The head of the International Monetary Fund is about to face court in New York charged with attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was escorted off a Paris-bound plane just minutes before it was due to take off. Now it’s alleged he violently attacked a maid at a hotel where he was staying. 

 

US authorities are trying to ease the flood crisis in the country’s south. Floodgates have been opened in Louisiana for the first time in 40 years as the swollen Mississippi River continues to rise. It’s hoped by releasing the water it will protect key cities like New Orleans. 

 

Former boxing great Lionel Rose will be farewelled at a state funeral in Melbourne today. It will be held at Festival Hall, the venue of Rose’s first big fight. Lionel Rose was the first Indigenous boxer to win a world title. He died last week at the age of 62. 

 

And two new polls out today show voters don’t think much of the Federal Government’s budget or its plan to send asylum seekers to Malaysia. Fairfax’s Nielsen poll and News Ltd’s Newspoll both show the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott closing in on Julia Gillard as preferred Prime Minister. Both polls show the Coalition has a commanding election winning lead.