17:40 GMT - AFP IS CLOSING THIS LIVE REPORT on the ongoing trial of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on pimping charges. We leave you with a brief round-up of today's hearing:
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves his hotel in Lille to attend his trial on pimping charges
-- As DSK took to the stand for a second day, the court heard how he took a prostitute to his office at the International Monetary Fund in Washington -- a rendez-vous captured on camera. He denies knowing she was a sex worker.
-- That prostitute, Jade, broke down in tears as she told the court she had been sodomised by DSK on a separate occasion in a Brussels hotel, without him asking permission. She says his behaviour proves he knew she was a prostitute.
-- Strauss-Kahn said he did not know she objected and was "sorry" she had a negative experience. But he steadfastly denies knowing that she or any of the other women involved in sex parties he attended were paid.
-- If found guilty of procuring prostitutes as part of an organised group he could face up to 10 years in prison. The trial continues.
17:38 GMT - Carnage - In his final comments before closing, Strauss-Kahn criticised previous testimony from Ines, a former prostitute and one of the accusers, and her account of a party in a hotel in Lille which frequently featured the term, "carnage". "Carnage, carnage... there was nothing new here. It was a standard party," he says.
17:25 GMT - Hearing ends - Hilarity as lawyer asks DSK to explain process of reserving hotel room: "Well you pick up your phone...".
17:14 GMT - Straight-talking - One of the judges is fed up of defendants apparently having trouble calling a spade a spade. "Mr Roquet, everything you say needs translating," he complains. "When you speak of 'lovely massage', is it a massage with fellatio?" David Roquet nods to indicate "yes".
16:49 GMT - AFP's @franblandy tweets: "Eyes glazing over as court focuses on nittygritty of pimping charge against #DSK's friends. Arguing at length over nature of a massage."
16:45 GMT - 'Libertine friend' - Jean-Christophe Lagarde is called up again, this time by the female deputy public prosecutor. "I'm learning something about police officers and their level of precision," she says sarcastically.
He responds saying the woman with whom he went to Washington was a "libertine friend", a swinger. The description triggers a ripple of laughter in the courtroom.
15:54 GMT - Orgy - For the first time since the start of the trial six days ago, presiding judge Bernard Lemaire uses the French word for orgy, "partouze". This is in relation to Virginie Dufour's role in the Murano hotel episode described at length on Tuesday.
"You left because it turned into an orgy?" Lemaire asks. "No, no that's not what I said," she replies, apparently embarrassed.
15:38 GMT - Hearing resumes - Virginie Dufour, ex-partner of Fabrice Paszowski -- one of the 14 accused -- is called up. The court hasn't heard much from her in recent days, prompting her to remark: "I was wondering what I'm doing here!"
15:18 GMT - Lacklustre - While the court hears details of statements made by prostitutes who are not part of the proceedings, Jade and Mounia, the two main accusers, remain seated in the courtroom.
Earlier Jade was in tears as she described how she was sodomised by DSK, without him asking permission, while on Tuesday Mounia also gave a tearful account of her sexual encounter with the former IMF-chief.
The present courtroom exchanges, focused on written reports, seem bland in comparison.
14:55 GMT - Aurelie - The panel of judges want to know about a second trip to Washington, in December 2010, and draw attention to a statement by "Aurelie", another absent prostitute.
"It never crossed my mind that she could have been a prostitute," insists Strauss-Kahn, flanked by Paszkowski, Roquet and Lagarde.
14:48 GMT - Naughty boys - AFP's @franblandy tweets: "With hands crossed in front of them, standing, faces grim, DSK and his three friends remind me of schoolboys summoned to principal's office."
14:46 GMT - Estelle - The court is now examining charges relating to the pimping out of other prostitutes not in court to testify, and questioning defendants on the basis of their statements.
One prostitute, Estelle, says ex-policeman Lagarde and DSK must have known she was paid because "they aren't handsome" -- inferring they couldn't have attracted a woman like her for sex without paying for it.
14:37 GMT - Atmosphere - The discourse is much less spirited this afternoon than it was in the emotion-fuelled morning session. Many people in the courtroom are tapping away on their mobile devices while keeping an ear on the testimonies of Paszkowski, Roquet and Lagarde, says AFP's Benjamin Massot.
14:17 GMT - IMF photo - Discussion returns to the subject of the photo of Jade with DSK at his office at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. "I would not have taken the risk in my office at the IMF" of taking a photo with her, knowing she was a prostitute, the former IMF chief says.
"It's inconceivable", he exclaims before returning to the bench to be seated with co-defendants David Roquet and Paszkowski.
14:10 GMT - 'Not naive' - DSK is back on now and launches into a vigorous rebuttal of Jade's comments this morning ("there's naive and there's naive").
"I'm not naive," he says. "I never experienced it like that," he says of their encounter at a Brussels hotel.
He seeks to cast doubt on her testimony, questioning how she could paint a positive picture of their meeting in Washington after describing him in such violent terms in the Brussels episode, asking: "So... what's true in this story?"
13:58 GMT - Six flights - The court hears how Paszkowski financed Lagarde's trip to Washington. The prosecutor Fevre throws a few glances at Lagarde and asks is it "normal" for a police commissioner to have all that paid for him? "All that" being six plane tickets for Washington as well as other trips in France.
Lagarde's response: "They were private trips. It was the friend, not the police officer (who was invited). I did not find that abnormal."
13:45 GMT - Payment - Next Jean-Christophe Lagarde, the ex-police commissioner, is called to explain his financing of the Washington trip. Did he have his suspicions that Jade was a prostitute, the judges want to know.
"I did not know that Jade was remunerated," says Lagarde.
13:36 GMT - Disturbance - The party of civil plaintiffs reacts noisily after another appearance by Jade and are slapped down by the prosecutor.
"Madame, one does not applaud in a courtroom, it is not an auditorium!" warns state prosecutor Frederic Fevre.
13:27 GMT - 'Mistake' - Paszkowski explains his part in the trip to Washington which we heard about earlier, where prostitute Jade was paid 2000 euros to go along.
"That was certainly a mistake to be accompanied by a prostitute," he says. Jade was not hired for the services of DSK but for another person, at the behest of Paszkowski, the court hears.
13:17 GMT - Close friend - To recap, giving evidence Tuesday Paszkowski said he organised sex parties for his "close friend" Strauss-Kahn but never told him the women who attended were paid prostitutes.
13:09 GMT - Paszkowski - First up in the afternoon session is Fabrice Paszkowski, friend of DSK, businessman and sex party organiser.
13:00 GMT - In brief - Court due to resume in a few moments. First, here's a brief round-up of today's hearing so far:
-- Retired prostitute Jade took the stand for a second day in a tearful and tense start to proceedings. She broke down as she described how she was sodomised by Strauss-Kahn without him asking permission -- an act she claims demonstrates he knew she was a prostitute and not just a libertine.
-- DSK says he did not know she objected and is "sorry" she had a negative experience. But he steadfastly denies knowing that she or any of the other women involved in sex parties he attended were paid prostitutes. If found guilty of procuring prostitutes as part of an organised group he could face up to 10 years in prison.
-- The court then heard details of how Strauss-Kahn took Jade to visit his office at the International Monetary Fund in Washington while the prostitute was on a trip that earned her 2000 euros.
11:23 GMT - Break - The court breaks for lunch after an intense morning of questioning. Join us again at 13:00 GMT when proceedings resume.
11:22 GMT - Naive? - Responding to DSK's defence that he could not have guessed she was a prostitute, Jade says: "There's naive and naive!" DSK is no fool, she argues, adding in her thick Belgian accent: "It's a bit easy to hide behind that (line of argument)."
11:15 GMT - IMF photo - The main judge passes around a photo to the other panel members of Jade and DSK in an office of the IMF, remarking to the ex-prostitute: "You are all smiles in the photo."
"Yes, it was rather nice," she replies, prompting a few laughs in the courtroom. "On the whole I have good memories of Washington," she says of her three-day trip to the US capital.
11:11 GMT - 'Tourism' - Jade is called back. She says she went to Washington as a tourist, because she wanted to visit the city.
When she ended up attending a party with DSK it "turned into a fiasco", she says. She didn't have sex with him as one of the participants didn't want to get involved in the orgy which "killed the atmosphere", she explains.
11:00 GMT - 'Circle of friends' - The panel of judges are interested in the motivations which pushed DSK's friend, businessman Fabrice Paszkowski, to take Jade to Washington.
"Why go accompanied?" the main judge asks.
"It was more pleasant. We are a goup of friends," replies Paszkowski, who says he was going to the US for commercial reasons.
10:50 GMT - Washington - Judges are now examining trips to Washington in January 2010. The court hears that Jade was paid 2000 euros on this occasion.
- Washington gathering -
10:45 GMT - Agitated - Questioned by the civil plaintiffs on his sexual relations with Jade, DSK repeats his case that he didn't realise he was causing her pain and is "sorry". But he notes that she didn't leave "slamming the door".
Becoming more agitated about questions on sodomy he says: "Listen, I've had enough". He says it's "absurd" that this should require prostitutes and points out he is not up for charges of "sexual aggression".
10:36 GMT - Faking it - Jade earlier said she had faked enjoyment. DSK admits that he cannot tell the difference.
10:29 GMT - Unflappable - DSK seems solid as a rock and his version of events never wavers, despite questions from the judges, lawyers and civil plaintiffs. His case is clear: Jade was a libertine and he couldn't have had any doubts about her role.
AFP's Fran Blandy tweets from the courtroom: "Strauss-Kahn unflappable as he fends off questions about his sexual practices, for which he is unapologetic."
10:23 GMT - DSK 'girlfriend' - "I came with a girlfriend, there were dozens of women" at Belgian swingers club Tantra, says DSK. "Why would I need a prostitute on top of that?"
Asked about the fact that men can go to swingers parties accompanied by prostitutes, he says: "It is like a flying fish: it exists but it is not the most common."
10:14 GMT - 'Unaware' - Explaining his behaviour with Jade at the Brussels hotel after club Tantra, Strauss-Kahn says: "I was not there to do unpleasant things to a partner." He says he believes her but had no way of realising she wasn't OK with it.
The fallen politician seems at ease and expresses himself fluently on his recollection of events.
10:05 GMT - 'Sorry' - DSK says he did not know Jade objected (to the act of sodomy) and is "sorry" she experienced it so negatively. He denies knowing she was paid 500 euros for the occasion.
10:01 GMT - Tantra - Strauss-Kahn is up now and the main judge asks him about the episode at Belgian swingers club Tantra. According to DSK his friend Fabrice Paszkowski organised the "swingers party" at the venue in the Belgian countryside.
The club "was not reserved for me," he adds. "That makes no sense." Of the 40 or so participants, DSK says he knew around three-quarters.
- 'Swingers party' -
09:50 GMT - Sodomy - Strauss-Kahn's laywer asks if there are practices which are reserved only for prostitutes. Jade is pushed into a corner here and resorts to reiterating her point that when it came to anal sex, "no one asked me because I was a prostitute."
Jade becomes increasingly angered as Baulieu asks her questions about "sodomy". She threatens to sit down and not reply to any more but finally returns to the microphone.
09:39 GMT - Social divide - Ruffled now, the ex-prostitute says she doesn't care how big a fish DSK was. "Does he think you can do what you like because someone is of a different social status?" she demands.
Now Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Baulieu picks up the questioning. The defence case is that Jade attended libertine evenings where those involved were free to participate in sexual acts or not.
09:31 GMT - Key question - The debate is much the same as yesterday: could Strauss-Kahn have been ignorant of the fact that Jade was not just a libertine, but a prostitute?
According to Jade, DSK clearly considered her as a prostitute, as demonstrated by the sodomy episode.
09:23 GMT - Disrespect - Jade continues: "To have inflicted what he inflicted on me, he could have had very little respect for me."
09:18 GMT - 'Torn' - "If I had been asked, I would have said 'no, I don't want that'," adds Jade, in reference to the act of sodomy which she says "tore" her. More tears follow.
"No other client would dare do that," she adds.
09:13 GMT - Sodomy - "I don't want my friends and family knowing about this kind of thing," says Jade. Judges press her to continue.
"There was a moment that was really unpleasant," she says, crying. She goes on to explain how DSK performed sodomy on her without asking permission, suggesting he must have known she was a prostitute.
- Sodomy 'unwanted' -
09:07 GMT - Brussels hotel - Huge tension in the courtroom now as Jade testifies. Judges are trying to understand what happened at a hotel in Brussels, after the Tantra club, between Jade and DSK in the autumn of 2009.
09:04 GMT - Fifty Shades - Coincidentally, as the content of this trial becomes increasingly explicit "Fifty Shades of Grey", the long-anticipated movie version of the bestselling erotic novel, hits the screens today.
AFP's Fran Blandy tweets: "Twitter timeline abuzz with 50 shades of Grey as we are exposed to 50 shades of DSK. More moralising over latter in media it seems."
08:54 GMT - 'Butchery' - This time the focus is on a party at Belgian swingers club Tantra. The panel of judges want to know whether Jade, a sex worker at the time, was taken to the club to have sex with DSK.
Jade describes an orgy which she says she didn't participate in as "butchery". "I don't get mixed up in that kind of thing," she says, adding that in any case she is "agoraphobic".
08:42 GMT - Jade returns - And the hearing begins. The presiding judge asks people not to take photos, noting that some shots were apparently taken yesterday.
First up to give evidence is retired prostitute Jade, who on Tuesday gave a revealing account of a sex party she attended in Paris, describing a scene where she was pleasuring DSK as he lay sprawled on a bed surrounded by women.
08:35 GMT - Relaxed - Strauss-Kahn is stood in the courtroom, talking to his lawyers Henri Leclerc and Frederique Baulieu and co-defendants Fabrice Paszkowski and David Roquet who are among the 14 standing trial. The former French presidential hopeful seems relaxed ahead of the hearing, due to kick off at any moment.
08:30 GMT - Libertine question - AFP's Fran Blandy is back in the packed courtroom preparing for a second day of Strauss-Kahn testimony. She tweets: "What is a libertine? How do you identify a prostitute? Court in Lille to unpick more of the same in 'aggravated pimping' trial against #DSK".
Much of Monday's questioning was aimed at establishing whether Strauss-Kahn knew the women involved in his sex parties were paid prostitutes or, as he argues, he could legitimately have believed them to be "libertines".
08:22 GMT - Arrival - Strauss-Kahn has already arrived at the Palais de Justice in a car with thick, tinted windows, AFP's Benjamin Massot reports from Lille in northern France.
There was less drama than during his arrival yesterday when DSK was greeted by topless Femen protesters who launched themselves onto the bonnet of his vehicle.
08:15 GMT - WELCOME TO AFP'S LIVE REPORT on the trial of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is expected to take the stand for a second day to defend himself against pimping charges.
Appearing at the Palais de Justice in Lille on Tuesday, the former IMF chief denied knowing the women he had orgies with were prostitutes and said paying for sex would be too great a risk for a man of his position.
Ex-prostitutes described in detail group sex scenes involving the 65-year-old, who faces charges of "aggravated pimping" in an alleged vice ring.
DSK, as he is known in France, admits being a libertine but says he never knew the women involved were paid sex workers.