Who is Christine Lagarde?

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, 55, is the first woman to head the IMF.

A medal-winning member of France's synchronized swimming team as a teenager and the first female chairman of US law firm Baker MacKenzie, Lagarde won respect in the markets during the global financial crisis and helped promote France's negotiating clout in key forms like the Group of 20.

A flawless English speaker, Lagarde was voted best finance minister in Europe by the Financial Times in 2009.

IMF crisis opens the door to emerging nations

The arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn has plunged the International Monetary Fund into a leadership dilemma just as it's playing a key role in addressing Europe's debt crisis and other global challenges.

Strauss-Kahn, power broker in Paris and Washington

IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken into custody on Saturday in New York and was being questioned in regard to a sexual assault, New York police said.

Timeline of events in Strauss-Kahn case

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was denied bail on Monday on charges he sexually assaulted a maid at a New York hotel, a scandal that appeared to wreck his hopes of running for president of France.

Key dates in life of IMF chief Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund who has been considered a likely candidate for the French presidency, was taken into custody on Saturday at JFK airport in New York and was being questioned in regard to a sexual assault.

Details of the accusations against IMF chief

1. Criminal sexual act in the first degree (2 counts): the defendant engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion;

2. Attempted rape in the first degree (1 count): the defendant attempted to engage in sexual intercourse with another person by forcible compulsion;

3. Sexual abuse in the first degree (1 count): the defendant subjected another person to sexual contact by forcible compulsion;

4. Unlawful imprisonment in the 2nd degree-DNA-eligible MISD (1 count): the defendant restrained another person;

5. Sexual abuse in the 3rd degree-DNA-eligible MISD (1 count): the defendant subjected another person to sexual contact without the latter's consent;

6. Forcible touching-DNA-eligible-MISD: the defendant intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly touched the sexual and other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading and abusing such person, and for the purpose of gratifying the defendant's sexual desire