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In some breathless quarters of the New York media, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been all but convicted. The former head of the International Monetary Fund, who is charged with trying to rape a hotel maid, has been characterized as an arrogant satyr and dubbed "Le Perv" by the tabloids. Nearly every day, new incriminating details are leaked anonymously to the media. In one report, Strauss-Kahn had the victim pinned to the bed while she begged him to leave her alone, only to be told, "Don't you know who I am?"

The International Monetary Fund agreed to a $7.6-billion bailout for Pakistan, though experts warned that the country remains at risk without more aid and reforms at home. The IMF loan stopped the immediate risk of a currency crash and debt default. The IMF said it would quickly disburse the first $3.1 billion to top up Pakistan's foreign currency reserves, enabling it to pay back bonds that expire early next year.

The Peruvian government announced Thursday that it has asked the International Monetary Fund to close its office in Lima. "I reaffirm that Peru has not held any negotiations with the IMF, that it has signed no agreement with that organization and that it has no intention of changing that policy," the official news agency Andina quoted Prime Minister Luis Alva Castro as saying.

Brazil is still opposed to substantive involvement by the International Monetary Fund in policing its economy, Fernao Bracher, president of Brazil's central bank, said Friday. Bracher made the statement after signing an interim $31-billion financing package with a group of international banks. The IMF provides funds to member countries under certain conditions of need and policy commitments.

Britain is willing to let Japan, the world's second-largest economy, take its place as the second-ranking shareholder in the International Monetary Fund, a British Treasury spokesman said today. Japan, which now holds fifth place in the Washington-based agency in which the United States is the largest shareholder, has long been pushing for a higher IMF ranking to reflect its growing economic strength. Under the British proposals, which could be discussed at a Jan.

The International Monetary Fund said it will provide a financial rescue package to Indonesia after a sharp fall in the value of the currency of the world's fourth most populous country. The international lending institution said it would send a team of experts to Jakarta this week to work out details and would join World Bank and Asian Development Bank teams already in the field. The move was the latest by the organizations to help financially troubled Asian economies.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the beleaguered head of the International Monetary Fund, on Monday was ordered held without bail on sexual-assault charges in New York. As the financial world expressed its continuing confidence in the IMF, the international lender's chief pleaded not guilty to charges that he sexually assaulted a maid in a hotel near Times Square. Making his first court appearance since his arrest on Saturday, Strauss-Kahn was dressed in a black coat, his shirt collar rumpled.

Re "Not All Economies Fit the IMF Mold," Commentary, Jan. 7: Robert Kuttner provides another example of efforts to attack market-oriented economics by distorting the facts concerning the Argentine crisis. Of course legitimate complaints can be raised about particular policies advocated by the IMF and the U.S. government, but the Argentine crisis is not the result of market fundamentalism. It was not economic liberalization that caused the crisis but Argentina's huge budget deficits and overvalued currency.

The head of the International Monetary Fund will remain in his job after the agency's executive board concluded that there is no cause for dismissal over an extramarital relationship. The IMF board issued a statement late Saturday saying that the actions of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn were "regrettable and reflected a serious error of judgment." However, the 24-member board of directors decided that Strauss-Kahn's relationship with the former IMF employee was consensual and did not involve any type of sexual harassment, favoritism or abuse of authority.

President Raul Alfonsin today said that Argentina has reached agreement with the International Monetary Fund and that the United States will help with a loan to prevent the downgrading of overdue payments on the country's $48.4-billion foreign debt. Commenting on Argentina's meeting in Washington with the IMF and creditor banks, Alfonsin said, "It has ended in a satisfactory manner.