Strauss-Kahn freed from house arrest (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – A US judge released Dominique Strauss-Kahn on his "own recognizance" Friday, but prosecutors who consented to the easing of bail restrictions did not agree to dismiss the sexual assault case against the former IMF chief.

The French politician was in a New York courtroom for a brief but extraordinary hearing that came in the wake of reports that prosecutors had grave doubts about the credibility Strauss-Kahn's accuser, and while sources suggested to US media that the case had serious problems, the judge stressed that the "case is not over."

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Maid lie sees Strauss-Kahn freed from house arrest (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed from house arrest Friday after prosecutors raised serious doubts about the credibility of the woman accusing him of sexual assault.

The sensational twist raised French opposition hopes that the sexual assault case will collapse and the Socialist party favorite will return to frontline politics, possibly even as a candidate to fight Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in 2012.

A smiling Strauss-Kahn, 62, appeared as if a large weight had been lifted off his shoulders as he left the frenzied atmosphere of the packed Manhattan courtroom, his arm affectionately draped on wife Anne Sinclair's shoulder.

Strauss-Kahn, whose $1-million bail and $5-million bond will now be returned, is free to travel anywhere he likes in the United States, though the authorities will hang onto his passport, pending possible trial.

According to the alleged victim's initial testimony to the grand jury, she fled Strauss-Kahn's luxury Manhattan hotel suite immediately after the May 14 attack and waited in the hallway before informing a supervisor.

But, prosecutors revealed Friday, the 32-year-old Guinean maid subsequently changed her story to say she actually cleaned another room and even returned to start cleaning Strauss-Kahn's suite before alerting her bosses.

"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," District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a letter sent to Strauss-Kahn's defense lawyers.

Despite shattering the credibility of the maid, Vance vowed that prosecutors would continue their investigations until they had uncovered all the facts.

"Today's proceedings did not dismiss the indictment or any of the charges against the defendant," he stressed.

Judge Michael Obus concurred, telling the court, "The case is not over, as we've heard. In the meantime there will be no rush to judgement on the case. We expect the process will go on."

But legal experts, such as CNN's Jeffrey Toobin, who admitted to being dumbfounded by the day's events, said the case was now heading in only one direction.

"It looks like this case is going to end with a dismissal of the case," Toobin said. "It's hard to imagine how there could be a trial at this point when the prosecution has essentially described its main witness as something close to a compulsive liar."

Outside the courtroom, the maid's lawyer admitted his client had made "some mistakes," but insisted the strength of the forensic evidence would prove Strauss-Kahn was guilty of a brutal sexual assault.

The lawyer, Ken Thompson, went on to relay in the most graphic detail yet the accusations against Strauss-Kahn.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn came out running out of one of those rooms naked, towards her, and he grabbed her breasts first and started to attack her. He grabbed her vagina with so much force that he bruised her vagina."

Thompson said the attack was so violent that Strauss-Kahn ripped her stockings and tore a ligament in the maid's shoulder. "That is a medical fact. She now may need surgery for the damage he caused to her shoulder," he added.

"After he finished, she got up and started to run for that door and started spitting Dominique Strauss-Kahn's semen out of her mouth in disgust all over that hotel room."

Despite his defiance, Thompson admitted fearing the district attorney's office was "laying the foundation to dismiss this case."

"Our concern is that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is too afraid to try this case. We believe that he's afraid that he's going to lose this high-profile case."

Strauss-Kahn attorney William Taylor thanked the prosecution for investigating the maid's credibility and said: "these disclosures reinforce our conviction that he will be exonerated."

Doubts over the maid's credibility mark a stunning reversal in the case that has upended politics in France and prompted a change in leadership at the International Monetary Fund at a time of major upheaval in the eurozone.

Word that the case might implode has raised hopes among France's opposition Socialists that a vindicated Strauss-Kahn might return to help them drive Sarkozy from office in next year's elections.

"It's a thunderbolt -- but in the opposite direction this time," said Socialist former prime minister Lionel Jospin.

Strauss-Kahn, who resigned from his high-profile post at the world's crisis lender on May 18 to fight the charges, was ordered to return to court for his next scheduled hearing, on July 18.

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Joy as French reporters freed in Afghanistan (AFP)

PARIS (AFP) – Two French television journalists kidnapped in Afghanistan were freed Wednesday after spending 18 long months as prisoners of the Taliban.

Cameraman Stephane Taponier and reporter Herve Ghesquiere of state network France 3, were seized in November 2009 in the mountains of Kapisa, an unstable region east of the Afghan capital Kabul.

A French embassy official told AFP from Kabul they were "surprisingly well, both physically and mentally".

The two were expected at Villacoublay air base outside Paris on Thursday at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) to be reunited with their families.

"Obviously, I'll be there to welcome them," said Ghesquiere's overjoyed partner Beatrice Coulon.

"It's a shock. Hearing about it like this, it's hard to talk," added Taponier's brother Stephane.

"It's wonderful," declared Taponier's mother Arlette. "I know that they're free, I don't know much else," she told AFP after being given the news by President Nicolas Sarkozy's office.

"For the past few hours, our two hostages in Afghanistan have been in the hands of French forces at the base in Tagab," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament to a chorus of cheers.

"Our two hostages are in good health and in a few hours they will be on French soil," he said, paying tribute to French forces and agents serving in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led coalition.

France has nearly 4,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban, alongside a much larger US force and contingents from European allies and Canada.

In a statement, Sarkozy's office said: "The president is delighted at the liberation of our two compatriots, Stephane Taponier and Herve Ghesquiere, as well as their interpreter Reza Din."

The abduction had been claimed by the Taliban, the hardline Islamist group that ruled Afghanistan until a US-led invasion in 2001, now in revolt against the Kabul government. The guerrillas accused the journalists of spying.

In January, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened France in an audio tape message and said that the journalists' release would depend on France withdrawing soldiers from Afghanistan.

Bin Laden was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan last month, and Sarkozy announced last week that "several hundred" French troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan before the end of the year.

There was no immediate word, however, on why the kidnappers had decided to release the men and whether France had many any concessions.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe insisted that France does not pay ransom for hostages.

Juppe said Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai had helped Paris secure the return of Taponier and Ghesquiere.

"They were freed this afternoon and they've reached the French embassy. They are in good health, they'll be back on French soil overnight and will come to Paris tomorrow," he said in a briefing at the ministry.

Juppe also sought to clear up confusion over the fate of two Afghan helpers captured with the French crew when they were ambushed on a road east of Kabul while covering the guerrilla war being fought in the region.

"The two other helpers were freed some time ago, but this was not made public," Juppe explained, citing the need for secrecy in resolving hostage situations.

The pair's release brought relief to French media colleagues, some of whom shed tears of joy when they heard the news at a pre-planned vigil held in Paris to draw attention to their plight.

"We congratulate the journalists themselves as well as the French government and the French nation," Siamak Heravi, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, told AFP in Kabul. "This is an achievement ... we welcome their release."

Council of Europe chief Thorbjorn Jagland was "relieved" to learn that the two journalists had been released, his spokesman Daniel Holtgan said.

"Journalists have a dangerous job and sometimes risk their lives to find the truth," he told AFP.

French officials used the occasion of the pair's freeing to appeal for the release of other French hostages still thought to be held by illegal armed groups around the world.

A French agent from the DGSE foreign intelligence service identified by the pseudonym Denis Allex has been held in Somalia by Islamist militants since he was kidnapped from his Mogadishu hotel in July 2009.

Four French expatriates working for the nuclear firm Areva and one of its subcontractors have been held hostage in the Sahara by Al-Qaeda's north African affiliate AQIM since September 2010. A female hostage was released.

Three French aid workers, two women and a man were kidnapped last month in Yemen's lawless Hadramut province.

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U.S. soldier charged with Afghan murder freed from brig (Reuters)

By Laura L. Myers Laura L. Myers – Sat Jun 11, 1:54 am ET

SEATTLE (Reuters) – One of five U.S. soldiers accused of killing Afghan civilians in cold blood was freed on Friday from a year of pretrial detention and an Army major has recommended that the current charge of premeditated murder be reduced to manslaughter, the soldier's lawyer said.

The release of Private Andrew Holmes came weeks after an Army judge ordered fact-finding proceedings reopened and granted a defense request for a new evidentiary hearing in the case, which was referred in January for court-martial.

Major Michael Liles, the investigating officer who presided over the new hearing last month, concluded that military prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to prove the murder charge, for which Holmes faced a life sentence if convicted.

Instead, Liles urged that Holmes be charged with the lesser offense of manslaughter stemming from the death of a young, unarmed Afghan villager. Under the military code of justice, manslaughter is punishable by a prison term of up to 15 years.

Ultimately, the decision to accept or reject Liles' recommendation rests with the top two commanders at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, the home installation for Holmes' Army unit.

Liles' report was issued June 7 and furnished on Friday to Holmes' civilian lawyer, Dan Conway, who provided it to Reuters. Conway said the recommendation "reenergizes us."

Holmes is the youngest of five members of an infantry unit formerly called the 5th Stryker Brigade charged with murder in connection with three Afghan civilian slayings investigators say were staged to look like legitimate combat casualties.

One of the other soldiers, Jeremy Morlock, was sentenced to 24 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and agreed to testify against his co-defendants.

Another of the accused, Michael Wagnon, was released in April from pretrial confinement, and two others remain in detention -- Adam Winfield and the alleged "kill team" ringleader, Calvin Gibbs.

Holmes, who is from Boise, Idaho, remains restricted to Washington state and is required to wear an electronic monitor on his ankle, Army spokesman Christopher Ophardt said.

He said Army commanders let Holmes out of detention after deciding "he is no longer a flight risk or will conduct serious misconduct in society." He immediately returned to his unit for administrative duty, Ophardt said.

Family members said in a statement on Friday that Holmes had been incarcerated since returning to duty in Afghanistan from a home leave in May of 2010, and expressed hope that his release from the brig marked a turning point in his favor.

"We are guardedly optimistic that this may also be the first step taken toward a larger, more definitive release from custody and dismissal of charges."

The investigation into the incidents involving Holmes and the four Stryker troops, which began as a probe of hashish use by soldiers, has grown into the most serious prosecution of alleged atrocities by the U.S. military during 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

Holmes faces a single count of murder stemming from the death of a 15-year-old Afghan boy in January 2010.

Both he and Morlock appear in photos published in March showing them, posed separately, crouched over the bloodied, prone corpse of the Afghan youth, holding his head up for the camera by the hair.

At his first evidential hearing last year, Holmes professed his innocence to the presiding officer, declaring, "I want to tell you, soldier to soldier, that I did not commit murder."

Liles said that photos of the victim's body presented as defense evidence last month showed the "lack of bullet pattern that would be consistent with" the type of machine-gun Holmes was carrying at the time. Holmes has admitted firing his weapon on orders from Morlock but that he intentionally missed.

A trial date of September 19 has been set, Conway said.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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