Boys Club

French Women Say ‘Not So Fast’

Strauss-Kahn to Face New Sex Charge in Paris NPR

French journalist and novelist Tristane Banon, seen here in a 2004 file photo, has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of a 2002 sexual assault. Her lawyer says she plans to file a criminal complaint against him in Paris on on Tuesday.As officials in New York decide their next move in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case, and DSK has left the city with his wife Anne Sinclair to an undisclosed spot in the US, a French journalist and writer will file a lawsuit today, charging Dominique Strauss-Kahn with attempted rape.

David Koubbi, an attorney for Tristane Banon, told the Associated Press the complaint would relate to an alleged incident that took place when the then 22-year-old woman went to interview Strauss-Kahn in an apartment in Paris.

Anne Mansouret, the mother of Ms. Banon, said Saturday that she was “revolted” by the gleeful reaction of many men in France to the news that the case against Mr. Strauss-Kahn in New York had been compromised. After consulting with their attorney soon after the alleged assult against her daughter, Mansouret advised her daughter not to press charges, for fear of permanently damaging her career.

The pending lawsuit from Ms. Banon raised further doubts about Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s political prospects even if charges in New York are dropped. Anne Mansouret is a high-ranking member of Strauss-Kahn’s socialist party.

Following the story the NYTimes writes:

Developments in the case have stirred many emotions in France, initially spurring a new assertiveness among French women to challenge a code of silence about sexual harassment by powerful male figures. But talk among senior Socialists about the possibility of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s exoneration — even though felony charges against him have not been dropped — seemed to slow the momentum of that movement. At the same, the reversals for American prosecutors reawakened dormant anti-Americanism with a broad feeling that France had been humiliated along with Mr. Strauss-Kahn by the American justice system.

“The overwhelming fact is that there is only one victim whose life has been shattered. It’s DSK,” said writer Bernard-Henry Lévy, a close supporter of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, in a radio interview on Monday. He was referring to Mr. Strauss-Kahn by his initials.

The Gambler: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, A Psychological Profile TIME

No Runaway Bride for Monaco

What royal wedding tells us about modern marriage Independent Ireland

Nicole Coste, who Prince Albert met on a flight in France, lives on an estate with his son near Monaco.

AOC doesn’t typically follow the gossip pages but we found it astounding that even a major American TV network led a conversation about Charlene Wittstock and Prince Albert’s royal wedding with a discussion of the bride almost becoming a runaway bride days before the wedding. The networks also talked about how uphappy she looked during the ceremony.

It was well known to royal watchers (if not us) that Prince Albert already has two children out of wedlock. Mary Kenny writes that DNA tests are underway to see if Prince Albert has at least one other child out of wedlock.

That the Prince — who once worked in a New York bank under his simplified moniker of “Al Grimaldi” — has fathered two children outside of marriage has been established by DNA tests. A former air stewardess, Nicole Coste, has borne him a son, Alexandre, now six, and he has a 19-year-old (very pretty) daughter, Jazmin, by an American estate agent. And now the French magazine ‘Public’ has claimed that Albert has fathered two more children on the other side of the duvet: one is said to be an 18-month-old infant whose mother is Italian (and preparing to tell all). While other sources in France are claiming that Nicole Coste has had a second child by Albert.

Is that why she was tearful? Prince Albert’s bride ‘tried to run away THREE times’ Daily Mail

New allegations being published in numerous media suggest that the new Princess Charlene of Monaco tried to flee home to South Africa three times before her ‘arranged marriage’ to Prince Albert. Sources that we can’t confirm say that she ‘took refuge’ in her countries embassy in Paris. The story emerged in the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

The Daily Mail continues, writing that royal officials confiscated Charlene’s passport en route to Nice airport via the helicopter service that connects Monaco and France. The French newspaper says that an agreement has been reached that persuaded Charlene Wittstock to continue with the marriage.

The Irish Independent writes the same story in a new post, adding that the second escape attempt came during the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix. French newspaper Le Figaro’ also published the passport confiscation story from a direct government source in Monaco.

A palace adviser told the paper everything hinged on when any alleged love child was born. “The whole thing rests on finding out whether (any child) is over five, as Charlene and Albert have officially been together for five years,” he said.

RedTracker

Strong Women

Female Special Operators Now in Combat Military.com

Women have joined front-line combat units in some of the US military’s most specialized and cpvert missions in Afghanistan. The so-called ‘Cultural Support Teams’ are attached to Special Forces and Ranger units to interface with women and children. As we knew would be the case, military officials are saying the success of th strategy is “off the charts”.

So far, nearly 30 of the female CST Soldiers are deployed to the war zone, working in villages and towns that the commandos have cleared.

The Soldiers assigned to the Cultural Support Teams aren’t required to endure all the training of a Ranger or SF trooper, but they do have to learn advanced weapons handling and even fast-roping. Through three separate nine-day assessments so far, the Special Warfare Center and School has about a 50 percent attrition rate, officials say. Those who make it go through a six-week training course that teaches the Soldiers regional culture, intelligence gathering and small-unit combat tactics, officials say.

Maj. Gen. Bennet Sacolick, commander of the Army Special Warfare Center and School, which runs the CST program, says he won’t compromise on intellect. “I’m looking for smart kids (that would be women).”

Game, Sex and Mach: The Perils of Female Sports Advertising TIME

The fact that major television networks in the U.S. devote just 1.6% of airtime to women’s sports — down from 6.3% in 2004 — and across TV and print media, female athletics makes up, at most, 8% of overall sports coverage is a staggering change in women’s media in just a few years.

When female athletes are featured in ads, the message has little to do with competence. “Yes, these women are beautiful, but we see lots of cleavage and legs, and it’s set to music that is reminiscent of soft-core porn,” says Nicole LaVoi, associate director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sports at the University of Minnesota.