Berlusconi sentenced in tax evasion case

Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, has been sentenced by a Milan court to a year in prison for tax fraud connected to his Mediaset television channels and also banned from holding public office for three years. The court sentenced him on Friday to four years but later cut it to one year because of an amnesty law which reduces the sentences of all crimes committed up to May 2006. Berlusconi and 10 co-defendants were further ordered to pay 10m euros ($13m) to Italian tax authorities, a statement said. Al Jazeera's Claudio Lavanga reports from Rome.