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French prosecutors say they are dropping an investigation into former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn over a "gang rape" alleged to have taken place in Washington. The woman who made the complaint has retracted her evidence, they added. Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, is still under investigation with three other men over their alleged roles in a prostitution ring. He denies the allegations.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken into custody in connection with an investigation into an alleged prostitution ring operating in France and Belgium.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to be questioned next week by police investigating an alleged prostitution ring in Lille, northern France, a police source said.

After investigating a complaint filed against former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, in which a journalist accused him of attempting to rape her in 2003, French prosecutors said there was a lack of sufficient evidence to file charges.

Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn was believed to be heading to his native France.

Cleared of sex assault charges, Dominique Strauss-Kahn could be back in France within days but may not get a hero's welcome, if sober newspaper editorials and cautious statements by his Socialist allies are anything to go by.

If the New York sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn ever goes to trial, much will doubtless be made of his accuser’s background. But what about his? Since his New York arrest, a French writer has brought a criminal complaint in Paris about an attempted rape she says she suffered at Strauss-Kahn’s hands in 2003. The New York prosecutors made an apparent allusion to her claim at Strauss-Kahn’s first court appearance in May.

A French novelist will file a complaint on Tuesday accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, her lawyer said, raising the prospect of a new sex assault investigation starting just as the U.S. case against the former International Monetary Fund chief falters.
The announcement threw Strauss-Kahn’s legal situation in his home country into question, and injected fresh uncertainty into a national debate about whether he will be able to return to his political career and enter the 2012 presidential race.

Dormant anti-Americanism has been reawakened in France, fueled by a sense that the culture of the United States has undermined fair play.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has been chosen to lead the International Monetary Fund. She will become the first female managing director of the global lending organization....