Ex-IMF chief out of jail, staying by ground zero

NEW YORK (AP) — Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn traded in his
private cell at Rikers Island for temporary housing in a building within the
police department's "Ring of Steel" — a network of private and police
cameras near where the World Trade Center stood.
During his time at the 21-story Empire Building, at least one armed guard
will be watching him at all times, and he will have to wear an ankle
bracelet. His apartment's exterior doors will be outfitted with alarms and
video cameras, on orders from the judge who granted bail on charges he tried
to rape a hotel maid.
The 62-year-old former managing director of the powerful International
Monetary Fund had been behind bars since last Saturday. He has denied the
allegations.
The original plan was for Strauss-Kahn to move into a luxury residential
hotel under armed guard on Manhattan's well-to-do Upper East Side. Even
though the address was never officially released, police and media converged
on the building, the Bristol Plaza.
"Last night there was an effort by the media to invade the building,"
Strauss-Kahn attorney William Taylor said Friday. "That is why the tenants
in the building will not accept his living there." While Strauss-Kahn's
family had a lease and could have stayed, he decided to leave "out of
respect for the residents."
Late in the day, after the snag over where the banker would serve his house
arrest had been resolved, Strauss-Kahn was released from the city's Rikers
Island jail on $1 million cash bail and moved to the landmark apartment
building in a granite skyscraper, a person familiar with his housing
arrangements told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity
because the person wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
The apartment building on Broadway in Manhattan's Financial District,
several blocks from ground zero, rents two-bedroom apartments starting at
$4,250 a month, with 9-foot ceilings, bay windows and walk-in closets.
"This is intended to be temporary, meaning a few days, and in the meantime,
efforts would be made to arrange for another suitable residence," state
Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus said.
Prosecutors had argued against Strauss-Kahn's release, warning he might use
his wealth and international connections to flee to France and thwart
efforts to extradite him, like Roman Polanski, the French filmmaker whom
U.S. authorities pursued for decades after he jumped bail in a 1977 child
sex case.
Strauss-Kahn cannot leave his temporary housing at all. Once he is settled
somewhere permanent, he will be allowed to leave only for court dates,
meetings with his lawyers, doctor's appointments and weekly religious
services, and he will have to give prosecutors at last six hours' notice. No
trial date has been set.
He is accused of attacking a 32-year-old housekeeper in his $3,000-a-night
hotel suite. The West African immigrant told police he emerged naked from
the bathroom, chased her down and forced her to perform oral sex.
On Wednesday, Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director of the IMF, the
powerful organization that makes emergency loans to countries in financial
crisis.
In his resignation letter, he denied the allegations against him but said he
would quit in order to "protect this institution which I have served with
honor and devotion" and to "devote all my strength, all my time and all my
energy to proving my innocence."

Apple Is Called Poised to Offer ‘Cloud’ Music

Apple has reportedly signed contracts with labels that represent artists
like Bruce Springsteen.
Apple has entered the final stages of negotiations with the major record
labels and music publishers for a service that will allow people to upload
and store their music on the Web and listen to it on smartphones, tablets or
computers — so-called cloud-based music.

Amazon and Google introduced similar services weeks earlier. Apple's
service, though, is expected to be easier to use, and to find a ready market
in the 200 million people who have iTunes accounts.

The company has signed contracts with Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and the
Warner Music Group to license those labels' recordings for its new service.
It is still negotiating with Universal Music Group, the largest of the four
labels, but that deal could be finished as early as next week, according to
several people briefed on the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity
because the deals were private.

Analysts said Apple might announce the new service as early as next month,
when it hosts its annual developer conference in San Francisco.

Apple declined to comment, as did the record labels.

Like Amazon's Cloud Drive and Google's Music Beta, Apple's new service
will provide access to remote servers that can store digital music files and
stream them to users' computers, smartphones and other devices. But since
Amazon and Google did not get licenses from record companies, their music
programs are essentially storage systems, which require users to upload the
music they already own before they can play it, a process that can take
hours.

Having label licenses would allow Apple to design a more elaborate and
efficient system. For instance, Apple's service is expected to be able to
scan people's iTunes libraries and match their songs to a single master
collection on the company's servers, eliminating long upload times.

Apple might also introduce features like sharing songs with friends, and the
ability to listen to a song on different devices without having to connect
them first to a computer.

"For most of us who have multiple devices, it is annoying to have to tether
them to our computer every time we buy a new song," said Dave Goldberg, who
in 1994 founded Launch Media, an online music start-up that was later bought
by Yahoo.

Although Apple has nearly finished its talks with the labels, it still must
obtain licenses from music publishers, who control the copyrights for a song's underlying composition, as opposed to recordings, and who also represent
songwriters. Most of the major publishers are owned by the labels but are
operated separately, and their permission is essential to offer the more
advanced features.

In 2003 Apple opened its iTunes store, which transformed the music business,
selling more than 10 billion songs. Now the music industry is eagerly
awaiting Apple's entry into cloud-based music. The company has been
expected to release a cloud service since at least 2009, when it reportedly
spent $80 million to buy Lala, a start-up that allowed users to play music
they already owned from the Web. Shortly after the deal closed, however,
Apple shut down Lala.

Apple also built a large data center in North Carolina, which company
officials said would handle music and other services.

The exact timing of the announcement of the service may depend on when Apple
closes the publishing deals and whether the technology is ready to go.

"Apple doesn't announce anything until it is ready," said Tim Bajarin, an
analyst with Creative Strategies, adding that Apple could also wait until
next fall. "We know that the data center is online, but we don't know
whether the software components and the service pieces will be ready by next
month."

Analysts also said Apple was likely to pass on the cost of the new contracts
with the music labels and publishers to consumers by charging for the
streaming service. While some consumers may balk at having to pay extra to
listen to music they already own, many will pay for convenience, they
predicted. And the cloud music service could be somehow integrated with a
new version of MobileMe, Apple's online subscription service that offers
storage and other features. Apple is widely believed to be working on a
revamped version of MobileMe, which has long been considered a flop.

"I don't think it is something they will have to give away for free, at
least initially," said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. Mr.
Munster said the service could be bundled with MobileMe.

IMF Board Aims to Select New Leader by June 30

The International Monetary Fund said it aims to complete the selection of a
successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn by June 30.

Countries will be able to nominate candidates for the managing director's
position between May 23 and June 10, the Washington-based IMF said in a
statement today. The board will meet with all candidates if there are fewer
than four and with a short list if there are more.

The procedure "allows the selection of the next managing director to take
place in an open, merit-based, and transparent manner," said Shakour
Shaalan, the senior member of the 24- person board.

The IMF said the board's objective is to select the managing director by
consensus.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde emerged as the leading contender
to replace Strauss-Kahn, who was indicted yesterday on charges including
attempted rape, as European officials moved to maintain control over the
institution.

Officials in emerging markets including Thailand, Russia and South Africa
said the next IMF managing director should come from a developing nation
even as they failed to unite behind one candidate the way Europe coalesced
around Lagarde.