French Police Investigating Strauss-Kahn

The former IMF boss says he'll sue a French novelist for slander over her allegations that he sexually assaulted her eight years ago.

Paris police have opened an investigation into an allegation that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, sexually assaulted novelist Tristane Banon in 2003. With the sex assault charges stemming from an incident with a New York chambermaid now in limbo, the new investigation presents another hurdle for Strauss-Kahn to clear if he's at all keen on running for the French presidency next year. Banon says she had kept quiet about the 2003 incident at the behest of her mother, a Socialist party politician, but decided to pursue charges when the New York incident came to light. Banon accuses Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, of “rutting like a chimpanzee” during an interview for a book she was writing. Strauss-Kahn has threatened to counter-sue over what his lawyers consider to be slander.