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Heathrow closed all day after electrical substation fire, with some flights diverted to Shannon
The 9 at 9: Friday
Trump signs order to 'eliminate' US Department of Education
Mathieu Cugnot/AP/Press Association Images
DSK
French prosecutor drops Dominique Strauss-Kahn case
DSK, the man once tipped to be the next president of France, will not go on trial in relation to claims by a French novelist that he tried to rape her.
THE PARIS PROSECUTOR’S office has dropped its investigation into writer Tristane Banon’s claims that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her.
It is understood that prosecutors believe he acted in a manner that could qualify as sexual assault but he cannot be put on trial for such because the incident happened too long ago.
In a statement, prosecutors said, “While for lack of sufficient elements of evidence, prosecution cannot be undertaken on the charge of attempted rape, facts that could be qualified as sexual assault have been acknowledged.”
Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, Henri Leclerc, told The Associated Press that the ex-IMF chief admitted that he tried to kiss Banon without her consent and she refused.
“He admitted no assault, no violence of any kind,” he said, adding that he didn’t understand how the prosecutor could have interpreted the attempted kiss as sexual assault.
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An ongoing war-of-words has taken place between DSK, as he is called in France, and Banon since her allegations were made public.
Strauss-Kahn has called her claims “imaginary” and “slanderous”.
According to The Guardian, the novelist seems to refer to the high-profile politician as a “baboon” in her latest book.
In Le Bal des Hypocrites (The Hypocrites’ Ball), a “novelisation” of her life, she does not name DSK but tells the story of being lured to a man’s flat. Whilst in the flat, she describes having to fight the man off after he tried to put his hands in her jeans.
The book, published today, describes how her life changed after Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York, says CNN.
Meanwhile, Strauss-Kahn has not said whether he will return to politics but his allies have welcomed the end of the criminal investigation.
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Before you go to far defending them they also protested against gay/ lesbian marriage and the influx if immigrants. The more I read about the full extent of there beliefs the less support I have for them. In saying that I still have no love for Russia
Mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand there’s freedom of speech and all that sort of good stuff – then on the other hand there’s a bunch of headline-seeking knob heads. If you kick a wasps nest – expect to get stung.
Frightening a gaggle of headscarf-wearing grannies does not make a person the next Martin Luther King. The only successful part of their protest was that the authorities very stupidly overreacted, something that seems to be dawning on them, hence the backpedalling. Russia deserves better activists than these….
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