Strauss-Kahn assault charges dropped

A judge dismissed the sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn today but put the order on hold for the accuser and her lawyer to ask that a special prosecutor should be appointed.

The decision to drop the charges in a case that has attracted global attention as a cauldron of sex, violence, power and politics had been widely expected after prosecutors filed court papers in New York a day before arguing that they could not trust the word of the hotel maid accusing the French diplomat of attempted rape.