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DSK Sins Again: Strauss-Kahn Turns Lobbyist For Big Tobacco

DSK Sins Again: Strauss-Kahn Turns Lobbyist For Big Tobacco

PARIS — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund whose sexual exploits cost him a shot at the French presidency, has been working as a lobbyist in France for cigarette maker Philip Morris,Le Journal du Dimanche reports.

The French weekly cites anonymous sources linked to the U.S. tobacco giant who say Strauss-Kahn (DSK) has helped the company try to convince French lawmakers to reject a proposed law that would introduce generic cigarette packaging. DSK organized a meeting between the head of Philip Morris France and a figure close to the center-left government two months ago.

DSK has spent the past four years successfully fighting criminal charges both in the U.S. and France linked to his outsized sexual appetite. Though he hit Twitter for the first time last June and raised eyebrows when it emerged that he was consulting for Russian banks and Serbian hardliners, the former French Finance Minister has kept a mostly low professional profile.

Le Journal du Dimanche quoted a DSK friend as saying that the former politician doesn't sign contracts with the French "to avoid any polemics," though the work for Philip Morris France could have been arranged in other ways.

DSK is himself not a regular cigarette smoker, though he has been known to occasionally enjoy a pipe.

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Society

Sleep Divorce: The Benefits For Couples In Having Separate Beds

Sleeping separately is often thought to be the beginning of the end for a loving couple. But studies show that having permanently separate beds — if you have the space and means — can actually reinforce the bonds of a relationship.

Image of a woman sleeping in a bed.

A woman sleeping in her bed.

BUENOS AIRES — Couples, it is assumed, sleep together — and sleeping apart is easily taken as a sign of a relationship gone cold. But several recent studies are suggesting, people sleep better alone and "sleep divorce," as the habit is being termed, can benefit both a couple's health and intimacy.

That is, if you have the space for it...

While sleeping in separate beds is seen as unaffectionate and the end of sex, psychologist María Gabriela Simone told Clarín this "is not a fashion, but to do with being able to feel free, and to respect yourself and your partner."

She says the marriage bed originated "in the matrimonial duty of sharing a bed with the aim of having sex to procreate." That, she adds, gradually settled the idea that people "who love each other sleep together."

Is it an imposition then, or an overwhelming preference? Simone says intimacy is one thing, sleeping another.

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