Strauss-Kahn is a tourist attraction

NEW YORK - The New York apartment where the former IMF leader is under house arrest on sexual-assault charges has become a tourist hot spot.

Yesterday, open-top buses passed by, with cameras pointed at the luxury high-rise in lower Manhattan where Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, was holed up with his wife, Anne Sinclair, who put up his $1 million bail and $5 million bond.

The economist is accused of attacking a maid in his hotel suite. He has denied the allegations.

A crowd of international reporters and onlookers is gathering around the clock outside the 21-story Empire Building at 71 Broadway, across from Wall Street. Strauss-Kahn was moved there Friday from his Rikers Island jail cell.

Another Manhattan building rejected him, after residents expressed fears about the kind of 24-hour media frenzy being staged on Broadway behind police barricades.

Strauss-Kahn resigned Wednesday as head of the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has been working to find a successor to lead an organization that provides billions in loans to stabilize the world economy.