World's newspapers keep spotlight on Strauss-Kahn

(CNN) -- The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) continued to monopolize column space in newspapers across the world Tuesday, as he completed his first night in New York's infamous Rikers Island jail complex.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, widely tipped to run for the French presidency in 2012, was denied bail by a U.S. court on Monday after being accused of sexually-assaulting a chambermaid at his hotel -- a charge he denies.

"K.O." or "Knocked Out" proclaimed France's Libération on its front page. The simple headline was accompanied by the 62-year-old in court looking haggard and pensive.

Le Figaro appealed to Strauss-Kahn to abandon the IMF and give up his presidential bid. Many in France believed the former finance minister, a member of the French Socialist Party, was the candidate most likely to topple incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

Meanwhile, Le Monde described the "DSK affair" as an "earthquake" for the IMF, the euro and France's political left. Strauss-Kahn and the IMF have been key players in the struggle to control the debt crisis in the eurozone by underwriting bailout packages for some European Union member states.

The Irish Times agreed the news of Strauss-Kahn's arrest could not have come at a worse time for the IMF or its cash-strapped clients. "Under his stewardship," it wrote, "the fund went from lending chiefly to developing countries to shoring up European economies after the collapse of Lehman Brothers plunged the developed world into crisis."

But Greece, one of the main recipients of the IMF/EU rescue packages, has struggled to meet the tough conditions imposed on it. As a result, Greek newspapers offered a particularly hostile response to the Strauss-Kahn scandal.

"Troika's imposter behind prison bars," declared the populist Avriani. It refers to the troika controlling Greece's perilous finances as the IMF, EU and the European Central Bank.

The respected Eleftheros Typos carried the headline "The maid resisted IMF's...rapist," the newspaper's pejorative description for what they believed the IMF chief had done to Greece's economy. It then focused on the French economist's likely successor at the IMF and the impact on its sovereign debt crisis.

Germany's Spiegel was also keen to speculate about the next head of the IMF, claiming that Europe and Asia were preparing to do battle over the influential role. "Europe, mindful of the fund's role in the debt crisis, wants to keep the system of having a European at the helm," wrote journalist Christian Teevs. "But emerging economies say it's time for a change, heralding a dispute over the succession."

Elsewhere, French journalist Isabelle Germain warned against turning Strauss-Kahn into a "victim." Writing in Britain's Guardian newspaper, she said the French media's response to his arrest said much about her country's tolerance of sexual misconduct.

She wrote: "The media reaction to the attempted rape charge confirms that when a rape or sexual assault is reported, the alleged perpetrator quickly morphs into victim -- and vice versa."

She added that the photographs of a "wealthy and powerful man slumped and unshaven in the dock have evoked pity and sympathy," adding that Martine Aubry, first secretary of the French Socialist party, said she was "stunned, shocked" after seeing them, and pleaded for the media onslaught to stop.