French magistrates have ordered former president Nicolas Sarkozy and 12 others to go on trial on charges that his 2007 presidential campaign received millions in illegal financing from the government of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The national financial prosecutor, Jean-Francois Bohnert, announced that the decade-long investigation has been formally closed. The trial will run from January to April 2025, the statement said. The case is the biggest of multiple corruption investigations involving Sarkozy. He has been convicted in two others. He denies wrongdoing in all cases. In the Libya case, he is charged with illegal campaign financing, embezzling, passive corruption and related counts. Sarkozy has been under investigation in the Libya case since 2013. Investigators examined claims that Gaddafi's government secretly gave Sarkozy 50 million euros (£42 million) for his winning 2007 campaign. The sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time and would violate French rules against foreign campaign financing. The investigation gained traction when French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told news site Mediapart in 2016 that he had delivered suitcases from Libya containing five million euros (£4.2 million) in cash to Sarkozy and his former chief of staff. Takieddine later reversed course and Sarkozy sought to have the investigation closed. In May, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) demanded that Sarkozy be tried, citing charges against him of "concealment of laundering public funds, passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime punishable by 10 years in jail". Investigating magistrates, who had the last word, gave the go-ahead for a trial, the PNF said. After becoming president in 2007, Sarkozy welcomed Gaddafi to France with high honours later that year. Sarkozy then put France at the forefront of Nato-led air strikes that helped rebel fighters topple Gaddafi's government in 2011. In an unrelated case, Sarkozy was sentenced to a year under house arrest for illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid. He is free while the case is pending appeal. He was also found guilty of corruption and influence peddling in another case and sentenced to a year under house arrest in an appeals trial in May this year. He took the case to France's highest court, which suspended the sentence. Associated Press Read More French former President Nicolas Sarkozy to go on trial over Libya financing for 2007 campaign Wagner leader ‘killed’ in plane crash: Your questions answered by an expert Minister calls out ‘arsonist scum’ as 79 arrested over Greece wildfires

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Dillon Danis has claimed that a viral clip of him stuttering during a sit-down face-off with Logan Paul was edited by the infamous YouTuber to make him look bad. The two controversial personalities are squaring off in the boxing ring on October 14th in Manchester's AO arena but before that spoke to each other face-to-face for DAZN which is yet to be released in its entirety. In a clip that Paul released on his X/Twitter account, the WWE wrestler mocks the MMA fighter who struggles to get his words out during the heated confrontation. The footage shows Paul calling out Danis for "sending him so many messages" which Danis struggles to find the words to reply with. Paul immediately jumps on this telling his opponent that he sounds like he's "got Conor McGregor's n**sack in his mouth." He adds that watching him "stumble your way through these sentences is painful" before yelling "get this man a glass of water." The clip doesn't show any of Danis's replies to Paul but he has since claimed that the footage is edited. The 30-year-old wrote on X/Twitter: "This was completely edited by him to look this way. Just wait until the full thing comes out; classic Logan Paul. I can't wait for everyone to see how badly I roast him." This comes off the back of weeks of trolling by Danis towards Paul's fiance Nina Agdal, which has included Danis sharing clearly fake images and videos of the Danish model in intimate situations. However, the incessant trolling of Agdal has led to her filing a lawsuit against Danis on the grounds of the "humiliation, emotional distress, and reputational harm" that the posts have caused her. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The last-place Phoenix Mercury have fired coach Vanessa Nygaard and replaced her with assistant Nikki Blue for the remainder of the season

(Reuters) -Catalent beat Wall Street's estimates for first-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as the contract drug manufacturer showed signs of improvement

GAITHERSBURG, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2023--

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Records show that Mississippi announced financial incentives for a shipbuilder in 2020 days after the president of the shipbuilder’s parent company donated $10,000 to the governor's campaign fund

Wales flyhalf Dan Biggar is confirmed to start against Argentina in their Rugby World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday in Marseille after a right pectoral injury