Strauss-Kahn to be released on bail

NEW YORK: Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be released Friday from a New York jail after 2100 GMT and sent under armed guard to temporary housing, court officials said.

Strauss-Kahn, who has been charged with sexually assaulting a chambermaid, would be "released between 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) and 12:00," the official bondsman said.

The judge has ordered him to be housed in a home detention location in downtown Manhattan, close to Ground Zero.

Defense lawyer William Taylor said an earlier plan for the former IMF chief to live under house arrest with round-the-clock surveillance in a New York apartment rented by his wife had fallen through.

"The reason why they changed plans is because the media invaded the first place," Taylor said. (AFP)