Thursday 19 May 2011

IMF chief resigns




WASHINGTON: France's Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned on Thursday as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but maintained he was innocent of the sexual assault charges against him.

"It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of Managing Director of the IMF," he said in a statement.

"I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," the statement added.

Strauss-Kahn, a leading French politician, is jailed in New York awaiting a grand jury decision on whether to indict him on charges of the alleged sexual assault and attempted rape of a 32-year-old Manhattan hotel chambermaid.