Petr David Josek / AP

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, right, and companion Myriam L'Aouffir attend the French Open tennis tournament on Sunday.

PARIS – A French public prosecutor recommended on Tuesday closing an investigation into alleged sex offences in which former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn risks trial on a charge of "aggravated pimping."

It is now up to judges investigating the case to decide whether to drop the prosecution, the last legal proceedings the former Socialist presidential hopeful faces over his sexual conduct.

Strauss-Kahn, 64, was placed under formal investigation in March 2012 in the so-called Carlton affair, named after a hotel in the northern city of Lille at the center of police investigations into sex parties attended by prostitutes and the then managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

A charge of gang rape was dropped after a prostitute withdrew her accusation, but the probe continued on the grounds that Strauss-Kahn's involvement in sex parties attended by prostitutes could be construed as pimping -- an argument defense lawyers said was invalid.

Frequenting a prostitute is not illegal in France. Strauss-Kahn acknowledged having taken part in swingers' parties, but said he had no idea the women were prostitutes.

The public prosecutor recommended that 12 other suspects in the Carlton case be tried on charges including conspiracy to procure prostitutes, fraud and abuse of corporate funds. However, he called for charges to be dropped against a former regional director of construction group Eiffage, who was suspected of having paid prostitutes to attend the parties.

Strauss-Kahn was on the brink of entering the 2012 French presidential race when he was arrested in New York in May 2011 and charged with sexually assaulting hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo at a Times Square hotel. He denied the charge.

U.S. prosecutors dropped criminal charges months later, prompting Diallo to start a civil lawsuit which ended with an out-of-court settlement last December.

The former finance minister's legal problems continued on his return to France, with prosecutors investigating alleged use of prostitutes at sex parties in Lille, Paris and Washington.

Since he resigned from the IMF and quit politics, Strauss-Kahn has given occasional lectures and acted as a consultant, but his public appearances have been dogged by feminist demonstrators.

He and his third wife, journalist Anne Sinclair, divorced in March.

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Interpol

Sean Lopes, 47, was arrested in Chatham, England, on Monday.

A fugitive wanted in New York after vanishing in the wake of a 2004 hostage taking has been arrested in England, where he had been working in a supermarket.

Sean Lopes, 47, had been living in Chatham, about 30 miles southeast of London, when he was arrested Monday, Kent Police said in a statement.

He was "wanted on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping in the United States" involving a 22-year-old woman dating June 2004, according to Kent Police.

Kent Police said Lopes was charged in the U.S. with the offense but went missing after being released on bail. He was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in May 2005.

A 2012 news release from U.S. authorities said Lopes entered the home of an ex-girlfriend -- both were employed by New York City public schools -- and waited for her to come home. When she did, he confronted her with a gun and a knife and held her hostage until police were able to get into the apartment and free her, according to a 2012 statement from the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago, where Lopes was mistakenly thought to have been living.

Lopes was believed to have fled to the island nation using his brother's travel documents, the embassy said.

Lopes had been working at a Sainsbury's grocery store in Gravesend, Kent, the company said Thursday. 

“We can confirm that a member of staff from our Pepper Hill store was arrested on Monday," a Sainsbury's spokeswoman said. "We are helping the police with their investigations but are unable to comment further.”

He had been listed as one of the NYPD's 10 most-wanted suspects.

Kent Police said a resident of the area raised concerns about Lopes to police, who launched an investigation that included investigators from New York and London. He was then tracked down and arrested.

Lopes appeared in a London court on Tuesday and was ordered to be detained as extradition proceedings got under way, Kent Police said.

According to Interpol, Lopes is a native of Guyana. The U.S. Embassy said he also had ties to Canada, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.

This story was originally published on Thu May 9, 2013 7:04 AM EDT

Pascal Rossignol / Reutersfile

A woman looks at Eugene Delacroix 's painting, "Liberty Leading the People at the Louvre museum in Lens, northern France, in this Dec. 3 file picture.

PARIS -- A woman defaced Eugene Delacroix's painting "Liberty Leading the People" with a black marker as it hung in an outpost of the Louvre gallery in northern France.

Police arrested a 28-year-old woman on Thursday for writing "AE911" across the bottom of a painting so closely identified with the French Republic that its image once graced the 100-franc note and it has been reproduced on postage stamps.

"AE911Truth" is the name of a website called "Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth" whose backers say they are seeking to establish the truth of the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide airliner attacks on New York's Twin Towers.

Painted in 1830, Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" depicts a bare-breasted woman brandishing a tricolor flag and leading her people over the bodies of the fallen.

Reuters

Xavier Dectot, director of the Louvre-Lens Museum, speaks to the media after Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People," was damaged.

It was painted after the 1830 July Revolution as a symbol of reconciliation following the overthrow of Bourbon King Charles X and the ascent to the throne of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans.

The painting was later adopted as a revolutionary emblem in the 1848 uprising which overthrew the Orleans monarchy.

It later disappeared from public view but resurfaced in the Louvre after the advent of the Third Republic in 1871 and sealed its place in the French national consciousness.

"It had really become an icon, a sort of symbol of the Republic which has remained famous throughout the ages," said Vincent Pomarede, head of the Louvre's painting department.

"We have a very passionate relationship with all our paintings and when something like this happens it's really hard to handle," he said.

The work was on loan from the main Louvre in Paris to the new Louvre-Lens gallery in northern France inaugurated last December by President Francois Hollande when it was defaced.

However, the Louvre confirmed Friday it had managed to save the painting as the black marker had not penetrated the upper layer of varnish and has been successfully removed. 

David J. Phillip / AP

Federal agents carry boxes out of Arc Electronics Inc. in Houston on Wednesday. The Justice Department said it had broken up a smuggling ring aimed at illegally exporting microelectronics from the United States to Russian military and intelligence agencies.

Updated 9:18 a.m. ET: NEW YORK -- An elaborate network aimed at illegally acquiring U.S.-made microelectronic components for Russian military and spy agencies has been broken up, the Justice Department said on Wednesday - but Russia later denied its spy agencies were involved.

Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging 11 alleged participants in the network, as well as companies based in Houston, Texas and Moscow, with illegally exporting high-tech components from the United States to Russian security agencies.

NBCNewYork.com reported that allegations involve illegally exporting approximately $50 million worth of high-tech microelectronics.

Alexander Fishenko, an owner and executive of the American and Russian companies, was also charged with operating as an unregistered agent of the Russian government inside the U.S. Fishenko was born in Kazakhstan and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2003.

According to the indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court, the procurement network began obtaining advanced, technologically cutting edge microelectronics from manufacturers and suppliers within the U.S. and exporting those goods to Russia in October 2008, while evading the government licensing system set up to control such exports.

Russia warns Obama's 'reset' in relations 'cannot last forever'

The microelectronics shipped to Russia have applications in a wide range of military systems, including radar and surveillance systems, missile guidance systems and detonation triggers, NBCNewYork.com reported.

'Web of lies'
Court papers say the network induced manufacturers and suppliers to sell them the high-tech goods -- and to evade applicable export controls by providing false end-user information in connection with the purchase of the goods -- concealed the fact they were exporters, and falsely classified the goods they exported on export records submitted to the Department of Commerce.

Prosecutors say the network's principal port of export for the goods was John F. Kennedy International Airport.

"As alleged in the indictment, the defendants spun an elaborate web of lies to evade the laws that protect our national security," U.S Attorney Loretta Lynch said. "The defendants tried to take advantage of America's free markets to steal American technologies for the Russian government. But U.S law enforcement detected, disrupted and dismantled the defendants' network."

Two law enforcement officials told Reuters that Fishenko and seven alleged associates were being held in custody in Houston. One of the defendants was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday in Houston, and the others on Thursday.

More news from NBCNewYork.com

It was not known if they had yet entered any pleas, one of the officials said late on Wednesday. He said that prosecutors expected to ask for those arrested to be transferred to the custody of federal authorities in Brooklyn.

Three other individuals charged in the indictment are currently in Russia, the official said.

A court document made public by prosecutors outlined further details of the government's case against those charged.

It alleged that Fishenko used a Houston company called Arc Electronics to acquire U.S.-made technology for Russian government agencies, including the Russian armed forces and Russia's principal domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service or FSB, a successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

According to the document, among electronic components that the procurement network sought were microcontrollers, microprocessors, static random access memory chips and analog-to-digital converters. Prosecutors claim that such items can be used for a wide variety of sensitive military and intelligence purposes, including radar and surveillance systems, missile guidance systems and detonation triggers.

However, Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday the country's spy agencies were not involved. "The charges are of a criminal nature and have nothing to do with the work of the secret services," Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies, Reuters reported.

He said the situation had caused deep concern in Russia, and Russian diplomats had met one of the accused to discuss the situation and was preparing to meet the rest. 

Surveillance
During the U.S. investigation of the alleged procurement network, which began in July 2010, the U.S. government had engaged in extensive court-approved surveillance of the email and telephone communications of those arrested, the document says.

Prosecutors say that among items collected during the investigation was a letter in which an electronics production laboratory operated by the FSB allegedly complained that certain microchips -- purchased from Arc in Houston through an affiliate of Fishenko's Moscow company -- were defective and needed to be replaced.

More Russia coverage from NBC News

Prosecutors say that when the Russia-based affiliate received the letter from the Russian intelligence agency, it forwarded it to Arc in Houston seeking replacements for the microchips.

At one point, in an effort to show their activities were innocent, Arc told Americans it had approached that it manufactured traffic lights, a U.S. official said.

NBC New York's Joe Valiquette and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Bennett Raglin / Getty Images

Fior Mendez, an orphan from the Dominican Republic, wears Nzinga Knight as she walks the runway on Friday, Sept. 7, at the fifth annual Harlem's Fashion Row show during New York Fashion Week.

Just two months ago, Fior Mendez lived in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, keeping close watch over her surrogate brothers and sisters. Despite her hardships, she always told friends that one day she would be a runway model, just like the young women on television whom they admired.

Now, she's made that dream a reality, having walked the runway on Friday night at Lincoln Center for New York Fashion Week. 

Speaking to TODAY.com with a translator’s help, Mendez choked up with tears when she described the astonishing changes her life has undergone in just a few short weeks.

“I’m overwhelmed emotionally, it’s a dream,” said the 22-year-old, who is surprisingly well-versed in fashion lingo and hopes to one day walk for Chanel. “I couldn’t imagine that a person like me would be doing this in New York City.”

At 21, Mendez became too old to remain at the orphanage any longer, but a good friend of the organization's founder, Sonia Hane, invited the aspiring model to come live with her in New York City to learn English. That led to a meeting with a casting agent, and an opportunity to walk the runway during New York Fashion Week for Nzinga Knight, an American Muslim designer with a Caribbean background.

Orphaned Starfish Foundation

Fior Mendez (in yellow) as a teenager with her friends at the Orfanato Ninos de Cristo orphanage in La Romana, Domincan Republican.

Knight didn’t even know about Mendez’s unusual history when she hired her to wear her designs at the fifth annual Harlem’s Fashion Row show. 

"Just as my third casting session was about to be over, Fior Mendez walked in the room and did her walk and had this wonderful expression on her face, plus natural beauty," Knight told TODAY.com. "I was sold."

Knight later learned that the early years of Mendez's life were fraught with homelessness and uncertainty. Mendez moved often with her mother and four siblings, and they rarely knew where the next meal would come from.

When Mendez was 13, her mother decided she could no longer take care of all her children. She left the girl at Orfanato Niños de Cristo orphanage in the town of La Romana. Since then, Mendez has had no contact with her family. 

But she says she found a family of a different kind in the orphanage, where she spent eight years of her life. There she became part of a community and established herself as a “quiet leader,” quickly becoming the right-hand woman of Hane, the orphanage’s founder. 

Orphaned Starfish Foundation

Fior Mendez (right) in her school uniform as a child at the orphanage.

“I was very scared before,” Mendez said. “I had no one place to live, so every night I went to sleep scared and didn’t know if I would get a meal.”

Female orphans in Latin America often fall into prostitution or remain in poverty, but she started going to school at the orphanage and received computer training, said Andy Stein, who got to know Mendez when his nonprofit, The Orphaned Starfish Foundation, built a computer center for Orfanato Niños de Cristo. 

“She is an incredibly kind soul,” Stein told TODAY.com. “What you’ll always see on her face is a massive smile.”

Before her slender 5-foot-10-inch build became an asset on the catwalk, she used it to her benefit to play volleyball at the orphanage. But modeling was an early — and enduring — obsession, one she picked up from the many modeling shows broadcast in the Dominican Republic. As a lanky teenager, Mendez would practice poses in the mirror. 

Orphaned Starfish Foundation

This is the orphanage where Fior Mendez, 22, grew up.

With a support system, including Stein and his foundation, the transition wasn’t as difficult as it could have been for an orphan heading to the big city without a command of English. Stein’s girlfriend introduced Mendez to Prince Riley, the founder of boutique modeling firm Signature Talent Agency. Riley immediately signed the “natural poser” and sent her out on casting calls.

“Every casting I’ve sent her on she’s booked,” he told TODAY.com. “The fashion industry is definitely embracing her.”

Though she plans to continue sashaying down the runway, she also hopes to inspire orphaned and homeless children back in the Dominican Republic. In the future she’d like to study communications and become a newscaster or spokesperson.

“I want to help homeless children have a voice,” she said.

For now, Mendez is soaking in the scene of Fashion Week, keeping up with her English classes and learning how to navigate New York City. Her thoughts, however, are never far from the orphanage she called home for many years, and the children who made up her surrogate family.

“I want to be a light for those kids,” she said. “I want to show them that if you are dedicated, you can do something, and that even if you’re sad, you always have hope.”

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Updated 8 p.m. ET Sunday: A two-year international effort to save Lennox, a Belfast, Northern Ireland, death-row dog whose owners say was mistaken for a pitbull, moves to New York on Monday as protests in his homeland appear to be going nowhere.

An international protest Saturday in Belfast, where the animal is slated to be euthanized this week, according to media reports, included demonstrators who flew in from the U.S., England and Dublin, UTV in Belfast reported.

Victoria Stilwell, host of “It’s Me or the Dog” on the Animal Planet network, offered to find Lennox a new home in the United States, all expenses paid, but on Sunday she told msnbc.com her quest went unanswered.

Protesters organized by No Kill New York animal-saving group plan to target British and Irish consulates Monday in New York to prevent the dog's killing.

The Belfast City Council declared Lennox had a severe personality disorder, but his owners, the Barnes family, say he is a well-handled family pet.

The 7-year-old dog was seized in 2010 as a breed banned under the UK’s Dangerous Dog act.

The dog’s owners say he is an American bulldog-Labrador cross, but dog wardens after measuring his legs and snout declared Lennox a “possible pitbull type.”

No complaints had been made against the dog, according to media reports, and the Barnes family has been unable to see the dog.

The Court of Appeal last month rejected a plea spare the dog, being held in a secret location, the Belfast Telegraph reported. 

Dog trainer and television presenter Victoria Stilwell

Protesters say theyare trying to raise awareness not only about Lennox but also to show that “breed specific legislation” is unfair.

Lennox’s plight is documented on a Save Lennox website and on a Facebook page with more than 75,000 fans. Expressions supporting the dog are also posted on Twitter.

The dog’s cause also is championed by Stilwell, who traveled to Belfast last week to consult with the Barnes family and with Belfast officials to stop the euthanizing and allow the dog to be brought to a new home in the United States.

“It is important to understand that every possible legal avenue to release Lennox back to the family has been exhausted, and that result is no longer an option,” Stillwell posted on her website. “Indeed, the latest news is that he is scheduled to be euthanized next week. My heart goes out to Craig, Caroline and Brooke [Barnes] for what they are enduring.”

On Sunday, she told msnbc.com in an eamiled statement:

“Despite my repeated public and private requests for a meeting with the Belfast City Council to discuss positive alternatives to the euthanasia of Lennox, they have inexplicably refused to even discuss these possibilities with me, the family or their legal team. Although I’ve previously given the benefit of the doubt about the BCC’s motives, I now fear that their collective decision-making has been clouded by personal and potentially vindictive reasoning while exhibiting an unreasonable obstinance to even exploring positive solutions. I sincerely hope they relent and accept my offer of an all-expenses paid, face-saving rehoming process for this poor dog.”

The Barnes family, in a statement posted on Facebook and the Save Lennox website, earlier wrote, “the fight to spare Lennox’s life may well be over. It has been almost impossible for us to accept that we have to admit defeat.”

Follow Jim Gold at msnbc.com on Facebook here.

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Peter Morrison / AP

Relatives and guests attend the Titanic Memorial service at Belfast City Hall, Northern Ireland, Sunday.

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic was being remembered at events across the world Sunday, including in Belfast, where the fateful ship was built.

A memorial store featuring the names of those who died was unveiled in the Northern Ireland city on Sunday morning.

It is the first Titanic memorial to list all victims alphabetically, with no distinction between passengers and crew members, or between first- and third-class travelers.

On Saturday, a concert featuring a performance by Bryan Ferry was followed by a torch-lit procession to the memorial site.

Chris Helgren / Reuters

Helena Beaumont-Jones of Airlie Beach, Australia, aboard the Titanic Memorial Cruise on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a service was held at the North Atlantic wreck site on cruise ship MS Balmoral, which is retracing the Titanic's route, the BBC reported.

A minute's silence was held and wreaths cast into the sea at the moment it sank.