No answers yet in French scholar's death

An initial autopsy for a prominent French scholar found dead in his hotel room requires further study, officials said.

The medical examiner's office said yesterday toxicology and other tests would be performed on the body of Richard Descoings to determine a cause of death.

Descoings, 53, was found in his Manhattan hotel room after he failed to show up for a Columbia University conference.

He served as the director of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, or Sciences Po, one of France's top colleges.

Detectives found no evidence that anyone had broken into Descoings' seventh-floor room, or any clear signs of trauma to his body, police spokesman Paul Browne said.

Police said a laptop computer and a cellphone believed to belong to Descoings were found on a third-floor ledge below his room at the Michelangelo Hotel.

Empty alcohol bottles and prescription medication were found in his room.

Descoings, who pioneered opening elitist schools to the underprivileged, had been scheduled to appear Tuesday at a conference at Columbia, and when he failed to answer phone calls, hotel security found his body and dialed 911.

In France, news of Descoings' the death prompted praise from President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leaders.

Descoings' tenure as director of Sciences Po marked "a historic turning point in awareness of scandalous social elitism in France," Sarkozy said.

Descoings also made the school "world renowned" after it opened to foreign students, Sarkozy said.

Hundreds of students held an emotional memorial on the university grounds.