Dominique Strauss-Kahn, chief of IMF, is feared to be contemplating suicide after the pressure for him to resign from his office grows and the hotel maid he allegedly raped said that she did not have any idea who he was when she reported him. Strauss-Kahn is now under suicide watch said the police on Tuesday.

Jail officials made it clear that Strauss-Kahn has not attempted suicide or harm himself in any possible way. However, they are still keeping an eye on him in case the pressure gets the better of him and tries to kill himself.

On the other hand, information regarding the complainant has started to surface. She is an immigrant from Guinea, a West African nation. She is 32 years old and has a 15-year old daughter.

Her lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, holds firm that what happened between his client and Strauss-Kahn was in no way consensual and it was clear that the defendant sexually abused a young woman. He further said that the complainant insists that she has no idea who Strauss-Kahn was until a couple of days after she filed the complaint.

62-year old Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, was arrested on Saturday after a complaint was filed against him. He is now being held in the Riker’s island jail without bail. He is in a unit separate from other prisoners; a cell usually reserved for inmates with contagious diseases.

A lawyer for Albert Haynesworth on Tuesday said that the defensive lineman for Washington Redskins will plead not guilty to a sexual abuse charged against him.

Haynesworth did not touch the waitress body at a hotel bar, said A. Scott Bolden, Hayneworth defense lawyer.

In February, the 29-year-old football player was accused of slipping his credit card into the brassiere of a waitress and stroking her breast during a birthday party held in Washington hotel.

The player was not present during his indictment at the Superior Court in Washington, D.C. His lawyer said the accusation was not true. Haynesworth is set to defend himself in court on the July 11 trial.

Bolden believed that the sexual charge was trumped up since Hayneworth is a known celebrity with several financial resources. Last month, prosecutors offered a plea deal which will drop the sex abuse charge only if Haynesworth will plead guilty to the assault. However, Bolden, on Tuesday, refused the offer in court.

The charges Haynesworth face includes a 6-month maximum penalty in jail, as well as an up to $1,000 fine.

Haynesworth was accused of road rage by a man in Fairfax country- a month before the sex abuse charges was made. The man alleged he was tailgated and was beaten by the football player. On that case, Haynesworth is still waiting for a trial. Yet, his agent said Haynesworth is innocent.

Recently, Haynesworth has had a chaotic play with the Redskins. He has skipped workouts during the offseason and has failed the conditioning test at the beginning of training camp.

For 47 minutes New York Knicks were on the edge of vindication, Sunday Night. However, with 11.4 seconds left on the clock, Ray Allen of Boston Celtics hit a 3-point shot and drove his team to victory, 87-85.

After Allen shot the 3-pointer, Knicks hurriedly went down their side of the court to claim what they lost. Carmelo Anthony, however, missed his supposed game-winning 3 point shot. Anthony is the superstar Knicks got after a trade in February.

The Knicks had a strong start in the first game of the Eastern Conference playoffs. They even had a 12-point lead over Celtics at one point during the game. Knicks dominated the Celtics; Amar’e Stoudemire was even able to carve through the usually solid defense techniques of the Celtics. However, Allen’s 3-point shot did wonders for his team.

The last few minutes of the game kept viewers at the edge of their seats. With 37.8 seconds left on the clock, Toney Douglas hit a 3-pointer placing them on a 3-point lead over Celtics at 85-82. Rajon Rondo, Celtics point guard, inbounded an alley-oop to Garnett for a dunk which made them only one point away from a tied score with Knicks. Allen led the team with a 3-point shoot with only 11 minutes left.

With no remaining timeouts, Anthony tried to redeem their team but missed what could have been their winning shot.

Knicks’ coach D’Antoni said that they will make big plays during the rest of the playoffs. Anthony also said that the team did great on most parts of the game so he is still excited about the series.

When this NBA season started, everyone was excited for a possible finals rematch between Lakers and Celtics. However, after their last few games, this possibility is already in jeopardy. Los Angeles Lakers were beaten on many of their games; and Boston Celtics did really badly.

Sure, this has already happened before so many times. Both teams do not perform well during the season, but they still end up neck-to-neck with each other during finals. Game analysts feel that they won’t be able to work their magic this time. The Lakers may do something about it but the Celtics seems to be stuck.

Charles Barkley, TNT analyst, said that Celtics have lost a couple of bad games and they have not recovered since they traded off Kendrick Perkins. On Sunday, Boston landed on the third place when Miami beat them 100 to 77.

Barkley believes that the Celtics is wounded by the Perkins trade. He seemed to be the “identity” of the team, and with him gone, they are lost. Yes, Celtics played fairly well during the beginning of the season even when Perkins had to rest due to an injury but they were consoled by the fact that he could be back.

Regular season ends today and the team has three full days to regroup for the playoffs. Lakers may also be in trouble after losing all of their five last games but nobody’s worried about them. Lakers have champs and they have veteran experience so they should be good.

No Eastern team can baffle Celtics but unless they pull themselves together and get their old spirits back, there will be no rematch after the playoffs.

Japan is ready to end pumping radioactive water into the ocean by Sunday, according to a report released by Reuters. This action is expected to help alleviate the concerns coming from Japan’s neighboring countries because of their fear of spreading radiation from the current nuclear crisis in Fukushima power plant.

However, there have been problems in restoring Fukushima’s cooling system that might cause more radioactive water to be pumped out into the ocean once the storage capacity of the power plant complex runs out.

Japan still struggles to restore its control over the Fukushima nuclear power plant after the immense earthquake and tsunami struck the country’s northeast region on March 11. The country is still facing a massive economic and humanitarian crisis.

An official from the nuclear safety agency said Japan’s nuclear crisis is the worst incident since Chernobyl.

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency’s deputy director-general Hidehiko Nishiyama said they cannot perceive what the outlook of the power plant would be in the future. He said they would like to regain stable cooling and position a path toward regaining control over radiation as soon as possible.

Recently, Japan was criticized by South Korea and China because of how they are handling the crisis in the nuclear power plant.

On Sunday, Japanese casted their votes in the local elections. Many thought of it a way for Japanese to vent out their anger over how Prime Minister Naoto Kan handled the nuclear crisis. Opponents strengthened as they plan to force his resignation once the crisis in Japan ends.

Jenn Sterger is expecting a huge audience this week on ABC’s Good Morning America and Nightline. That could be a huge opportunity especially for someone who wants to push up her career in TV hosting and as an actress. However, Sterger is firm on saying that she just wants her life back and be given the opportunity to go back to work.

Sterger was recently connected to the alleged unacceptable behavior of Brett Favre, a former quarterback. In an interview with George Stephanopoulos she repeatedly said that she simply wants to go back to how things were. She wants to entertain people again. Sterger is, however, torn as the nature of her work allows her to say crazy things and she almost always get away with it.

There were rumors that went out a couple weeks ago that Sterger received a lot of offensive phone messages and photos from the former quarterback Favre. NFL investigators were not able to squeeze out details from Favre so they just asked them to pay a fine of $50,000 for not cooperating in the investigation.

Sterger said that she tried to go back to work and do her job but did not have a clue how to do the news when she is in it. She further said that she was embarrassed and even humiliated. She also denies the rumors saying that she is just a gold-digger who wants to make money off of the issue. She emphasized that she did not get a single centavo from Favre or from any of the photos.

The second part of Sterger’s interview will air on Wednesday on Good Morning America.

Manny Ramirez should be remembered as one of the best hitters in the history of baseball, an MVP who altered the 2004 World Series, and a hall of famer. However, after recent discoveries, he will now always be remembered as a cheater, a coward, and someone who has wasted pure talent.

On Friday, Ramirez announced his retirement in a Major Baseball press release. It was later reported that the batter failed a performance-enhancing drug test performed by the league’s drug program. He decided to retire rather than submit an appeal or go through a 100-game suspension for his second violation.

Ramirez was criticized for his cowardice as he reportedly did not inform his employers of his decision. Rays learned about his retirement only from the Commissioner’s Office; not hearing from both Ramirez and his agent. Ramirez instead quit the team without leaving a notice or at the very least a letter of remorse.

The Rays, Ramirez’s former employer, said they were taken aback and got very disappointed with the athlete. They, however, said that they will not comment further regarding this recent blow to their team and would rather carry on for their fans.

Now, Manny Ramirez will not be awarded with a Hall of Flame plaque because after allegedly failing three different drug tests. New York Time said that Ramirez is one of those people in their 2003 steroid survey. On top of that, he was suspended on 2008 for failing another drug test; and most recently, this spring’s drug test results.

The details of Ramirez’s fall are unclear to everyone, however, the industry is still sad to see such great talent put to waste.

Sebastian Vettel, the world’s youngest title holder at the age of 23, made sure that he defends his championship title well. During the Sunday’s race, the young man kept a comfortable lead against McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

He insisted that it was not an easy race to win. He was not able to pull away from Hamilton on the early laps. He only bagged the 22-second winning lead when Hamilton’s car floor was damaged. However, Vettel said that he is very pleased with how the weekend turned out.

Even the F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, and also a rival in this competition, said that Sebastian Vettel seemed to have been “on another planet” during the Australian Grand Prix.

The young race car champion humbly thanked his team mechanics and persisted that they treat themselves to beer and pizza.  He joked about this the night before his game but after his victory; he thinks that a beer and pizza duo is a nice reward for the mechanics who, he said, have been working so hard.

Vettel even joked about pushing the KERS power boost pretending that he did not know it was not there. Christian Horner, team boss, decided that Vettel should not use the KERS power boost because of some questions about its reliability.

In the end, Sebastian Vettel said that it was a good race and that he learned plenty of things from the weekend’s race. He said that what he needs to do is move forward from this especially because it is still the first race for the season.

February sales are highlighted in the U.S. retail chains reports this week. The sales figures indicate the willingness and ability of shoppers to spend more for household items and clothing now that the cost of gas is increasing.

Several store chains in the United States will report their sales for the month of February on Wednesday or Thursday. These stores include high-end department stores such as Saks Inc and Nordstrom Inc, as well as discounters such as Costco Wholesale Corp and Target Corp.

Analysts from Wall Street expect sales from retail outlets which have been open for a minimum of one year, to have increased 3.6 percent on the previous month. This is based on the Same-Store Sales Index estimates carried out by Thomson Reuters that was updated Tuesday afternoon.

The International Council of Shopping Centers is also expecting February sales in chain stores to increase 2.5 to 3 percent.

Retail stores should haves seen boosted sales in February when immense winter storms hit much of United States in late January and compelled shoppers to delay their purchases.

However, gas prices started to escalate after the turmoil in Libya brought oil prices to its 2 and a half year-highs last week. This could severely depress sales this spring.

The amount of which gasoline prices increase could determine whether or not retailer’s shares, which have slowed since December, will continue to rise.

Analyst Gary Balter of Credit Suisse believes sales have gotten better more than what stocks reflect. The Standard & Poor’s Retail Index increased 0.2 percent this year, while the broader S&P 500 increased 5.2 percent.

Dwayne Wade made an outstanding performance with the most points of 31 in the first half of their game. He finished with a total of 41 points to help Miami Heat beat Indiana Pacers to a score of 110-103 last Tuesday night.

The point guard also made 12 rebounds for Miami, who just leaped back from a defeat last Sunday against Boston. LeBron James made 27 points overall, 10 points of which were scored in the fourth quarter. Chris Bosh scored additional 22 points, including eight rebounds.

For the Pacers, Roy Hibbert made 18 points while Tyler Hansbrough scored additional 16 points for the team. Indiana Pacers, under the short-term coach Frank Vogel, won seven out of nine games. Their losses came from their two fights against Miami Heat.

The first half was actually led by Miami with 24 points. They lost their lead, but retrieved it for good in the last quarter. With only six minutes left to play, James made a dunk to give Miami a 2-point lead. He threw a basket close to Hibbert, but scored when it tipped in to bring Miami’s lead further to 99-94. Then, the rest of the game was led by Miami.

Wade ended the first quarter with 22 points. It was the most points he scored in a quarter this season. Also, Miami made 41 points at the end of the period. It was the highest points Heat have managed to finish in a quarter, as well as the largest point differential the team have achieved in a quarter this season.