case will hold up. Thompson argued on Thursday that she was forced to come forward to counter "lies" about her, including a report in the New York Post claiming she worked as a prostitute. Diallo has sued the Post for libel over that report.

The publicity could also backfire if it appears to be an effort to extract money from Strauss-Kahn to settle a potential civil lawsuit. Thompson has said she will file a civil claim soon.

Thompson's comments seemed to reflect his own uncertainty over whether the criminal case will proceed.

On Wednesday, following Diallo's meeting with prosecutors, Thompson said the discussion "went well." When questioned on Thursday about that assessment, he appeared to backtrack.

"You know, yesterday when I said it went well, I think that you read too much into that," he said in response to a reporter's question. "It was a meeting, I got out of it, I came outside. I don't know what the district attorney will do."

'PRETTY IMPRESSIVE SHOW'

But some observers say the media blitz could succeed in bringing pressure to bear on Vance's office.

"My sense is that they want to be done with it and they want to dismiss it," said one former city prosecutor who did not want to be named. "But, having said that, the victim has put on a pretty impressive show this past week."

John Moscow, the former deputy chief of the district attorney's investigations division, said the physical evidence was strongly suggestive of a forced encounter. That could be enough to overcome doubts about her credibility, Moscow said.

"Here's how I look at it: if she were run over by a car, would you still have a case?" he said. "Yes, you would. I just don't see any reason at all not to go forward."

Matthew Galluzzo, a former Manhattan sex-crimes prosecutor, said Diallo's story about being gang-raped in her home country of Guinea, which she later admitted was inaccurate, could be devastating to the case.

But Daniel Bibb, another former prosecutor, said jurors could forgive her, since she apparently told it to gain political asylum and entry into the United States.

"In the average rape case, I would say that discovery of a prior false allegation of rape is fatal to the prosecution," he said. "In this case, I'm not so sure, simply because her motives in claiming rape were not malicious."

Even if Vance goes ahead with the prosecution, former prosecutors say a conviction of Strauss-Kahn will be hard to secure.

"If what I've read and seen is accurate, it appears to me that this case will ultimately be dismissed," Saland said.

But like most of the prosecutors interviewed, Bibb warned it was impossible to assess from the outside whether the case will continue.

"I don't know what the right decision is," he said. "I don't have all the facts."

(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Noeleen Walder; Editing by Jesse Wegman and Peter Cooney)

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