The trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign has shed light on France’s back-channel talks with the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has denounced the court ruling that placed a five-year ban on her seeking public office for embezzlement.

French prosecutors have requested seven years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros or around $325,000 for former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

A trial has opened of France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy and 11 co-defendants over alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

France’s highest court has upheld an appeal court decision which had found former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling.

There was a brief altercation between a small number of fans early into Thursday’s Nations League soccer game between France and Israel despite heavy security inside the stadium, a week after violence erupted in Amsterdam in connection with an Israeli club team’s visit.

French investigative judges have filed preliminary charges against former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The era of France’s arm-twisting interventionism in Africa may finally be over.

French prosecutors are seeking to send former President Nicolas Sarkozy to trial on charges that he received millions in illegal campaign financing from the government of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Former Germany captain Philipp Lahm says it was “a mistake” to award the World Cup to Qatar.

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter says picking Qatar to host the World Cup was a mistake 12 years ago.

French President Emmanuel Macron has visited Paris’ main mosque to mark 100 years since it was built -- a stop to show how the French leader wishes to represent all factions of French society months after his reelection.

The capital of France may be thousands of miles away from the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, but what happens in French voting stations this month could have repercussions there.

French President Emmanuel Macron held his first big rally Saturday in his race for reelection, promising the French more “progress” and “solidarity” over the next five years.

A conservative politician who is vying to become France’s first female president is hoping to boost her declining fortunes with her first major campaign rally.

French President Emmanuel Macron hasn’t officially declared that he’s a candidate for April’s presidential election yet.

The French government has introduced a new body to reshape Islam in France and rid it of extremism.

In her first address as a French conservative presidential candidate, Valérie Pécresse is vowing to break with President Emmanuel Macron's centrist policies and to defeat the extremism of her far-right presidential rivals.

Valérie Pécresse, the head the Paris region and a former conservative minister, has been chosen to run in France’s presidential race for The Republicans party.

French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy has been convicted and sentenced to a year of house arrest for illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 reelection bid.

French President Emmanuel Macron has apologized to Algerians who fought alongside French colonial forces in Algeria’s war for independence.

President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party was decimated in this weekend’s regional elections and Marine Le Pen’s far-right party failed.

Marine Le Pen’s once-ascendant far-right party is struggling ahead of runoff elections for France's regional leadership.

The trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has concluded in Paris, after a month during which the court sought to determine whether he broke laws on campaign financing in his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid.

In a key speech on his visit to Rwanda, French President Emmanuel Macron said he recognizes that France bears a heavy responsibility for the 1994 genocide in the central African country.

France and Rwanda are hoping to reset ties scarred by a quarter-century of recriminations over the 1994 Rwandan genocide when French President Emmanuel Macron visits the central African country.

The trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on charges that his unsuccessful 2012 reelection bid was illegally financed has formally started.

President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for bringing France out of the pandemic aren’t just about resuscitating long-closed restaurants, boutiques and museums, but about preparing his possible campaign for a second term.

He's known throughout most of Europe as Mr. Brexit, but not so well known at home in France.

The lead author of a report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron said France’s role before and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide was a “monumental failure” that the country must acknowledge.

FILE - In this April 28, 2012 file photo, France's President and candidate for re-election in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy, gestures as he delivers a speech during a campaign meeting in Cournon-d'Auvergne, central France. Former President Sarkozy is scheduled to go on trial Wednesday, March 17, on charges that his unsuccessful reelection bid in 2012 was illegally financed. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)PARIS – The trial of French former President Nicolas Sarkozy on charges that his unsuccessful reelection bid in 2012 was illegally financed has been postponed for two months. However, the trial was suspended and postponed until May 20 because one of the defense lawyers has been hospitalized with COVID-19. Two weeks ago, Sarkozy was convicted of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives at the courtroom Monday, March 1, 2021 in Paris. A Paris court on Monday found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence. The Paris court found that Sarkozy and his two codefendants sealed in 2014 a “pact of corruption,” based on “consistent and serious evidence." “I had said I won’t run in the presidential election, I’m maintaining it," he was quoted as saying. Sarkozy will face another trial later this month over suspicions regarding his 2012 presidential campaign, which ended in victory for Socialist rival Francois Hollande.

The verdict is expected in a landmark corruption and influence-peddling trial that has put French former President Nicolas Sarkozy at risk of a prison sentence if he is convicted. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)PARIS – A Paris court found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling on Monday and sentenced him to a year in prison. The ruling marks the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted of corruption — and given a prison term. The court found that Sarkozy and his co-defendants sealed a “pact of corruption,” based on “consistent and serious evidence”. AdIn one phone call with Herzog, Sarkozy said of Azibert: “I’ll make him move up.

PARIS – French prosecutors on Tuesday requested two years of prison and a two-year suspended sentence for former President Nicolas Sarkozy in a landmark corruption and influence peddling trial in Paris. The 65-year-old Sarkozy is accused of having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about an investigation involving him. Prosecutors requested the same sentence for Sarkozy's codefendants — his lawyer and friend Thierry Herzog and magistrate Gilbert Azibert. It’s the first time Sarkozy, president from 2007-2012, is facing trial, though the conservative politician is the target of multiple investigations. “I have has never committed any act of corruption — never," Sarkozy told the court Monday.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives at the courtroom, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020 in Paris. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial Monday on charges of corruption and influence peddling in a phone-tapping scandal, a first for the 65-year-old politician who has faced several other judicial investigations since leaving office in 2012. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)PARIS – Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy went on trial Monday on charges of corruption and influence peddling in a phone-tapping scandal, a first for the 65-year-old politician who has faced several other judicial investigations since leaving office in 2012. He stands trial in a Paris court along with his lawyer Thierry Herzog, 65, and the magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, 73. They face a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of 1 million euros ($1.2 million).

Sarkozy, who denies wrongdoing, has been given preliminary corruption charges in the case, under investigation since 2013. Investigators are examining claims that Gadhafi’s regime secretly gave Sarkozy 50 million euros overall for his winning 2007 French campaign. In 2007, Sarkozy welcomed Gadhafi to France with high honors. Sarkozy then put France at the forefront of NATO-led airstrikes that helped rebel fighters topple Gadhafi’s regime in 2011. Sarkozy and Takieddine have faced other legal troubles in France.

PARIS A Paris court has found French former prime minister Francois Fillon guilty of having used public funds to pay his wife and children for work they never performed. The work had brought the family more than 1 million euros ($1.08 million) since 1998. Fillon, who was Frances prime minister from 2007 to 2012, then left French politics. A Paris court is set to give or may postpone a verdict in the fraud trial of former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Monday. Fillon, once the youngest lawmaker at the National Assembly at the age of 27, served as prime minister under President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012.