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Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the hotel housekeeper who accused him of sexually assaulting her last year have quietly reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit she brought against him stemming from the case, which made international headlines.  French media reported Friday that Strauss-Kahn, 63, former head of the International Monetary Fund, would pay $6 million to Nafissatou Diallo, who accused him of attacking her at a Manhattan hotel.   The parties are scheduled to appear next week before Justice Douglas E. McKeon in State Supreme Court in the Bronx. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, was arrested in May 2011 after Ms. Diallo, an immigrant from...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn will admit he had sexual contact with the hotel chambermaid who alleges he attacked her, but insist it was consensual, his lawyers have indicated. The International Monetary Fund chief allegedly locked the maid in his suite at Manhattan's Sofitel on Saturday and forced her to give him oral sex. He was denied $1m bail and is being held at Rikers Island jail. However in a hint at what may become his main line of defence, his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said at New York criminal court: "The evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible encounter". It...

SEVERAL dozen European victims of Asia's tsunami disaster have filed a lawsuit demanding that Thai authorities, US forecasters, and a French hotel chain prove that they reacted adequately. In what is believed to be the first tsunami claim worldwide, US lawyer Edward Fagan and two other lawyers have filed the suit with a New York district court on behalf of more than 60 plaintiffs from Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The suit was filed against the Thai government, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its Tsunami Warning Centre, and the French hotel group Sofitel, said...

<p>NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - French-owned Sofitel takes precautionary measures in U.S. due to anti-French.</p> <p>French flags no longer are flying high and proud outside the Sofitel Hotel in midtown Manhattan. The French-owned hotel chain replaced them with the Stars and Stripes as a peace offering to its American guests.</p>

<p>The hotel chain took down the French flags flying in front of its 10 U.S. properties last week to avoid being stung by anti-French sentiment stemming from France's vocal opposition to war with Iraq.</p> <p>"As a mark of respect, we felt it might be nice to bring it down for some time," said Helen Lalitte, vice president of marketing for Sofitel North America.</p>

<p>The Sofitel Hotel took down its French flag, then coincidentally found a blow-up union rat on its doorstep yesterday.</p> <p>March 1, 2003 -- A French hotel chain - trying to weasel out of a backlash over Iraq - has stopped flying the nation's flag in front of two New York properties - a "cowardly" move, say the hotels' patrons.</p>

<p>The French-owned hotel chain quietly lowered the French flags flying in front of all 10 of its U.S. properties earlier this week to avoid being stung by anti-France sentiment stemming from the European country's vocal opposition to war with Iraq.</p> <p>Although the chain said it had not received any complaints, each hotel's French flag was replaced with a state or city flag.</p> <p>"As a mark of respect, we felt it might be nice to bring it down for some time," said Helen Lalitte, vice president of marketing for Sofitel North America.</p>