Italy's Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to prison after paying 17-year-old for sex
A Milan court yesterday convicted former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute during infamous "bunga bunga" parties at his villa and then using his influence to try to cover it up.

A Milan court yesterday convicted former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute during infamous "bunga bunga" parties at his villa and then using his influence to try to cover it up.
Berlusconi, 76, was sentenced to seven years in prison and barred from public office for life - a sentence that could mean the end of his two-decade political career. However, there are two more levels of appeal before the sentence would become final, a process that can take months.
Berlusconi holds no official post in the current Italian government, but remains influential in the uneasy cross-party coalition that emerged after inconclusive February elections.
Both he and the Moroccan woman at the centre of the scandal have denied ever having sex.
His lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, immediately announced an appeal. "This is beyond reality," he said outside the courthouse.
The sentence was even stiffer than the six-year prison term and lifetime ban on public office that prosecutors had originally requested. "I'm calm because I've been saying for three years that this trial should never have taken place here," Ghedini said.