Half a dozen police officers in riot gear and their trademark dark blue uniforms guarded fire crew hosing down the blazing Wetherspoons bar, too few to prevent the wholesale looting of Powis Street just a stone’s throw away.

Paving stones piled in the street for workmen giving the rundown area a facelift were seized upon by the looters to stave in the windows of mobile phone shops, pawnbrokers, jewellers, electronic goods and gaming stores, clothing boutiques and designer footware stores.

Looters made off with their haul in suitcases stolen for the purpose. Others emerged from shattered store fronts with armfuls of women’s clothing or boxes of designer sports shoes.

Some balanced flatscreen televisions or gaming consoles on their heads, slowly edging down the street, more afraid of slipping on the broken glass than arrest.

Many wore hoods or masked their faces but many more made no attempt to hide their identity from a police force they knew was too stretched to intervene.

Far from being angry or edgy, the atmosphere when the looting was at its height was mostly relaxed, with many in the crowd giggling or looking on in wonder at the flames, queuing up to take photographs or shoot video of the burning stores on their mobile phones and cameras.

Prime Minister David Cameron promised to mend ‘Broken Britain’ when he came to power in May last year, but some local residents blamed his austerity policies for the violence sweeping London and other British cities.

“The people are angry,” explained Joshua, a Nigerian resident of Woolwich who has lived in Britain 38 years. But that view was not universal.

David Hill, 33, who works in the financial services sector, said: “They have burned out the places that they drink in, that’s the funny thing about it. I can understand the jewelry, that’s fair enough, but this is absolutely outrageous.”

Simon Mills, manager of a pawnbroker and jewelry firm that claims to be the oldest business in Woolwich, said he had lost goods worth upwards of 60,000 pounds ($98,000).

“I just don’t know if we’ll be able to bounce back from it. I don’t think terrorists could have done a better job than what they have done here,” he said. “But when you look over the road at Wetherspoons you think it could have been worse.”

Some store owners said they had closed early on Monday due to rumors that Woolwich, a down-at-heel district on the southeastern banks of the Thames, would be next to “kick off.”

“To be honest, people knew it was coming, so if everybody knew it was coming, why did they (police) leave it so late to disperse people?” asked shop manager Grace, 26.

Mills said he had watched the looting unfold on YouTube postings and said the military should have been deployed: “I think the army should have been called in if they knew what was going to happen. They should have sealed off the area.”

According to bystanders, the looting was organised on Twitter and the instant messaging network of a popular mobile phone network. However, many accounts smacked of hearsay.

Nigel Fletcher, deputy leader of the borough’s opposition Conservative Party defended police and brushed off suggestions that ‘Broken Britain’ had somehow spoken out against cuts in public services through the overnight orgy of looting.

“What has happened here overnight has destroyed jobs,” he said standing outside a row of stores with their windows smashed in. “Those people are out of work, so to try and suggest that it’s in some way a protest, as some people are calling it, or a response to the economic situation is frankly ludicrous.” ($1 = 0.613 British Pounds)

(Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Half a dozen police officers in riot gear and their trademark dark blue uniforms guarded fire crew hosing down the blazing Wetherspoons bar, too few to prevent the wholesale looting of Powis Street just a stone’s throw away.

Paving stones piled in the street for workmen giving the rundown area a facelift were seized upon by the looters to stave in the windows of mobile phone shops, pawnbrokers, jewellers, electronic goods and gaming stores, clothing boutiques and designer footware stores.

Looters made off with their haul in suitcases stolen for the purpose. Others emerged from shattered store fronts with armfuls of women’s clothing or boxes of designer sports shoes.

Some balanced flatscreen televisions or gaming consoles on their heads, slowly edging down the street, more afraid of slipping on the broken glass than arrest.

Many wore hoods or masked their faces but many more made no attempt to hide their identity from a police force they knew was too stretched to intervene.

Far from being angry or edgy, the atmosphere when the looting was at its height was mostly relaxed, with many in the crowd giggling or looking on in wonder at the flames, queuing up to take photographs or shoot video of the burning stores on their mobile phones and cameras.

Prime Minister David Cameron promised to mend ‘Broken Britain’ when he came to power in May last year, but some local residents blamed his austerity policies for the violence sweeping London and other British cities.

“The people are angry,” explained Joshua, a Nigerian resident of Woolwich who has lived in Britain 38 years. But that view was not universal.

David Hill, 33, who works in the financial services sector, said: “They have burnt out the places that they drink in, that’s the funny thing about it. I can understand the jewellery, that’s fair enough, but this is absolutely outrageous.”

Simon Mills, manager of a pawnbroker and jewellery firm that claims to be the oldest business in Woolwich, said he had lost goods worth upwards of 60,000 pounds ($98,000).

“I just don’t know if we’ll be able to bounce back from it. I don’t think terrorists could have done a better job than what they have done here,” he said. “But when you look over the road at Wetherspoons you think it could have been worse.”

Some store owners said they had closed early on Monday due to rumours that Woolwich, a down-at-heel district on the southeastern banks of the Thames, would be next to “kick off.”

“To be honest, people knew it was coming, so if everybody knew it was coming, why did they (police) leave it so late to disperse people?” asked shop manager Grace, 26.

Mills said he had watched the looting unfold on YouTube postings and said the military should have been deployed: “I think the army should have been called in if they knew what was going to happen. They should have sealed off the area.”

According to bystanders, the looting was organised on Twitter and the instant messaging network of a popular mobile phone network. However, many accounts smacked of hearsay.

Nigel Fletcher, deputy leader of the borough’s opposition Conservative Party defended police and brushed off suggestions that ‘Broken Britain’ had somehow spoken out against cuts in public services through the overnight orgy of looting.

“What has happened here overnight has destroyed jobs,” he said standing outside a row of stores with their windows smashed in. “Those people are out of work, so to try and suggest that it’s in some way a protest, as some people are calling it, or a response to the economic situation is frankly ludicrous.”

(Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Despite a rare public display of unity by the leadership, battle lines are being redrawn as Socialists try to fill the void left by Strauss-Kahn’s spectacular fall from grace.

Until this weekend, the former finance minister had appeared best placed to unseat conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, who polls leave trailing in third place behind him and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Political analysts say the Socialists must quickly plug the void left by Strauss-Kahn and use the primary campaign as a springboard for the 2012 election.

“Nicolas Sarkozy is very happy the Socialists will again be in difficulty for weeks, as this allows him to impose his themes on the political debate and launch his own (re-election) campaign,” Fourquet said.

Socialist deputy Claude Bartolone said he hoped the party’s first secretary would now stand. “Let’s unite behind the person who has the legitimacy to represent this unity, the first secretary of the Socialist Party,” he told France Info radio.

Aubry acknowledged the party had been knocked sideways by Strauss-Kahn’s weekend arrest and remand in jail on charges he tried to rape a maid at a luxury New York hotel, but promised it would be ready for the presidential battle.

With a mid-July deadline fast approaching to enter the Socialist selection contest, Aubry urged the party to pull together, look beyond the scandal and focus on the presidential race. The party candidate will be picked in October.

“Unity, responsibility, combativeness, these are the three words which came up the most this morning,” Aubry told reporters after the meeting of the party leadership in Paris.

“There was emotion, of course, and the shock we all feel, but it is our responsibility to be up to the task,” she said.

“I say to the French people: we will be ready in 2012.”

NEW FRONTRUNNER

Aubry, who has appeared reluctant to run, said the party would not be rushed into changing its plans for the primary.

“We have a timetable and today is not the moment” to declare a candidacy, she told France Info radio on Tuesday. “We are not changing anything in our timetable” for the primary.

With Strauss-Kahn out of the frame, Aubry and former party leader Francois Hollande, both veterans with a strong support base, have emerged as the leading contenders.

A small-sample Harris Interactive poll in the newspaper Le Parisien gave Hollande 49 percent support among Socialists and Aubry 23 percent. Segolene Royal, defeated by Sarkozy in 2007, trailed on 10 percent.

“Francois Hollande appeared as the fallback candidate in the event that Strauss-Kahn didn’t run,” Jerome Fourquet at pollster IFOP said, as their center-left policies were similar.

“Hollande now finds himself the favorite, but not the absolute favorite, because there is Martine Aubry.”

Aubry, 60, was the architect of France’s 35-hour work week in the late 1990s and has political clout as the daughter of former European Commission President Jacques Delors.

She has support from party militants but is an uncharismatic campaigner and may struggle to fire up left-wing voters.

Hollande, 56, has never been a government minister and lacks international experience but appears to have the appetite for the battle that many commentators say Aubry lacks.

“He clearly gives the impression of a fierce and lasting desire to run,” Fourquet said. “In France we say the election is won by the person who wants to win it most.”

Hollande is judged to have better campaigning skills than Aubry and would outshine his former partner Segolene Royal, whose star has waned since her defeat by Sarkozy and her defeat by Aubry in a bitter battle for the party leadership.

Analysts also expect more candidates to emerge, namely former prime minister Laurent Fabius, who would be by far the weightiest contender on the left, and Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, popular for his imaginative city projects.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer; editing Tim Pearce)

Many Socialist leaders voiced outrage at the way the head of the International Monetary Fund, a frontrunner for the French presidency, had been paraded handcuffed and unshaven by U.S. police before he has a chance to defend himself in court.

Strauss-Kahn was arrested aboard an Air France plane on Saturday and charged with a sexual assault on a chambermaid at a luxury Manhattan hotel. He denies the accusations.

A judge denied him bail on Monday, remanding him to the city’s grim Rikers Island jail, where he spent the night.

An emergency Socialist leadership meeting in Paris staged a rare show of unity amid consternation over the probable loss of the centre-left’s most popular contender to unseat conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in next April’s election.

“Unity, responsibility, combativity, these are the three words which came up the most this morning,” Socialist party leader Martine Aubry told reporters after the session.

“There was emotion, of course, and the shock we all feel, but it is our responsibility to be up to the task,” she said.

“I say to the French people: we will be ready in 2012.”

Strauss-Kahn has neither resigned from the Washington-based IMF nor dropped out of the French race so far, but he seems bound to be sidelined by a prolonged legal case.

Sarkozy, whose approval ratings had slumped to a record low of 20 percent, received another campaign boost with news that his wife, singer and former model Carla Bruni, is expecting a child later this year.

The president’s father confirmed the widespread rumours to German newspaper Bild and a visibly pregnant Bruni appeared in public on Tuesday, although Sarkozy’s office declined comment on a matter it said concerned his private life.

Sarkozy urged centre-right lawmakers at a closed-door breakfast to show “restraint and dignity” and refrain from comment on the Strauss-Kahn case, participants said.

Graphic link.reuters.com/kun59r

SHOCK AND ANGER

The Socialists agreed they would not change the selection timetable, which calls for candidates to register by July 13 for a primary election to be held in October.

French politicians and some commentators voiced shock and anger at the judge’s decision to refuse Strauss-Kahn bail.

Former Culture Minister Jack Lang described the treatment as a “lynching” that had “provoked horror and aroused disgust”.

The U.S. justice system, he said, was “politicised” and the judge appeared to have been determined to “make a Frenchman pay”. Other senior Socialists said that displaying the IMF chief in handcuffs escorted by burly policemen violated his right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a court.

Strauss-Kahn denies the charges and his legal team has denied police accounts that he fled the hotel. He is next due to appear in court on Friday.

In an apparent hint at the defence’s strategy, his lawyer Benjamin Brafman told his arraignment hearing: “The evidence we believe will not be consistent with a forcible encounter.”

Apart from blasting the French presidential race wide open, Strauss-Kahn’s arrest has thrown the Fund into turmoil just as it is playing a key role in helping euro zone states like Greece and Portugal tackle debt woes.

The Washington-based IMF board, which was briefed informally on the case on Monday, has so far held off on deciding whether or not to remove him from his job. If he is forced out, there could be a fierce battle over who would succeed him.

Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg joined a string of European officials on Tuesday in saying that a successor to Strauss-Kahn should come from Europe because of the IMF’s deep involvement in the euro zone debt crisis.

Western Europe has had an effective lock on the job since its creation after World War Two but faces a growing challenge from the rising economic powers of Asia.

China’s foreign ministry weighed in on Tuesday, declining to comment on Strauss-Kahn but saying the selection process for IMF leaders should be based on “fairness, transparency and merit”.

LAGARDE IN FOCUS

Strauss-Kahn had been expected to resign soon in order to run for office in France. Diplomats say French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde had been quietly gathering support as a successor before his arrest, but may now face increased resistance to another Paris nominee in the job.

Another possible choice, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, appears sidelined by the opposition of his own successor in government, David Cameron. Polish central bank governor Marek Belka, a respected former prime minister with recent IMF experience, might be a European compromise figure.

A Berlin newspaper floated the names of Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Germany’s private Deutsche Bank, and Thomas Mirow, a German politician who heads the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a public body. But Ackermann has Swiss citizenship and lacks government experience while Mirow may lack political heft.

The most prominent emerging economy figure mentioned as a possible candidate is former Turkish Economy Minister Kemal Dervis, now at a Washington think-tank.

In France, Aubry is under increasing pressure to contest the Socialist presidential primary herself but said “today is not the moment” to declare a candidacy.

Her reluctance to throw her hat into the ring has led some commentators to question her appetite for a race that many see offering the Left its best chance of winning in a quarter of a century.

Strauss-Kahn’s spectacular fall from grace could benefit Sarkozy, even though the conservative president nominated the former Socialist finance minister for the IMF job in the first place four years ago.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen could also pick up support if voters grow disillusioned with mainstream politics.

“K.O.” headlined the left-leaning Liberation newspaper, reflecting the almost universal view in France that his political career had suffered a knock-out blow.

A French writer is also considering seeking attempted rape charges against Strauss-Kahn that date back almost a decade. Her lawyer said no complaint would be lodged on Tuesday.

Newspapers were awash with pictures of an unshaven and haggard Strauss-Kahn looked drained and tense during his first court appearance on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols, Lesley Wroughton, Noeleen Walder, Matt Daily, Andrew Longstreth, Brian Love, Catherine Bremer, John Irish, Gernot Heller and Evren Ballim; writing by Jon Boyle and Paul Taylor; editing by Alastair Macdonald)

His allies in the French Socialist party, some jockeying for
position ahead of a primary contest which had been tipped to
hand the candidacy to Strauss-Kahn, prepared for an emergency
meeting but said they would not change the selection timetable.

French politicians and commentators reacted with surprise
and anger at the New York judge’s decision to remand
Strauss-Kahn, once the biggest threat to conservative President
Nicolas Sarkozy in an election due next April. His parading in
handcuffs before the world’s media appeared particularly stark.

“He is a brave man on whom a contemptuous fate has been
inflicted,” former Socialist culture minister Jack Lang told
Europe 1 radio, complaining of a “lynching”.

“It is not unthinkable that certain judicial officials, the
prosecutor in particular or the judge, is driven by a desire to
take down a Frenchman, a Frenchman who is moreover well known.”

Strauss-Kahn’s arrest has blown open the race for the Elysee
Palace, enhancing Sarkozy’s chances of re-election, and thrown
the Fund into turmoil even as it plays a key role in helping
euro zone states like Greece and Portugal tackle their debt
woes.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

More on the arrest [ID:nDSK]

Criminal procedure factbox [ID:nN15107742]

Factbox on possible successors [ID:nLDE74F1IO]

Analysis on IMF and euro zone [ID:nLDE74E083]

French politics impact [ID:nLDE74F0E1]

BREAKINGVIEWS columns [ID:nLDE74F0LF][ID:nLDE74F0G7]

Graphic link.reuters.com/kun59r

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Socialist Party chief Martine Aubry, under increasing
pressure to contest the primary herself following Strauss-Kahn’s
arrest, said the party would not be rushed into changing its
plans. Primary candidates are due to declare by July.

“We have a timetable and today is not the moment” to declare
a candidacy, she told France Info radio on Tuesday. “We are not
changing anything in our timetable” for the primary.

Her reluctance to throw her hat into the ring has led some
commentators to question her appetite for the presidential race
that many see offers the Left its best chance of winning in a
quarter of a century.

TENSE COURT APPEARANCE

Strauss-Kahn’s spectacular fall from grace could benefit
Sarkozy. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen could also pick up
support if voters grow disabused with mainstream politics.

“K.O.” headlined the left-leaning Liberation newspaper,
reflecting the almost universal view in France that his
political career had suffered a ‘knock-out’.

A French writer is also considering filing attempted rape
charges against Strauss-Kahn that date back almost a decade.

French newspapers on Tuesday were awash with pictures of an
unshaven and haggard Strauss-Kahn looked drained and tense
during his first court appearance on Monday as prosecutors
detailed his alleged attack against a maid at a luxury hotel.

“He sexually assaulted her and attempted to forcibly rape
her. When he was unsuccessful, he forced her to perform oral sex
on him,” Assistant District Attorney John McConnell told the
court.

Strauss-Kahn faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Judge Melissa Jackson was persuaded by prosecutors that
Strauss-Kahn, might try to flee to France, so she ordered him
put behind bars and set a new hearing for Friday. Police had
pulled Strauss-Kahn off an Air France jet on Saturday just
minutes before it was to leave for Paris.

His lawyers are expected to appeal the judge’s bail decision
and it could be a key issue in the case. Bail would give
Strauss-Kahn much better access to his attorneys and allow him
to live in New York with his wife, prominent French television
personality Anne Sinclair, while awaiting trial.

The IMF board has so far held off on deciding whether or not
to remove him from his job. If he is forced out, there could be
a fierce battle over who would succeed him, weakening the IMF’s
efforts to deal with the euro zone crisis.

The board also faces questions about why it let Strauss-Kahn
off with just a reprimand in 2008 after he was found to be
having an extra-marital affair with a subordinate. Persistent
rumours inside the IMF that he often made unwanted sexual
advances to women have long dogged his tenure there.

(Writing by Jon Boyle)

France was mesmerized on Monday by TV images of a handcuffed Strauss-Kahn, a center-leftist viewed until now as the frontrunner for the 2012 election, being led away by police for DNA tests over the alleged assault in a New York hotel.

His lawyers said Strauss-Kahn would plead not guilty to charges that he tried to rape a chambermaid at the hotel after chasing her, naked, down a corridor and trying to lock her in a room. [ID:nN15215355]

While politicians from all parties said Strauss-Kahn, popularly known by his initials DSK, should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, political commentators were unanimous in pronouncing the last rites on his political career.

“One thing is certain: Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not be the next president of the French republic,” the conservative daily Le Figaro said in an editorial.

“In the space of 15 days the new idol of the French left has exploded. Such a swift disintegration has rarely been seen,” editorialist Paul-Henri du Limbert wrote.

Strauss-Kahn’s arrest is a big setback to the opposition Socialist Party, which kicks off its primary in July as part of its campaign to win its first presidential election in 24 years.

“The Socialists have lost the candidate who was riding high in the polls … (and was) the best placed to beat (President) Nicolas Sarkozy,” wrote the left-leaning Liberation newspaper. Its headline said: “DSK Out.”

DAMAGING IMAGES

Before his arrest, Strauss-Kahn had been the subject of mounting media commentary on his lifestyle. Critics accused him of a fondness for women, an easy relationship with money and a luxury lifestyle that sat uneasily with his Socialist credentials.

Liberation published comments he made at the end of April when he said the three most difficult issues for his presidential bid would be: “Money, women and my Jewishness”

“Yes I like women … So what? … For years there’s been talk of photos of massive orgies, but nothing has ever come out …. So, let them show them,” the paper quoted him as saying.

Political commentators said pictures of Strauss-Kahn being led away by police in handcuffs would make it all but impossible for the former finance minister to run for the presidency.

i<Tele commentator Michael Darmon said the arrest was a boost for former Socialist Party boss Francois Hollande, and that current party chief Martine Aubry was “not ready” to throw her hat into the ring, although others could join the race.

“Only one person has said ‘I am ready psychologically’, since 2008, and that is Francois Hollande,” he said. But he added: “There are others who could come out of the woodwork and make themselves heard, like Laurent Fabius for example.”

Fabius, a former Socialist prime minister and finance minister, said at the weekend the party was losing touch with working class voters, a move Darmon interpreted as Fabius testing the waters for a possible bid.

Senior Socialist leaders are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

The Les Echos business daily said centrists like former ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo might also benefit.

On the right, Sarkozy’s UMP party kept a low profile. Some saw Strauss-Kahn’s legal woes boosting the chances of the unpopular president, but others suggested that Hollande’s cleaner image could make him a greater threat than DSK ever was.

“On paper, the affair seems to relaunch the chances of the head of state, whose re-election seemed, even for many on the right, impossible,” Les Echos said.

But one close Sarkozy aide told the paper: “Strauss-Kahn was the easiest adversary. He wiped out Sarkozy’s faults.”

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

France was mesmerised on Monday by TV images of a handcuffed Strauss-Kahn, a centre-leftist viewed until now as the frontrunner for the 2012 election, being led away by police for DNA tests over the alleged assault in a New York hotel.

His lawyers said Strauss-Kahn would plead not guilty to charges that he tried to rape a chambermaid at the hotel after chasing her, naked, down a corridor and trying to lock her in a room.

While politicians from all parties said Strauss-Kahn, popularly known by his initials DSK, should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, political commentators were unanimous in pronouncing the last rites on his political career.

“One thing is certain: Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not be the next president of the French republic,” the conservative daily Le Figaro said in an editorial.

“In the space of 15 days the new idol of the French left has exploded. Such a swift disintegration has rarely been seen,” editorialist Paul-Henri du Limbert wrote.

Strauss-Kahn’s arrest is a big setback to the opposition Socialist Party, which kicks off its primary in July as part of its campaign to win its first presidential election in 24 years.

“The Socialists have lost the candidate who was riding high in the polls … (and was) the best placed to beat (President) Nicolas Sarkozy,” wrote the left-leaning Liberation newspaper. Its headline said: “DSK Out.”

DAMAGING IMAGES

Before his arrest, Strauss-Kahn had been the subject of mounting media commentary on his lifestyle. Critics accused him of a fondness for women, an easy relationship with money and a luxury lifestyle that sat uneasily with his Socialist credentials.

Liberation published comments he made at the end of April when he said the three most difficult issues for his presidential bid would be: “Money, women and my Jewishness”

“Yes I like women … So what? … For years there’s been talk of photos of massive orgies, but nothing has ever come out …. So, let them show them,” the paper quoted him as saying.

Political commentators said pictures of Strauss-Kahn being led away by police in handcuffs would make it all but impossible for the former finance minister to run for the presidency.

i<Tele commentator Michael Darmon said the arrest was a boost for former Socialist Party boss Francois Hollande, and that current party chief Martine Aubry was “not ready” to throw her hat into the ring, although others could join the race.

“Only one person has said ‘I am ready psychologically’, since 2008, and that is Francois Hollande,” he said. But he added: “There are others who could come out of the woodwork and make themselves heard, like Laurent Fabius for example.”

Fabius, a former Socialist prime minister and finance minister, said at the weekend the party was losing touch with working class voters, a move Darmon interpreted as Fabius testing the waters for a possible bid.

Senior Socialist leaders are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

The Les Echos business daily said centrists like former ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo might also benefit.

On the right, Sarkozy’s UMP party kept a low profile. Some saw Strauss-Kahn’s legal woes boosting the chances of the unpopular president, but others suggested that Hollande’s cleaner image could make him a greater threat than DSK ever was.

“On paper, the affair seems to relaunch the chances of the head of state, whose re-election seemed, even for many on the right, impossible,” Les Echos said.

But one close Sarkozy aide told the paper: “Strauss-Kahn was the easiest adversary. He wiped out Sarkozy’s faults.”

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)