The case centres on wiretapped phone-calls in 2014, in which Mr Sarkozy allegedly sought to influence a judge who was looking into suspected illegal funding of his 2007 campaign.

The judge and Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer have also been ordered to stand trial.

They have all denied wrongdoing. Mr Sarkozy’s team says he will appeal against the decision.

In a separate case, the ex-president is accused of receiving campaign funding from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

What is Sarkozy accused of?

In 2014, two years after being voted out of office, the former French president reportedly contacted Mr Azibert, then a senior magistrate at France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation.

Mr Sarkozy is accused of phoning him and offering to use his contacts to secure a prestigious role in Monaco for Mr Azibert, in exchange for the information on a financing case.

Profile: Nicolas Sarkozy

The call – in which Mr Sarkozy allegedly used the alias Paul Bismuth – was wiretapped by police.

In the funding scandal, Mr Sarkozy was accused of taking cash from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt to help him win the 2007 election. He was eventually cleared.

What other investigations does Sarkozy face?

Last week Mr Sarkozy was placed under formal investigation over allegations that he received campaign funding from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2007.

He denies the claims, saying his Libyan accusers want revenge for his decision to send French warplanes during the 2011 uprising.

Mr Sarkozy also faces criminal proceedings over claims that he engaged in accounting fraud to exceed the limit for campaign expenditure in his failed bid for re-election in 2012.

The case is known in France as the Bygmalion affair, after the name of the firm that allegedly provided false invoices to Mr Sarkozy’s party rather than the campaign. Mr Sarkozy again denies any wrongdoing.

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Source: BBC

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Tony Chapron fell to the ground when his heels were clipped – apparently accidently – by Nantes’ Diego Carlos during a league match last month.

Chapron, 45, kicked out at the player, then booked him for a second time.

The referee – who was suspended after the game – was given his punishment by a French league disciplinary committee on Thursday.

Carlos’ booking was rescinded at Chapron’s request.

Chapron has been refereeing in France’s top flight since 2004 and taken charge of more than 400 matches in that time – including the French Cup final in 2014.

Prior to the incident he had announced that this would be his final season as a referee.

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Twenty people were injured and 11 of them were in a critical condition, after the crash on a level crossing between Millas and Saint-Féliu-d’Amont.

The bus had picked up pupils, aged between 13 and 17, from a nearby secondary school before it was hit.

Pictures from the scene showed the bus split in two by the force of the crash.

Train operator SNCF said witnesses had reported seeing the barriers at the level crossing down at the time of the collision, although that was not confirmed.

The bus, which had left the Christian Bourquin College in Millas, was on the crossing when it was hit by the train, which was travelling from Perpignan at around 80km/h (50mph). Visibility was described as good.

A witness who was on the train told local news website l’Indépendant that “it was a very violent crash – it seemed as if the train would derail”. Some 30 people were on the regional train at the time.

Investigators are waiting to interview the woman driver of the bus who was slightly injured in the crash. Both drivers escaped serious injury.

Carole Delga, president of the Occitanie regional council, said the level crossing appeared to be in very good condition and had been upgraded recently. “The level crossing was very visible”, she said. SNCF said it involved an automatic barrier with standard signals and was not considered particularly dangerous.

But the grandmother of an injured 11-year-old girl who had been on the bus told a very different story. The girl had told her that the barrier had not come down but had remained raised. “The red lights that normally flash did not come on,” she said. “The (bus) driver went through and stopped half way, and that’s where the train crashed into it.”

Rail operator SNCF has modernised level crossings across France in recent years, following numerous accidents, the BBC’s Chris Bockman reports from Toulouse.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who visited the scene, said the task of identifying the victims was proving extremely difficult.

“The priority at this stage is to give precise information to the families who are living through a period of anguish that we must make as short as possible”, he said.

Around 70 emergency workers and four helicopters were deployed as part of the rescue effort.

Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne called the crash a “terrible accident” and Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer was due to visit a counselling centre set up at the Christian Bourquin College on Friday.

A statement from the education minister’s office said he would visit “to support students, families, teachers and the entire educational community”.

In a tweet, French President Emmanuel Macron offered his condolences: “All my thoughts for the victims of this terrible accident involving a school bus, as well as their families. The state is fully mobilised to help them.”

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Source: BBC

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Hundreds of firefighters have been deployed to battle the fires near Bormes-les-Mimoses, in the country’s Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.

France earlier asked its EU neighbours for more help fighting the fires.

Some 4,000 hectares (15.4 sq miles) of land have burned along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.

“The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire,” a fire official was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

“It’s an area that doubles or triples its population in summer,” the official added.

One of the worst fires is raging in an area near the popular resort of Saint-Tropez.

In Corsica, hundreds of homes have been evacuated.

Overall, more than 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by water bombers have been trying to extinguish the flames since Monday.

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation, officials say.

Lisa Minot, a British tourist staying in a campsite in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, told the BBC she saw planes scooping up water from the sea and then going back “into the pool of black smoke” on the coast.

Ms Minot said the local authorities had asked holidaymakers to stay on the beach as it was not safe to stay in the campsite.

She added that there were reports that some campsites had already been destroyed by the blazes.

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Source: BBC

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Nicolas Hulot made the announcement as he unveiled a series of measures as part of newly elected President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to make the country carbon neutral by 2050.

Mr Hulot said he recognised the target would put pressure on France’s car manufacturers, but he said they currently had projects which “can fulfil that promise”.

As part of the plan, poorer households will receive a premium so they can swap their polluting vehicles for clean alternatives.

The announcement comes after Volvo said on Wednesday it planned to built only electric and hybrid vehicles from 2019.

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Hulot told reporters France would stop using coal to produce electricity by 2022 and that up to €4bn of investments will help to boost energy efficiency.

The announcements are part of a five-year-plan to encourage clean energy and fulfil the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Mr Hulot said the government wanted to maintain the country’s “leadership” in climate policy.

“We want to demonstrate that fighting against climate change can lead to an improvement of French people’s daily lives,” he said.

France is not the only country which aims to ban combustion-powered cars. The Netherlands and Norway previously said they wanted to get rid of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2025 and Germany and India announced similar plans ahead of 2030.

Mr Hulot also announced plans to end the importation of products such as palm oil and unsustainably grown soya, which contribute to deforestation around the world and particularly in the Amazon forest, South-East Asia and in Congo.

The former journalist and wildlife TV presenter said deforestation represented 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

He said it would be “schizophrenic” to encourage industrials and manufacturers to reduce their emissions while accepting that millions of trees, which absorb carbon dioxide, are being chopped down.

Mr Hulot also said “citizen panels” will be established in order to debate practical ways in which France can meet its commitment under the Paris climate accord and reduce its emissions.

French Parliament is expected to vote on a bill in the autumn which would ban all new exploitation permits for petrol, natural gas and coal.

France has also pledged to reduce nuclear energy from 75 per cent to 50 per cent of the country’s energy mix by 2025.

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Source: Independent.co.uk

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Pham Minh Hoang served a jail sentence after being convicted in 2011 over articles that “blackened the image of the country”.

Hoang, 62, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday after losing his appeal against deportation.
It is rare for dual-nationals to lose the nationality of their country of origin.

US-based Human Rights Watch called the move “unprecedented and shocking”.

Hoang had admitted having joined Viet Tan – a California-based pro-democracy group that Vietnam considers a terrorist organisation. But he denied his writings were aimed at overthrowing the government.
After arriving in Paris on Sunday, Hoang described how Vietnamese police had surrounded his house and taken him away with no prior warning.

He was allowed to meet French consular officials but could not say goodbye to his wife, Le Thi Kieu Oanh.
“It’s Hoang’s ideal to stay in Vietnam to raise a voice and contribute to building freedom and democracy,” Oanh told Reuters news agency.

In a statement, the French embassy in Ho Chi Minh reminded Vietnam of human rights agreements on the freedom of expression it was a party to and must observe.

Human Rights Watch said the Vietnamese action “crosses many human rights red lines on freedom of expression, right to nationality and exercise of basic civil and political freedoms”.

Human rights activists say dozens of government critics in Vietnam have been given long jail terms in recent years.

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Source: BBC

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The driver, who had a weapon inside the car, was knocked unconscious and is seriously injured, French media report.

Police say the situation is now under control, and neither law enforcement officers nor civilians were injured.

France is under a state of emergency after being hit by a wave of deadly terror attacks in recent years.

A policeman was shot dead and two others were wounded in an attack on the Champs Élysées in April, just days before the presidential election.

Sniffer dogs

French media, quoting police sources, say the incident on Monday was deliberate.

A white car is standing in the middle of the empty avenue with one door open and sniffer dogs have been sent in, the BBC’s Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.

Reports say officers had to smash the windows of the car to pull the driver out.

Our correspondent says there are always many police and gendarme vehicles near the spot, as it is next to the local police station.

The national police Twitter account had earlier said (in French) that there was an “ongoing police operation”, warning people to respect the security cordon.

The anti-terrorist section of the prosecutor’s office has opened up an investigation.

Interior Minister Gérard Collomb tweeted a picture of himself at the scene of the “attack aimed at our security forces”.

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The suspect has been wounded in the chest, French media report. Officials say this is a “terrorist incident”.

Some 900 people are still inside the cathedral. Pictures on social media show some holding their hands up.

France is in a state of emergency since attacks by jihadists in Paris left 130 people dead in 2015.

The area around the cathedral has been closed. People have been asked to stay away. Eyewitnesses said tourists fled for cover.

“I was about to come inside [the cathedral] and heard the noise, the gunshots, turned around and saw the assailant on the ground where they had shot him,” said Kellyn Gorman, an American tourist.

“It was very safe, very quickly contained.”

The Notre-Dame is one of the most visited tourist sites in Paris. Last year, police foiled an attack near the site.

The incident comes just three days after extremists used a van and knives in an attack in London which left seven dead.

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Source: BBC

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They will meet at the ornate Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles. Mr Macron says he expects some tough words.

It could be an awkward meeting, the BBC’s Lucy Williamson in Paris reports.

Recently Mr Macron’s election team accused Russian agents of launching cyber attacks against them.

At the G7 summit in Sicily at the weekend Mr Macron said: “It is essential to talk to Russia because there are a number of international issues that will not be resolved without a tough dialogue with them.”

France is in the coalition backing Sunni Arab and Kurdish rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has strong military help from Russia and Iran.

France has taken a tough line against Moscow over Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. Western sanctions, imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, have been ratcheted up since pro-Russian rebels carved out a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine.

Mr Putin appeared to support Mr Macron’s nationalist rival Marine Le Pen during the French presidential election campaign.

He hosted Ms Le Pen in the Kremlin a month before the election’s first round.

Ms Le Pen’s National Front (FN) has received significant loans from Russian banks or banks associated with Russian financiers. She argued that French banks would not give the FN any loans.

Before becoming president this month Mr Macron accused Russia of pursuing “a hybrid strategy combining military intimidation and an information war”.

Versailles was chosen for the Macron-Putin meeting because an exhibition dedicated to Tsar Peter the Great is opening there. He visited Paris 300 years ago, along with other European countries which greatly influenced his reign.

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Source: BBC

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Mr Macron’s plane touched down at a French airbase in the north of the country just before 10:00 GMT (11:00 BST).

He is due to speak with Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita during his short visit.

French soldiers have been fighting Islamic militants in the north of the former French colony since 2013.

Mr Macron – accompanied by Defence Minister Sylvie Goulard and her predecessor, now Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian – will review some of the 4,000 anti-insurgent troops France has deployed in the region.

This is Mr Macron’s second foreign trip as president. He visited German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin a day after his inauguration on Sunday.

As president, he is expected to continue his predecessor’s policy regarding military presence in West Africa. However, the fact French Development Agency (AFD) chief Remy Riouxhas also joined the visit is seen as a sign he wishes to have an emphasis on economic development as well.

France retains a strong influence in its former colonies.

Mr Macron has talked about writing a new page in his country’s relationship on the continent, and of breaking away from the old neo-colonial networks.

As a candidate, he stirred controversy at home by labelling France’s colonial war in Algeria a crime against humanity – something which was well-received in the former colonies.

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Source: BBC

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