French voters have shrugged at politicians’ infidelities for decades but now some wonder if their tolerance has allowed criminal acts by one of the country’s best-known public figures to go unpunished.

The head of the International Monetary Fund was today waiting to be brought before a US court accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid.

The New York court appearance for the International Money Fund chief accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid has been delayed, his lawyer said today.

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been charged with attempting to rape a New York hotel maid, in a scandal that upends his plans to run for president of France and throws leadership of the global lender into turmoil at the height of the European debt crisis.

The leader of the International Monetary Fund, a possible candidate for president of France, was pulled off a plane in New York moments before it was to depart for Paris and arrested over sex attack allegations involving a hotel maid.

The leader of the International Monetary Fund tipped as a candidate for the French presidency was taken off a plane moments before take-off last night and questioned by police over an alleged sex attack on a hotel maid.

Clonakilty-based company, SouthWestern, has won a contract to manage reservations for Poland’s largest hotel network.

GREEN technology firm Nualight is to create 25 jobs over the next two years on foot of signing a €5 million contract with retail chain Tesco.

US and Austrian lawyers have filed a lawsuit demanding Thailand, US forecasters and the French Accor group answer accusations they failed in a duty to warn populations hit by December’s tsunami disaster, a lawyer said yesterday.

Rescuers were hoping for “individual miracles” of survival as they combed the beaches and islands of southern Thailand today for missing tourists and locals swept away by earthquake-powered tidal waves.

SOLDIERS used bulldozers yesterday to push into a strip of Thai luxury resorts destroyed by tidal waves and picked the bodies of European tourists from ruined gardens and suites as the death toll climbed to 2,000.

Soldiers used bulldozers today to push into a strip of Thai luxury resorts destroyed by tidal waves, and picked the bodies of European tourists from ruined gardens and hotel rooms.

Volunteers dragged scores of bodies from Thai beaches, inland pools and once-luxury hotels today with the prime minister saying the death toll from earthquake-powered tidal waves could pass 2,000.

Volunteers dragged scores of corpses from beaches, inland pools and once top-class hotels today with the prime minister of Thailand saying the death toll from earthquake-powered tidal waves could pass 2,000.

Tommy Barker reports from the latest hot destination for Irish cash — South Africa.