Bail set at $460K for alleged pimp in Vegas case

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge set bail Monday at $460,000 cash for a 28-year-old man who investigators allege was a Las Vegas Strip pimp who threatened and beat a woman when she tried to quit working as his prostitute — including putting a wet towel over her face and suffocating her in an experience she told police was like being "water boarded."

Arman Izadi won't post bail and intends to fight the 20 felony charges filed against him, his attorney said outside court. The charges include kidnapping, pandering, living from the earnings of a prostitute, battery, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, extortion and coercion.

"There is a wide difference between what has been charged and what is true," Izadi's attorney, Ben Nadig, said.

Izadi's mother watched in court from a motorized wheelchair as Justice of the Peace Cynthia Cruz ordered that before posting bail, Izadi would have to prove the money came from legal and legitimate sources. Izadi told Las Vegas police before his arrest that he was a casino host.

Izadi also faces sentencing May 15 in Clark County District Court in another criminal case alleging he attacked a man he had hired to film a music video.

Izadi pleaded guilty in October to a reduced charge of attempted battery with substantial bodily harm in a plea deal that would have gotten him probation.

Prosecutor Marc Schifalacqua said he'll seek to have that deal withdrawn. The state court judge who approved it already has ordered that if Izadi is freed in the pandering case, he will be held without bail pending sentencing.

Cruz also scheduled a May 20 preliminary hearing in the new case stemming from Izadi's arrest last Wednesday, but Schifalacqua said prosecutors have served notice that they may take the case to a grand jury. That could move the case to state court and make the evidence hearing moot.

Izadi could face up to life in prison if he is convicted of kidnapping, and decades in prison on other charges.

He is accused of pandering and living off the earnings of three women, and of attacking one of them in a walk-in shower.

That woman told police that for more than an hour Izadi choked her with his hands, beat her, cut on the leg with a knife and held her beneath a spray of water that he changed from scalding hot to ice cold before placing the wet towel over her face.

The woman told police she felt as if she was drowning, but that Izadi slapped her face to rouse her before she lapsed into unconsciousness.

Izadi also allegedly led the woman to an apartment balcony and threatened to throw her over the rail.

The attack stopped when she agreed to have Izadi's name tattooed on her neck, according to the police report. While at the tattoo shop, she was able to send a text message to her mother saying that he was trying to kill her, police said.

___

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Alleged 'Barefoot Bandit' to change not guilty plea

Colton Harris-Moore, also known as the "Barefoot Bandit," is expected to plead guilty to charges stemming from his 2-year run from authorities.Colton Harris-Moore pleaded not guilty to several federal charges last weekLawyer: A draft of plea agreement was being worked on last week Harris-Moore is accused of stealing boats, cars, and planes while eluding police A possible book and movie deals are in the works

(CNN) -- Colton Harris-Moore, whom authorities have dubbed the "Barefoot Bandit," will be in a Seattle courtroom Friday to change the not guilty plea he entered earlier.

The alleged "Barefoot Bandit" entered a not guilty plea during a federal court appearance June 9.

At the time, a lawyer representing him said attorneys were working on the details of a plea agreement.

Harris-Moore gained notoriety and earned his nickname for allegedly leading police on a two-year manhunt while eluding capture in stolen boats, cars and planes -- usually while barefoot.

In May, a federal judge added bank robbery to an indictment that contains several other federal charges stemming from Harris-Moore's capture in the Bahamas last year. Four of the charges are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

His attorney, John Henry Browne, told reporters a draft of a plea agreement was close to being finished last week.

The negotiations included his client paying money for restitution, Browne said. The amount would likely be about $1.3 million, Browne said.

Browne stressed that his 20-year-old client wants any money generated from a likely book or movie deals to go to the victims.

"There's a lot of interest, there's active negotiations," Browne said. "He really doesn't want publicity, but regardless of whether Colton cooperates or not, there is going to be a movie made about (him), there will be other books written about him. That's going to happen no matter what."

As the "Barefoot Bandit," Harris-Moore garnered a loyal and outspoken fan base on Facebook -- at one point amassing more than 50,000 fans.

He was arrested in July 2010 after allegedly crashing a stolen plane in the Bahamas and then trying to escape on a stolen boat. He'd been on the run from police since escaping from a Washington group home in 2008.

His trial is scheduled to begin July 11.

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Alleged spy arrested in Egypt is US law student (AP)

JERUSALEM – A man who Egyptian authorities have arrested on charges of being an Israeli spy is a 27-year-old American-Israeli law student who was doing an internship at a nonprofit organization in Cairo, a classmate said Monday.

Egypt says Ilan Grapel is a Mossad agent, and pictures of him in Israeli military uniform have been published in Egyptian papers. The semiofficial Al-Ahram daily identified him in a headline as a "Mossad officer who tried to sabotage the Egyptian revolution."

However, Will Felder, a 29-year-old law student at Emory University in Atlanta identified Grapel as a classmate originally from Queens, New York.

Grapel moved to Israel, where his grandparents live, as a young man and did his compulsory military service during the 2006 war between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

He was wounded in the fighting, Felder said, and Israeli news websites on Monday published what they said were old pictures of Grapel lying in his hospital bed.

Grapel later returned to the U.S. for law school and was in Cairo doing a legal internship with a local nonprofit organization ahead of his return to Emory for his third and final year of studies, Felder said.

"His parents became concerned because he hadn't shown up for work," Felder said, and then saw their son's name being reported as that of "a Mossad spy who had been arrested."

An acquaintance in Israel, Ziki Ud, told Israel Radio that Grapel had an avid interest in the Middle East and had studied Arabic. Ud, too, said he doubted the allegations were true.

The fact that Grapel appears to have been traveling under his real name, and that his connections to Israel would have been easy to find on the Internet, also appear to suggest it was unlikely he was a spy.

A 2006 New York Daily News story, for example, reported that Grappel had been wounded by shrapnel in fighting in south Lebanon. The same article said he studied international relations at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and moved to Israel in 2005.

The Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, citing security sources, said Grapel had recently attended protests and "incited the protesters to acts of riots and sabotage." It said he also tried to "plot discord between the people and the army." The army has controlled Egypt since the authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak was deposed in a wave of popular protests earlier this year.

Grapel was equipped with "communication devices, laptops, CDs, and flash memory," the paper reported.

Egypt, like other Arab states, has a long history of blaming internal problems on Israeli saboteurs.

Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said Egyptian authorities have yet to officially inform Israel about the arrest of an Israeli citizen on espionage charges.

___

Associated Press Writer Maggie Michael reported from Cairo.

(This version CORRECTS spelling of name to Grapel, based on information from friend.)

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Alleged spy in Egypt immigrated to Israel from U.S. (Reuters)

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An alleged Israeli spy arrested in Egypt is a U.S. immigrant to Israel who once wrote that he hoped to promote Israeli policies in the Arab world, according to information he and others posted on websites.

The man, detained Sunday in a development that could strain Israel's relations with Egypt's new leaders, was identified by the Egyptian MENA news agency as Ilan Chaim Grabel, a misspelling of his family name, Grapel.

Ex-Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former pointman in Israel's relations with Egypt, said on Israel Radio he hoped the arrest was not an attempt to "put peace into total freeze." Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 which ordinary Israelis refer to as "the cold peace."

Israel's ambassador to Cairo said Monday that Israel was looking into the case. The U.S. embassy in Cairo said it was working to confirm Grapel's identity and citizenship.

On his Facebook page, Grapel made no secret of his presence in Egypt, writing that he was "preaching at al-Azhar," an Islamic university in Cairo, and that he had studied at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The reference to al-Azhar later disappeared from the page.

A judiciary source in Egypt said the arrested man had been active in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolt against Hosni Mubarak, after the former president stepped down.

A statement issued by Egypt's public prosecutor said the suspect, ordered held for 15 days, had been sent to Egypt to recruit agents "trying to gather information and data and to monitor the events of the January 25 revolution."

Photographs of Grapel on the Facebook page, on the website of the Israel Project -- a pro-Israel group where he trained in media relations in 2008, and in the online newsletter of an organization that raises funds for Israeli soldiers, matched those in a video clip of the suspect released by Egypt.

Grapel's mother, Irene, said her son had been working for Saint Andrew's Refugee Services, a non-governmental organization, in Cairo. In a telephone interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV, she said he holds U.S. and Israeli citizenship and that she had not spoken to him since his arrest.

WOUNDED SOLDIER

Articles about Grapel's military service in Israel appeared in the New York Daily News and Israel's Haaretz newspaper in 2006. They said he had been wounded in the Lebanon war that year while serving as an Israeli paratrooper and had immigrated to Israel in 2005 from Queens, New York, at the age of 22.

"He is a very special guy. He's an Arabist," Tsiki Ood, who said he was a friend of Grapel's, told Israel Radio, describing him as an American immigrant. "He's very intelligent ... He spoke Arabic. I hope he gets out of this trouble."

After the war, Grapel spoke in the United States at fundraisers for wounded Israeli soldiers, according to the Internet newsletter of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces organization, which also cited his injury in Lebanon.

It showed him in his paratroops uniform standing next to U.S. fundraisers and Israeli diplomats at functions in Chicago and Houston in 2006.

Two years later, Grapel took part in the Israel Project's media fellows program in Jerusalem on "educating top young leaders in how to educate the press on Israel and Iran."

In a comment that appears on the Israel Project's web page about the program, Grapel said he had been impressed by an Israeli Foreign Ministry's official's briefing on conveying Israel's positions to the Arab world.

"It would be very rewarding for me if I were to be able to communicate as effectively (as the official) in such anti-Israel environments," Grapel wrote.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Cairo)

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Alleged Starbucks voyeur found dead in hotel

Eric Arthur Efaw, 44, was found dead in a hotel, days after his arrest in connection with a hidden camera in a Starbucks.Eric Efaw was found dead in a hotel room in Punta Gorda, FloridaHe was accused of placing a hidden camera in the bathroom of a StarbucksHe admitted to placing the camera in the bathroom up to 7 times Foul play is not suspected in his death

(CNN) -- A man accused of placing a hidden camera in the unisex bathroom of a Starbucks was found dead in a hotel room in Punta Gorda, Florida, on Sunday, police said.

According to preliminary investigations, foul play is not suspected.

Eric Arthur Efaw, 44, of Riverview, Florida, was arrested Wednesday after police identified him as the owner of a camera discovered in the bathroom of a Starbucks Cafe in Brandon, Florida.

The device was originally found May 31 by a Starbucks manager who removed it from under the sink of the unisex bathroom. Detectives from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reviewed the device and traced it to Efaw by getting images of his license plate after he left the camera on as he walked to his car.

Efaw was charged with misdemeanor voyeurism and released Thursday on $10,000 bond. He admitted to placing the camera in the restroom and said he had done so six to seven times in the past two months, police said.

An investigation is under way into the cause of his death.

CNN

Alleged Starbucks voyeur found dead in hotel

Eric Arthur Efaw, 33, was found dead in a hotel, days after his arrest in connection with a hidden camera in a Starbucks.Eric Efaw was found dead in a hotel room in Punta Gorda, FloridaHe was accused of placing a hidden camera in the bathroom of a StarbucksHe admitted to placing the camera in the bathroom up to 7 times Foul play is not suspected in his death

(CNN) -- A man accused of placing a hidden camera in the unisex bathroom of the Starbucks where he worked was found dead in a hotel room in Punta Gorda, Florida, on Sunday, police said.

According to preliminary investigations, foul play is not suspected.

Eric Arthur Efaw, 33, of Riverview, Florida, was arrested Wednesday after police identified him as the owner of a camera discovered in the bathroom of a Starbucks Cafe in Brandon, Florida.

The device was originally found May 31 by a Starbucks manager who removed it from under the sink of the unisex bathroom. Detectives from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reviewed the device and traced it to Efaw by getting images of his license plate after he left the camera on as he walked to his car.

Efaw had been arrested at his home without incident. He admitted to placing the camera in the restroom and said he had done so six to seven times in the past two months, police said.

An investigation is underway into the cause of his death.

CNN

Delaware police investigate alleged contact between Weiner, teen

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-New York, admitted this week to sending inappropriate tweets to women during his marriage.Police: The teen was interviewed and did not disclose any inappropriate contactSpokeswoman: According to Weiner, the contact was not indecent

(CNN) -- Delaware authorities are investigating alleged contact between a local teen and Rep. Anthony Weiner, who has been under fire after admitting to inappropriate communications with women online.

"Detectives were made aware of alleged contact between Congressman Anthony Weiner and an area teen," New Castle County police said in a statement.

"Detectives have conducted an interview with the teen and she has made no disclosure of criminal activity nor inappropriate contact by the Congressman."

Weiner spokeswoman Risa Heller, in response to a question about the Delaware teen, said in a statement, "According to Congressman Weiner, his communications with this person were neither explicit nor indecent."

The married Democratic representative from New York admitted this week that he engaged in sexually tinged communications with multiple women and lied about it.

CNN's Dana Bash and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

CNN

Alleged 'Barefoot Bandit' pleads not guilty

Colton Harris-Moore earned his nickname for allegedly leading police on a two-year manhunt while eluding capture barefoot.Colton Harris-Moore pleads not guilty to six federal charges Lawyer: A draft of plea agreement is expected soonHarris-Moore is accused of stealing boats, cars, and planes while eluding police capturePossible book and movie deals are in the works

(CNN) -- The alleged "Barefoot Bandit" entered a not guilty plea during a federal court appearance Thursday, but a lawyer representing him said attorneys were working on the details of a plea agreement.

Colton Harris-Moore gained notoriety and earned his nickname for allegedly leading police on a two-year manhunt while eluding capture in stolen boats, cars and planes -- usually while barefoot.

In May, a federal judge added bank burglary to an indictment that contains five other federal charges stemming from Harris-Moore's dramatic July 2010 capture in the Bahamas. Four of the charges are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

His attorney, John Henry Browne, told reporters a draft of a plea agreement could be finished by the end of the day Thursday.

Negotiations for a restitution amount are still under way, he said, adding that the amount will likely be about $1.3 million. Browne stressed that his 20-year-old client wants any money generated from likely book or movie deals to go to the victims.

"There's a lot of interest, there's active negotiations," Browne said. "He really doesn't want publicity, but regardless of whether Colton cooperates or not, there is going to be a movie made about (him), there will be other books written about him. That's going to happen no matter what."

Harris-Moore limped into court Thursday, but Browne noted that his client was smiling and joking. Browne said Harris-Moore is in "segregation" because officials are concerned about how he was injured. Browne attributed the limp to an injury Harris-Moore sustained during a volleyball game.

As the "Barefoot Bandit," Harris-Moore garnered a loyal and outspoken fan base on Facebook -- at one point amassing more than 50,000 fans.

He was arrested in July 2010 after allegedly crashing a stolen plane in the Bahamas and then trying to escape on a stolen boat. He'd been on the run from police since escaping from a Washington group home in 2008.

Harris-Moore's trial is scheduled to begin July 11.

CNN

Alleged Libyan rape victim 'bruised' after deportation

(CNN) -- A witness who met with Eman al-Obeidy after she was forced back to Libya from Qatar said the alleged rape victim appeared battered and bruised.

Nasha Dawaji, a U.S.-based Libyan pro-freedom activist, said she was with three key members of the National Transitional Council, the rebels' government, when they first learned that al-Obeidy was forced from Doha and arrived in Benghazi on Thursday.

Al-Obeidy had a black eye, like she had been punched, Dawaji said. She also had bruises on her legs and scratches on her arms.

The council members were upset upon seeing al-Obeidy's condition and vowed to open an investigation, Dawaji said.

Al-Obeidy grabbed the world's attention this spring when she accused Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's security forces of gang raping her.

She fled the country and was in Qatar awaiting resettlement as a refugee when she was deported early Thursday.

In the hours leading to her deportation, armed guards had been posted outside her hotel room, preventing a representative from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees from helping her, al-Obeidy said. The U.N. agency had prepared papers for her departure from Qatar to begin a new life.

Al-Obeidy said Qatari authorities then took her and her parents from the Kempinski Residences & Suites in the Qatari capital. She said she was beaten and handcuffed, then forced onto a military plane to Libya.

She also said the Qataris had taken everything from her and her parents -- including cell phones, her laptop, and money.

An official at the Qatari Embassy in Washington asked CNN to e-mail questions about the deportation, but did not respond to them. Hotel officials also could not be immediately reached.

Al-Obeidy told a journalist that officials in the National Transitional Council had pressured the Qataris to expel her. But, according to Dawaji, she did not blame the rebel group for the beating itself.

Her deportation came despite repeated requests from the U.N. refugee agency and unnamed parties, an official with the world body said.

"We tried all night to prevent her deportation," said Vincent Cochetel of the UNHCR office in Washington. He said the Qatari authorities had informed UNHCR that they had a court order that al-Obeidy's visa had expired; and they ignored UNHCR's arguments that she already had refugee status.

When rape is a tool of war

"Forcibly returning a refugee who survived gang rape not only violates international law, but is cruel and could trigger further trauma," said Bill Frelick, refugee program director at Human Rights Watch. "All eyes are now on the authorities in eastern Libya, who should allow al-Obeidy to leave the country."

Human Rights Watch called on the National Transitional Council to allow al-Obeidy to leave rebel-controlled Libya immediately. The New York-based activist group added that a rebel group spokesman had told the group that she was free to travel domestically and abroad.

Al-Obeidy received worldwide attention on March 26 when she burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli while international journalists staying there were having breakfast. She told reporters she had been taken from a checkpoint east of Tripoli and held against her will for two days while being beaten and raped by 15 men.

Psychologist: Proof of hundreds of rape cases in Libya

She later fled Libya to Tunisia with the help of two defecting Gadhafi army officers and their families. French diplomats drove her from the border and handed her off to rebel officials -- members of the Transitional National Council -- who organized her flight to Qatar.

After arriving in Qatar, al-Obeidy made public statements saying the National Transitional Council was using her. The council denied that, but her presence in Qatar appears to have become an embarrassment to the organization. Qatar's government is allied with the rebels.

Now, she and her family are in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, the hub of the rebel movement that is battling to oust Gadhafi, Libya's longtime leader.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday that the department is "very concerned" about al-Obeidy's safety and had communicated with her. He said officials were working with international organizations to make sure she is safe and finds asylum in "a third country."

CNN's Khalil Abdallah and Tim Lister and Journalist Sherif Elhelwa contributed to this report.

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New alleged al Qaeda tape slams NATO

Ayman al-Zawahiri as seen in a photo obtained March 3 when an earlier audio speech by him was posted on jidhadist forums.Audiotape reportedly is voice of Ayman al-ZawahiriHe was second in command to Osama bin LadenSpeaker blasts U.S., NATO, praises uprisings

(CNN) -- A jihadist website on Saturday posted an audio message purportedly from key al Qaeda figure Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The message, according to the website, was recorded "prior to the martyrdom of Sheikh Osama bin Laden."

The speaker talks about "winds of changes" that have occurred in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. He also mentions Yemen.

Al-Zawahiri, who was second in command under bin Laden, calls the United States leader of "crusader enemies."

"NATO is not a goodwill organization -- it is an aid to the hegemonic powers in this world," al-Zawahiri allegedly says in a portion of the tape on Libya. "They aim to end the corrupt (Moammar) Gadhafi regime but then install their own ideals. They want to steal Libya's resources and relics because of their greed and politics."

He advised Egyptians to help Libyans in their fight. "The fight in Libya today is the fight of the Muslim nation after the governments failed to protect the Libyan people from the crimes of Gadhafi."

The message also congratulated Egypt for ousting President Hosni Mubarak.

CNN could not confirm its authenticity.

Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian, was considered to be bin Laden's presumed successor, but that may not be the case.

Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces officer, has been chosen as interim leader, according to CNN contributor Peter Bergen.

Radical Islamic websites on Wednesday posted a similar Arab Spring audio message purportedly recorded by bin Laden shortly before he was killed by U.S. commandos in Pakistan May 2.

The recording, which is more than 12 minutes long and was released by al Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab, lists the speaker as bin Laden and calls him "the martyr of Islam."

The audio begins with a prayer and remarks reportedly made by bin Laden about anti-government protests and uprisings earlier this year in several African and Middle East countries.

CNN, which translated the audio, could not confirm its authenticity, either.

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Tripoli burials for alleged NATO victims

Libyan government says 11 imams were killed in the strike FridayState television widely alerts people to the funerals held SaturdayNATO says it targeted a command and control structure of the Gadhafi regime

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- A few hundred people gathered at a Tripoli cemetery Saturday to bury the alleged victims of a NATO airstrike in al-Brega a day earlier.

Eleven imams were killed Friday when the house they were staying in was struck, the Libyan government said. The imams were on a peace mission to the eastern towns of Benghazi and Ajdabiya when the strike occurred, the government said.

Among those present at the funerals Saturday was a 25-year-old sheikh who said he was a survivor of the airstrike.

He told CNN the guest house where he and 15 other imams were staying was in a residential area.

The first missile struck about 1 a.m., killing one imam, the sheikh said, who was not named for security purposes.

Two more missiles struck while rescuers were inside the house, the sheikh said, who noted that the emergency workers were among the casualties in the "flattened" residence.

The sheikh and his colleagues were asked to go to al-Brega from Sirt to do Quran readings, hold sermons and Friday prayers, and go live on state television from the port, he said. The group was asked to travel to al-Brega by the Religious Endowments Ministry to show that the city is not controlled by rebels and demonstrate that "normal" life prevails there, the sheikh said.

The young man said he is in "shock" over the loss of fellow Quran teachers who he had studied with and known for years.

He also marveled at how he was able to survive the strike, describing the crater as being about five meters deep.

NATO's military office confirmed that NATO conducted an airstrike in al-Brega on Friday but said the target was clearly identified as a command and control structure, which was being used by the Gadhafi regime to coordinate attacks against the civilian population.

"We are aware of allegations of civilian casualties in connection to this strike, and although we cannot independently confirm the validity of the claim, we regret any loss of life by innocent civilians when they occur," NATO said in a statement.

Ahmed Bani, a rebel military spokesman, denied that civilian casualties were caused by NATO strikes.

All civilians have left the al-Brega area, Bani said. The remaining population are pro-Gadhafi forces and have taken up positions in civilian neighborhoods, hiding equipment and ammunition, he said.

At the funerals Saturday, CNN counted nine coffins which the government said contained the bodies of the imams.

The date and time for the funerals was continuously announced on state TV and government text messages were sent out to cell phones alerting people. Yet the turnout was not as high as many had expected, with only a few hundred there -- many of them security forces who shot in the air with their AK-47s in a show of anger and grief during the burials.

The bodies, wrapped in green shrouds with flowers on their chests, were driven in by ambulances and then were carried by the crowds that had gathered.

Angry crowds chanted anti-NATO country slogans like "down, down Sarkozy," referring to the French president, as NATO jets flew overhead, infuriating the crowds more.

Libyan government officials took journalists to a Tripoli mosque Friday where a news conference was held by government spokesman Musa Ibrahim and a number of officials including two imams.

Ibrahim described the strike as "barbaric" and a "heinous crime."

One of the imams at the press conference called on Muslims to avenge the alleged killings.

"We will call upon the Muslims all around the world, to take revenge for our brothers who died today. Today, for every man who died we should take down 1,000 men from France, Britain, America and Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates," Sheikh Nur-aldin al-Mijrab said.

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Lawyer: IMF head charged over alleged attempted rape

Dominique Strauss-Kahn became the IMF's 10th managing director in November 2007.NEW: Police: Detectives arrest Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Sunday morning Police say Strauss-Kahn was naked when he tried to forced himself on a N.Y. hotel employeeThe hotel employee escaped, and police took Strauss-Kahn off a Paris-bound flightStrauss-Kahn did well in polls of possible French presidential candidates

New York (CNN) -- The head of the International Monetary Fund was arrested early Sunday in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a New York hotel housekeeping employee, police said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, has been charged with criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment, his attorney Benjamin Brafman said in an e-mail early Sunday.

New York Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said detectives formally arrested Strauss-Kahn at 2:15 a.m.

Police pulled Strauss-Kahn off an Air France flight destined for Paris at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday after the alleged incident, according to Browne.

He was taken into custody and brought to a Manhattan police station for questioning, Browne said.

Hours earlier, Browne said, Strauss-Kahn emerged naked when the 32-year-old hotel employee entered his room to clean it around 1 p.m. Saturday at the Sofitel hotel.

The housekeeping employee said she didn't think anyone was in the luxury $3,000-a-night suite when she entered, Browne said Sunday morning.

Browne said Strauss-Kahn ran after her down the hallway of the suite. The suite has its own foyer, hallway, living room, bathroom, conference room and bedroom.

The woman said Strauss-Kahn pulled her into a bedroom and started attacking her.

She fought him off, she told investigators, but Strauss-Kahn then dragged her into the bathroom and forced himself on her. Police said Strauss-Kahn tried to remove her underwear, but the woman got away.

The employee ran to the front desk, Browne said. Hotel staff alerted the New York Police Department.

By the time officers arrived, Strauss-Kahn had left, leaving his cell phone behind at the hotel, according to Browne.

"He left in a hurry," Browne said. "The alleged victim was taken to Roosevelt Hospital (in Manhattan) and was treated for minor injuries," Browne said.

Authorities learned the IMF head was on an outbound flight at Kennedy airport. New York police asked their counterparts at the Port Authority to hold the plane.

Two plain-clothes Port Authority police detectives boarded the aircraft "just before the door closed" on the flight, and found Strauss-Kahn seated in first class, said a law enforcement official who had been briefed on the investigation.

He "offered no resistance" when he was led off the plane, after which he was turned over to New York police, the official said.

The hotel is cooperating with authorities, said John Sheehan, the hotel's director of safety and security.

"We're taking this matter extremely serious, as it's developing," Sheehan said.

A former French finance minister, national legislator and economics professor in Paris, Strauss-Kahn became the IMF's 10th managing director in November 2007. He is also chairman of the IMF executive board.

While Strauss-Kahn hadn't officially entered the race, recent French opinion polls showed him leading prospective Socialist Party presidential candidates.

The surveys suggested he could pose a challenge to incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 election.

The IMF, based in Washington, is a major world player in economic inequalities and crises.

Strauss-Kahn became embroiled in controversy soon after joining the IMF, amid reports -- which he later acknowledged -- that he'd had an improper relationship with a female employee. The physical relationship was consensual, an independent inquiry found.

The world body's executive board concluded in October 2008 that "there was no harassment, favoritism or any other abuse of authority by the managing director."

"Nevertheless, the executive board noted that the incident was regrettable and reflected a serious error of judgment on the part of the managing director, as he has acknowledged and for which he has apologized," the IMF said in a statement at the time.

Strauss-Kahn also issued a statement following the closing of the investigation, noting that he'd "apologized for it to the (board of directors), to the staff of the IMF and to my family," as well as "the staff member."

"I agree with the board that the personal behavior of the managing director sets an important tone for the institution and I am committed, going forward, to uphold the high standards that are expected of this position," he said in the statement.

CNN's Miguel Susana, Rick Martin and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.

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Imams arrested, alleged Taliban links

Hafiz Khan and two sons arrestedHis daughter, grandson and one other person is wantedThey are charged with providing support to a terrorist organization

Miami (CNN) -- Two South Florida imams and a third family member were arrested Saturday on charges of providing support to the Pakistani Taliban, the Justice Department said.

In addition, three others in Pakistan were also indicted on the same charges.

FBI agents arrested Hafiz Khan and his son Izhar Khan in South Florida, the department said. They are expected to make their initial court appearance in federal court on Monday.

Another of Hafiz Khan's sons, Irfan Khan, was arrested in Los Angeles and will appear in court there.

Also charged are three Pakistani residents: Ali Rehman, Alam Zeb, and Amina Khan. Amina Khan is Hafiz Khan's daughter, and Zeb is his grandson.

The four-count indictment alleges that all six defendants conspired to provide material support to a conspiracy to kill, injure and kidnap people abroad, and that they provided support to the Pakistani Taliban.

Hafiz Khan is the imam at Flagler Mosque in Miami. Izhar Khan, is an imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate, Florida.

"Despite being an imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, as today's charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming," U.S. Attorney Wilfredo A. Ferrer said. "But for law enforcement intervention, these defendants would have continued to transfer funds to Pakistan to finance the Pakistani Taliban, including its purchase of guns."

The indictment describes a number of occasions where Hafiz Khan transferred money to Pakistan, and where money was withdrawn once there.

"Khan solicited and distributed funds for the Pakistani Taliban, both personally and on behalf of others, and worked with the co-defendants and others to support the Pakistani Taliban's jihad," the indictment states.

The court documents also list several conversations between Hafiz Khan and the other defendants where he calls for attacks against the Pakistani government and inquires whether money had been delivered to the Pakistani Taliban.

The elder Khan also built a madrassa in Pakistan's Swat Valley that provided shelter for the terrorist group, the indictment states.

The Pakistani Taliban represent a confederation of Taliban groups in northwestern Pakistan, where they are based, said Bill Roggio, military-affairs analyst who is managing editor of The Long War Journal.

Those fighters attack targets in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.

The group, which is headquartered in Quetta, is different from the Afghan Taliban, which has been focused on re-establishing the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan.

Both groups swear allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and have close ties to al Qaeda, he said.

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Alleged rape victim Eman al-Obeidy flees Libya

(CNN) -- Eman al-Obeidy, who garnered worldwide attention for her vocal rape allegations against the regime of Moammar Gadhafi, says she has fled Libya, fearing for her safety.

Al-Obeidy told CNN that she crossed into Tunisia on Thursday with the help of a defecting military officer and his family.

She said she left Tripoli in a military car, wearing a head cover that hid everything except one eye.

Al-Obeidy said she entered at the Dahibah border crossing disguised "in the local manner" and was not challenged. She described the trip from Tripoli as "very tiring."

Along the road to Tunisia, the car she was in was stopped several times at check points, al-Obeidy said. The military officer would show his permit and they would be allowed to continue, she said.

Al-Obeidy said she crossed into Tunisia using a refugee document.

European diplomats drove her from the border region to Tunis, and are giving her sanctuary there while she considers her future, according to Western diplomatic sources.

She said she was afraid she was being followed and might still be in danger, adding that she hoped she could obtain protection from a western government.

"I still do not know what I am going to do. Of course I'd like to see my family," she said.

Al-Obeidy burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli on March 26 while international journalists staying there were having breakfast. She told reporters she had been taken from a checkpoint east of Tripoli and held against her will for two days while being beaten and raped by 15 men.

In an interview with CNN last month, she said she felt defeated and lived in fear that she would be punished gravely for her words.

"I usually get harassed when I have to show my Identification card to government officials somewhere and they find out who I am and that I have put complaints forward against Gadhafi's people," she said. "They humiliate me to the point where other people gather around and start saying that it is shameful to treat a Libyan woman that way."

The legal proceedings in her rape case have not gone far, she said last month. She also had not been able to go home.

CNN's Khalil Abdallah contributed to this report.

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Alleged mastermind of USS Cole bombing charged

ABC World News Tonight via AP

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri has been charged with planning and preparing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

EnlargeCloseABC World News Tonight via AP

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri has been charged with planning and preparing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was charged with the planning and preparation for the USS Cole attack that blew a hole in the warship, killing 17 sailors and wounding another 40.

The charges were referred to the Convening Authority for Military Commissions, which presides over the war crimes tribunals at the U.S. base in Cuba.

Al-Nashiri previously faced charges in the bombing, but the charges were dropped in 2009 as the administration revamped the military commission process.

Prosecutors also alleged that al-Nashiri was involved in the planning and preparation for an attack on the French civilian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Oct. 6, 2002, that killed a crewmember and caused the release of approximately 90,000 barrels of oil.

Before being transferred to the prison at Guantanamo Bay in September 2006 for the second time, Al-Nashiri spent nearly four years inside the CIA

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U.S. brings first case against alleged Somali pirate leader

An alleged Somali pirate leader has been indicted in the kidnapping and deaths of four Americans. STORY HIGHLIGHTSFour Americans died during the hijacking of a yacht in FebruaryThe purported leader of alleged pirates was arrested in Somalia on April 4A prosecutor says the indictment marks the first U.S. prosecution of a pirate leader Washington (CNN) -- An alleged Somali pirate leader has been indicted for the takeover of the yacht Quest and the kidnapping of four Americans who subsequently were killed during the incident.

Mohammad Saaili Shibin, 50, appeared at a detention hearing in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday afternoon after the indictment against him was unsealed. He will remain in federal custody.

"Today marks the first time that the U.S. government has captured and charged an alleged pirate in a leadership role -- a hostage negotiator who operated in Somalia," said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride in a written statement. MacBride went on to say the arrest and charges against Shibin should "send a strong message to all pirates that they are not beyond the reach of the FBI, whether they board the ships or remain on-shore in Somalia."

According to the indictment, one of the alleged pirates aboard the Quest identified Shibin as the person who would negotiate the terms for the release of the four Americans. The document says Shibin did Internet research about the hostages on the Quest "to determine the amount of ransom to demand and the identity of family members of the hostages whom he could contact about the ransom."

An FBI official said Shibin was arrested in Somalia on April 4 by "host nation security." FBI agents were at the scene of the arrest, though law enforcement officials would not provide details beyond that the FBI worked with Somali forces on the ground.

Shibin and 14 co-conspirators are charged with piracy, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and possession and use of a firearm during a crime of violence. The men are scheduled to go on trial November 29 and they face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

The U.S. military and an FBI negotiator had been trying to win the safe release of the hostages aboard the Quest. The February hijacking off the coast of Oman ended when some of the pirates on the yacht allegedly shot and killed Americans Scott and Jean Adam, Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle.

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Yale probed for alleged Title IX violation

Yale under federal investigation for alleged Title IX violation From Jordana Ossad, CNN STORY HIGHLIGHTSYale is under investigation for claims school policies permitted a "sexually hostile environment"The complaint says the school has an insufficient process for addressing Title IXYale says it cannot respond to the accusations because it has not yet received the complaintThe university says, "Yale takes extremely seriously all allegations of sexual harassment" (CNN) -- Yale University is under federal investigation after a complaint was filed that claims it's policies have allowed a "sexually hostile environment" to exist on campus, officials said.

The complaint blames the prestigious university for failing to adequately respond to alleged incidents of harassment, U.S. Department of Education spokesman Jim Bradshaw quoted the complaint Friday as saying.

The school is accused of providing an insufficient grievance process for addressing the federal gender-equity law, Title IX, which allegedly resulted in "the denial of equal opportunity to education for numerous university students," he said.

Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy told CNN that the university cannot respond to the accusations because it has not yet received the formal complaint.

"We will respond fully to the investigation, and cooperate with the (Department of Education) Office of Civil Rights," Conroy said.

He added, "Yale takes extremely seriously all allegations of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, including allegations of a 'hostile environment.'"

The investigation comes on the heels of a controversial YouTube video released in October that revealed chants encouraging rape, allegedly being expressed by Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity's new recruits as they marched through the Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut.

In a statement by the board of directors of Delta Kappa Epsilon, the international fraternity said it strongly condemns the actions of the Yale chapter and acknowledges that the sentiments expressed were offensive.

The complaint also follows reports of a party in which undergraduate students were allegedly asked to strip naked.

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Woman faces charges for alleged threats to kill Wisconsin lawmakers

Budget battles in the 'Bust Belt'STORY HIGHLIGHTSShe is accused of sending threatening e-mails to 16 Wisconsin state senatorsSome of the e-mails have threats to kill the senators and their families, authorities sayThe suspect was upset over the law to limit collective bargaining, authorities saySenator: "It's hard to know how serious some of this stuff is"Read more about this story from CNN affiliate WKOW.

(CNN) -- A Wisconsin woman, apparently enraged over the new state law that limits collective bargaining for government workers, is being accused of sending e-mails to 16 Republican state senators threatening to kill them.

Katherine Windels, 26, faces four counts of using a computer to threaten, injure, or harm and creating a bomb scare, authorities said.

A criminal complaint released by the Dane County District Attorney's Office alleges that the woman from Cross Plains, Wisconsin, admitted to the threats. She said she sent the e-mails because she was angry at lawmakers who voted to limit collective bargaining for about 300,000 state workers.

Windels, according to the complaint, used two separate e-mail accounts to send e-mails to the Republican state senators including one to Sen. Robert Cowles on March 9.

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