IMF chief resigns, debate on successor heats up!

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By Michelle Nichols and Basil Katz | Reuters – 2 hours 13 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund, saying he needs to devote all his energy to fight charges that he sexually assaulted a hotel maid.

(For VIDEO: Strauss-Kahn photos release, click http://in.reuters.com/video/2011/05/19/strauss-kahn-photo-released?videoId=210929596&videoChannel=101)

Strauss-Kahn's arrest in New York on Saturday dashed his prospects of running for the French presidency in 2012 and has sparked debate over the 65-year-old tradition that a European is appointed as head of the Washington-based global lender.

"I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," Strauss-Kahn said in a resignation letter released by the IMF and dated May 18.

"I want to devote all my strength, all my time, and all my energy to proving my innocence."

Later on Thursday, the former French finance minister was to make his second request to be released on $1 million cash bail and placed under 24-hour house arrest until his trial on charges of attempting to rape a hotel maid, his lawyers said.

He is being held in New York's grim Rikers Island jail.

A police mug shot of Strauss-Kahn, 62, taken more than 24 hours after he was detained, showed him exhausted in a rumpled, open-neck shirt, his eyes downcast and half-closed.

The photograph is likely to fuel outrage in France over the way the man seen as a strong contender for the French presidency was paraded before the cameras in what is called a "perp walk" before he had had a chance to defend himself in court.

In a poll released in France on Wednesday, 57 percent of respondents thought the Socialist politician was definitely or probably the victim of a plot.

The woman Strauss-Kahn allegedly tried to rape, a 32-year-old widow from West Africa, testified on Wednesday before a grand jury. It will decide in secret whether there is enough evidence to formally press charges with an indictment.

WHO WILL HEAD IMF NOW?

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