IMF replaces Strauss-Kahn after arrest
PARIS, May 15 (UPI) -- The International Monetary Fund Sunday replaced French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn as its chief after he was accused of sexual assault in New York.
The IMF named John Lipsky, the organization's first deputy managing director, acting managing director in place of Strauss-Kahn, who until his arrest was widely expected to be the Socialist candidate for president of France, The New York Times reported.
Lipsky is a former U.S. Treasury manager and a former banker at JP Morgan.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was awaiting arraignment Sunday afternoon in Manhattan, the Times said.
Lawyer Benjamin Brafman told the Times he would be representing Strauss-Kahn with William Taylor, a lawyer in Washington.
"We have not yet been able to meet with our client and we may have more to say tomorrow," Brafman told the newspaper by phone. He said Strauss-Kahn was being housed at the police department's Special Victims Unit.
Strauss-Kahn was detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport and charged early Sunday morning with sexually assaulting a maid at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan Saturday.
Brafman said in New York that Strauss-Kahn "will plead not guilty" when he appears in court late Sunday and urged France not to make a rush to judgment in the matter.
Strauss-Kahn is the current head of the International Monetary Fund and considered a front-runner to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the Socialist party in next year's election.
Officials of Sarkozy's UMP party said Strauss-Kahn's political career was over, and a leader of the far-right National Front predicted it would help fill the vacuum.
"He's definitely discredited," Marine Le Pen said Sunday on French television. "The charges mark the end of his campaign for the presidency, and will likely prompt the IMF to ask him to leave his post."
The head of the Christian Democratic party, Christine Boutin, told French television she suspected the incident had been a politically motivated set-up designed to derail Strauss-Kahn's candidacy.
Gingrich wary of sharp shift in Medicare
WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Newt Gingrich distanced himself Sunday from radical changes in Medicare and said he opposes a "blank-check" lifting of the debt ceiling.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," the former House speaker, who just announced his presidential candidacy, said: "I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. … I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare system with more choices for seniors."
He declined to endorse the voucher program proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
"I think that that is too big a jump," he said. "I think what you want to have is a system where people voluntarily migrate to better outcomes, better solutions, better options, not one where you suddenly impose. … I'm against Obamacare, which is imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change."
Gingrich opposed "an automatic, blank-check" increase in the debt ceiling.
"I would say find a formula and pass very, very short debt ceiling increases with very small amounts and take some savings that the president couldn't possibly veto," he said. "And if you had to, do a debt ceiling every three weeks. But do not give him a blank check."
Boehner warns against tax hikes for rich
WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said raising taxes on wealthy Americans to reduce the budget deficit was a bad idea that would hurt the economy.
Boehner said that while all government spending programs should be on the table and open to cuts, the Republicans remained completely opposed to tax increases.
"Everything should be on the table except raising taxes because raising taxes will hurt our economy and hurt our ability to create jobs in our country," Boehner said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Boehner took issue with the idea that the wealthy were not paying enough in taxes and proposed that upscale investors would play a key role in lowering the unemployment rate.
"The top 1 percent of wage earners in the United States pays 40 percent of the income taxes and the top 10 percent of wage earners pay 90 percent of the income taxes," he said. "The people he [President Obama] is talking about taxing are the very people that we expect to reinvest in our economy and to create jobs in our country."
Kerry warns Pakistan on rebel hideouts
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 15 (UPI) -- Sen. John Kerry, visiting Afghanistan, said Sunday Pakistan must confront suspicions it is harboring Taliban insurgents.
Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul: "Yes, there are insurgents coming across the border, yes they are operating out of North Waziristan and other areas of the sanctuaries, and yes, there is some evidence of Pakistan government knowledge of some of these activities in ways that is very disturbing."
He was flying back to Pakistan, where "that will be, without any question, one of the subjects of conversation," The Washington Post quoted him saying.
Kerry, who visited Khost and Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan, also said the death of Osama bin Laden is raising hopes for a "new phase" in the war and a solution.
He said Afghan officials tell him the Taliban have shown "heightened interest" in negotiations, and the rebels "could be a part of a different makeup of a new Afghanistan."
Meanwhile, a British Marine was killed by an improvised explosive device while searching a compound in Helmand province Sunday, and a Taliban leader and two associates were captured in Balkh province, CNN reported.
