Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was formally indicted Thursday, prosecutors announced. He's charged with sexually assaulting a maid in a New York hotel. Michele Norris talks to NPR's Joel Rose for the latest.
Robert Siegel talks to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Alwaleed is the biggest individual foreign investor in the U.S. The 56-year-old Saudi prince wields no political power in the house of Saud, but he is the richest man in Saudi Arabia — and the 26th richest man in the world.
With Dominique Strauss-Kahn out of the picture, the job of heading the International Monetary Fund has temporarily fallen to his No. 2 man — an American named John Lipsky.
And so it was that Lipsky found himself giving a speech in Washington on Thursday that was originally supposed to be delivered by the departed Frenchman.
"I deeply regret the circumstances that have made it necessary for me to substitute for Dominique Strauss-Kahn," he said, during the speech. Strauss-Kahn is accused of trying to rape a maid at a Manhattan hotel.
President Obama declared Thursday that the United States will promote democratic reform across the Middle East, challenging not only adversaries like Syria but also allies like Bahrain. In a speech at the State Department, Obama offered his first comprehensive response to the political uprisings that have gripped the region over the last six months. He also called for Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations over the shape of a two-state solution.
