IMF head to appear before judge Sunday to hear sexual assault charges
Update 2, 11:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), has been formally charged in New York Sunday with sexual assault, sequestering a person and attempted rape, charges filed after a maid in his New York City hotel room Saturday 14 May was taken to hospital with minor injuries, according to French newspaper Liberation.
New York police pulled him off afternoon Air France flight 23 for Paris just as the doors of the plane were closing. Paul Browne, New York Police Department spokesperson, Saturday evening told several journalists in the US that police expected to press charges soon that were “anticipated to include criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment”. The charges were reportedly filed early Sunday.
Undeclared but presumed candidate for French Socialists
Strauss-Kahn, 62, is widely expected to be the 2012 French presidential candidate for the Socialist party against President Nicolas Sarkozy after preliminaries next September. His arrest comes on the heels of attacks by French media over his high-flying lifestyle and his wife’s wealth: Anne Sinclair is a television news celebrity in France and grand-daughter of one of the 20th century’s wealthiest art merchants, Paul Rosenberg. She was born in New York but completed her studies in Paris. The couple, married in 1991, have been living in Washington, DC since 2007. They reportedly have several homes around the world.
Not the first peccadillo
The Tribune de Geneve 13 May carried a long article detailing the couple’s wealth, based on several French media reports. Anne Sinclair’s blog Sunday makes no mention of her husband’s arrest. She publicly forgave him in 2008 after he admitted to having an affair with an economist, Piroska Nagy, who worked at the IMF and was the wife of noted Argentinian economist Mario Blejer. The scandal created a furor at the IMF.
He is being held in Harlem, at a special victims unit of the NY Police Department.
His job makes him a United Nations technical expert, a position that does not give him diplomatic immunity, according to ABC News in the US. Browne told reporters that he had not said a word to police, hours after being taken into custody.
Police call maid’s report “credible”
The 32-year-old maid, whose report is called “credible” by police, told them “that she entered Strauss-Kahn’s room at the Sofitel near Manhattan’s Times Square at about 1 p.m. [13:00] Saturday and he emerged from the bedroom naked, threw her down and tried to sexually assault her, Browne said. She escaped and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police,” reports NPR.
Le Monde in France is following the story closely, with an online front page blog on the breaking news. The French newspaper notes that “DSK” is scheduled to meet this coming week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by a European Commission event in Brussels, an economic forum.
The New York Times, which broke the story, immediately put Strauss-Kahn’s presidential chances in the past tense, saying that he “was widely expected to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency”. The newspaper reported Saturday that he would be represented by his lawyer William Taylor, but first AFP and then later Libération said Taylor was unable to reach his client Saturday. The Village Voice interprets Le Figaro’s take on where all this will lead, in a Paris to New York assessment of the incident that gives more graphic, if unconfirmed, detail than most stories.
Strauss-Kahn, whom New York police describe as apparently in a hurry to leave the Sofitel, left his cell phone behind in his hotel room.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – In the third such incident in two years, a group of Swiss students have been arrested for violence while on a school trip abroad. Four young men, age 18, were arrested by police in Berlin, Germany after knocking down a couple and stealing money and a cell phone from them.
Police have not provided the name of their school in Bern.
The incident, which left the couple with minor injuries, took place Friday morning 4 February in the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood in Berlin. The 38-year-old man was thrown to the ground and the 27-year-old woman with him also fell.
Similar incidents occured in Munich in 2009 and in Rome in 2010.
An exhibition that explores the complex relationship between Adolf Hitler and German society in the 1930s and 1940s opens Friday 15 October at the German Historical Museum in Berlin, Germany. Some 600 pieces are being shown, some for the first time, with 400 photos and posters.
The exhibition’s curators have tried to show how Hitler permeated German society of the time and how society fed him and his politics. They have had to be wary of attracting the attention of neo-Nazis and of encouraging a morbid fascination with Hitler, the museum says. Public exhibition of the swastika and the Nazi salute are prohibited in Germany. The museum is exempt because it is a research institute.
Links to other sites: BBC, Bild (Ger), Stern (Ger), Times of India
A bus carrying Polish holiday-makers on their way home from Spain careened out of control on the A10 motorway south of Berlin, killing 13 people and seriously injuring 19 others. The bus drove into the column of a bridge in the morning of 26 September after colliding with a car which was entering the motorway. Police have launched an investigation and say the accident may be weather-related. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk travelled to Germany and spoke to some of the injured at the hospital.
"BERLIN"
Update 18:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Patrick Chappatte, whose political cartoons regularly appear in GenevaLunch, is commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall by inaugurating a new online product, graphic journalism, sometimes called comics journalism. A section of his Globe Cartoon web site now carries his Berlin wall story as well as illustrated reports of his recent visits to Gaza, South Ossetia and South Lebanon. His comics-style reporting has previously appeared occasionally in print.
View “Berlin” at www.graphicjournalism.net
Background: GenevaLunch interview with Patrick Chappatte, 26 December 2008
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Berlin Monday 9 November is recalling the fall of the wall that divided East from West, politically if not necessarily geographically. Thousands of tourists are in the city for celebrations and commemorative events on the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. Key figures at the time, including Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and Polish union leader Lech Walesa, are taking part in ceremonies.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Telegraph, UK and Deutsche Welle home page 9 November featuring special section on the Berlin Wall, in English
Background: Wikipedia on the Berlin Wall, Media coverage of the wall from 1961-1989 from Newseum
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Zurich Weltklasse meet promises a feast of athletics this evening. The fun starts at 18:15 with junior races, the opening ceremony will be at 19:15 and the main programme begins at 20:00. The mens’ 400 metres is at 21:00 followed by the real highlight of the evening when Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt will take on his countryman Asafa Powell. Bolt confessed to being a little tired after an amazing performance at Berlin where he won three golds and broke two of his own world records. He hinted that he might have a go at long jump in the future, but seemed to rule out a move up to 400m, which many think would be a natural distance for him.
Related: swissinfo
Berlin, Germany (GenevaLunch) – Usain Bolt matched his performance in the 100 metres with another record-smashing race in the 200 metres. He broke his own world record of 19.30 seconds by 0.11 to register a 19.19 time. He also broke his 100m record by 0.11.
He is the first athlete to hold the Olympic and World titles in both races at the same time. Bolt said afterwards that he was pleased by the time, but not with his technique in the 200m, saying that he was tired!
Details: BBC
Berlin, Germany (GenevaLunch) – Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old South African winner of the 800 metres at the World Championships in Berlin, has been asked to take a gender test. The South African Athletics Federation say that it is confident she is female, but there have been doubts based on appearance and the rapid improvement in her times.
Berlin, Germany (GenevaLunch) – Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt smashed his own world record as he won the 100 metres in 9.58 seconds. The previous best was his 9.69 winning time at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. American Tyson Gay was second in 9.71 while Jamaican Asafa Powell was third in 9.84. According to Sports Illlustrated “It was the biggest increase in the record since electronic time was introduced in 1968.”
Details: BBC, Sports Illustrated
Subtle with the Swiss flags
Expect fireworks
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland celebrates its National Day 1 August, a time when families tend to get together and the Swiss return to their “home” towns, which is not necessarily where they grew up, but the town where their family is registered.
Watch those fireworks
Expect bonfires and fireworks: some 1,700 tons of pyrotechnics are sold every year. Keep in mind the federal government’s recommendations to avoid these if you have cardiovascular or respiratory system problems because they sharply increase, for a short period, the fine dust particles in the air. And if you’re setting off fireworks, remember that they provoke serious stress for animals, Bern says, so don’t do it near them.
The annual August holiday provokes on average 250 accidents related to fireworks, and fires cause some CHF4 million in damage. Safety tips, Swiss Bureau for the Prevention of Accidents (Fre)
The bonfires are part of an old Swiss tradition, particularly in the Alps, where one village could warn another of impending attacks by lighting a bonfire, easily visible at a great distance.
Homeward bound, cheaply
The CFF rail company is offering a special “Homecoming days” deal to all Swiss to take the train for CHF15, 1 and 2 August, when they return to their place of origin, as it’s known. The deal is good between your home town and your place of residence, as they appear on a Swiss identity card or passport.
The meaning of 1 August, Switzerland’s National Day
Go back to 1291 for the source of this holiday that recalls a day in early August, over 700 years ago, when three independent republics signed a pact to protect each other. (Ed. note: if you’re feeling weak on knowledge of Swiss politics, geography, culture and history, a new board game in English will be launched 1 August, Helvetiq, offering 312 question/answer cards to make you an expert. See our GenevaLunch review of the game)
Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss president
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland is ready to revise its double tax treaty with Germany, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz told Peer Steinbrueck, the German finance minister, when the two met in Berlin Monday 22 June. Merz says the Swiss government wants to quickly implement its 13 March decision to bring Swiss tax law into line with international standards, but that Switzerland expects Germany to allow unhampered access by Swiss financial service providers to its markets and an agreement on taxation of Swiss airline employees who work in Germany, the government announced in a communiqué. Both men after the meeting played down the recent spat caused by Steinbrueck’s comments on Swiss banking secrecy.
A 22-year-old man is on trial in Berlin for murder and related charges stemming from a gas explosion that blew up his apartment building, killing his neighbour and injuring 15 people. He told the court that he had turned on the gas taps to commit suicide after he and his 17-year-old girlfriend broke up, and when she showed up to pick up her belongings she lit a cigarette, causing the explosion. Reuters
