Emilio Fede, Lele Mora and Nicole Minetti were given jail sentences of between five and seven years.

Last month Mr Berlusconi was given seven years in jail for paying for sex with 17-year-old Karima El Mahroug.

Both Mr Berlusconi and Ms Mahroug deny having had sex, and she says she has never been a prostitute.

Ms Mahroug is one of the women that the three associates in the current trial are alleged to have procured.

Mr Berlusconi is appealing against the earlier ruling, which also banned him from public office. He remains a free man and a member of parliament while he does so.

Mr Berlusconi insists the alleged sex parties were actually dinners where female guests performed "burlesque" dancing.

The three convicted in the current trial deny the charges and are likely to appeal.

The prosecution said they used to vet the young women and then introduce them to Mr Berlusconi's soirees at his mansion near Milan, the BBC's Alan Johnston reports from Rome.

The prosecution told the court the evenings would begin with dinner, but become increasingly sexually charged, our correspondent adds.

The court heard of an occasion when Ms Minetti, formerly a showgirl, performed a raunchy dance for the then prime minister.

She appeared dressed as a nun and then stripped down to her underwear.

She told her lawyer by telephone that she was "stunned by the excessive punishment", AFP reports.

Mr Fede, a former talent agent, and Mr Mora, a television host, were also banned from holding public office.

Mr Berlusconi has blamed the multiple legal cases against him on left-wing elements in the judiciary. He says they are determined to smear him and drive him out of politics.

Neither he nor Ms Mahroug was a defendant in the current trial.

However, judges have asked prosecutors to investigate whether he lied when testifying in the three aides' defence and should face further charges.

The Republican said the city - once the birthplace of the US car industry, now groaning under $18bn (£12bn) of debt - deserves a fresh start.

Detroit has faced decades of problems linked to declining industry.

Public services are nearing collapse and about 70,000 properties lie abandoned.

Gov Snyder said the city had filed for bankruptcy on Thursday because it was "basically broke".

"Many people may step back and say this is the lowest point in Detroit's history," he told Friday's news conference. "The history books may say that.

"But what would happen if we didn't do this act?

"Detroit would continue to go downhill and it wouldn't be the lowest day in Detroit's history. They would continue day after day and that's not right, again for the citizens."

He added: "We will come out with a stronger, better Detroit and a format to grow this city. The citizens of not just this city but the state deserve it."

Gov Snyder was flanked by state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who suggested last month that the city's long-term debt could be as high as $20bn.

Mr Orr will be allowed to liquidate city assets to satisfy creditors and pensions, if the bankruptcy filing at a federal court is approved.

Detroit - known as Motor City for its once-thriving automobile industry - stopped unsecured-debt payments last month to keep the city running.

Mr Orr proposed a deal in June in which creditors would accept 10 cents for every dollar they were owed. The city is currently paying 38 cents on the dollar.

But two pension funds representing retired city workers resisted the plan.

Ed McNeil, the lead negotiator for a coalition of 33 unions, told Reuters news agency the move was about "busting the unions".

"This is not about fixing the city's finances," he said. "It's about the governor and his own agenda to take over the city of Detroit."

US car company General Motors said on Thursday it did not expect any impact on its operations.

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The White House said it was closely monitoring developments in the Michigan city.

The city has struggled with its finances for some time, driven by a number of factors, including a steep population loss.

Just between 2000-10, the number of residents declined by 250,000 as people moved away.

The murder rate is at a 40-year high and only one third of its ambulances were in service in early 2013.

Police response times to 911 calls average 58 minutes, compared with 11 minutes nationally.

And Detroit's government has been hit by a string of corruption scandals over the years.

Detroit is only the latest US city to file for bankruptcy in recent years.

In 2012, three smaller California cities - Stockton, Mammoth Lakes and San Bernardino - took the step.

Navalny was imprisoned for five years for embezzlement from a timber firm. He had denied the charges, saying the trial was politically motivated.

The EU said the verdict posed "serious questions" about Russian law, while the US said it was "deeply disappointed".

Amnesty International denounced what it said was "a parody of a prosecution and a parody of a trial".

The 37-year-old had been a leading campaigner against President Putin's United Russia party, and regularly blogged about corruption allegations.

Before he was handcuffed and led away, Navalny urged his supporters to continue his anti-corruption struggle, tweeting: "Don't sit around doing nothing."

Navalny had recently registered his candidacy for the next mayor of Moscow, but his campaign team said that after the verdict he was withdrawing from the race, and called on his supporters to boycott the vote.

'Parody of a trial'

The BBC's Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford says that when the sentence was handed down, there were tears from Navalny's supporters and an explosion of anger on the social networking sites that he has used so effectively.

Anti-Putin activist and former cabinet minister Boris Nemtsov told reporters the trial was "completely fabricated from start to finish, and even the judge could not say what the reason for the crime was".

The US ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, said: "We are deeply disappointed in the conviction of Navalny and the apparent political motivations in this trial."

A spokesman for the EU's top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, said the embezzlement charges were unsubstantiated, and that Navalny's jailing posed "serious questions as to the state of the rule of law in Russia".

Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia director, John Dalhuisen, said in a statement: "This was a parody of a prosecution and a parody of a trial.

"It demonstrates how the Russian authorities abuse criminal prosecutions to persecute government critics and suppress political opposition and civil activism. This fits into the broader crackdown on the freedoms of expression, association and assembly under way in Russia today."

Navalny's supporters in Moscow have vowed to stage protests against the verdict later on Thursday.

'Don't get bored'

Navalny arrived at the courtroom in Kirov to hear the verdict after a 12-hour overnight train journey from Moscow.

Our correspondent said Navalny smiled in a resigned manner when the almost inevitable guilty verdict came.

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His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said her husband knew he would get a non-suspended sentence and was mentally prepared to go to prison.

Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled timber worth 16m rubles ($500,000; £330,000) from the Kirovles state timber company while working as an adviser to Kirov's governor Nikita Belykh.

The prosecution had asked for a six-year jail sentence, but judge Sergei Blinov decided on five years, and said there were no extenuating circumstances that would warrant keeping Navalny out of prison.

Navalny's co-accused, Pyotr Ofitserov, was also found guilty, and given a four-year jail sentence.

State television has only shown limited interest in the process despite Navalny's prominence, but online the trial has been followed extensively.

Mr Navalny came to public attention when he inspired mass protests against the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin in December 2011.

Judge Blinov said he found the testimony of the main prosecution witness, Vyacheslav Opalev, to be "trustworthy and consistent''.

Navalny insists that Mr Opalev spoke against him out of revenge, because Navalny had recommended he be fired and his company investigated for corruption.

After the verdict, Navalny tweeted: "So that's it. Don't get bored without me. Most importantly, don't sit around doing nothing."

In an unusual step, the court allowed the whole trial to be broadcast live online.

He is now one of the key figures of the opposition - a thorn in the side of the political establishment, campaigning against the endemic corruption, our correspondent says.

Mr Navalny has also coined a phrase to describe the ruling party United Russia that has stuck in everyone's minds - "the party of crooks and thieves".

South Africans are being urged to mark the former president and anti-apartheid leader's 67 years of public service with 67 minutes of charitable acts.

Mr Mandela, who is in critical but stable condition with a recurring lung infection, entered hospital on 8 June.

President Jacob Zuma said his health was "steadily improving".

"We are proud to call this international icon our own as South Africans and wish him good health," said Mr Zuma in a statement.

"We thank all our people for supporting Madiba throughout the hospitalisation with undying love and compassion," he said, referring to Mr Mandela by his clan name.

Mr Mandela's daughter, Zindzi, said he was making "remarkable progress", and that she had found him watching television with headphones on and communicating with his eyes and hands when she visited him this week.

"We look forward to having him back at home soon," the South African Press Association quoted her as saying.

Mr Mandela's birthday is also Nelson Mandela International Day, a day declared by the UN as a way to recognise the Nobel Prize winner's contribution to reconciliation.

The former statesman is revered across the world for his role in ending apartheid in South Africa. He went on to become the first black president in the country's first multi-racial elections in 1994.

The governing African National Congress (ANC) said that on this Mandela Day homage was being paid to 95 years of "life well-lived", dedicated to the liberation of South Africans and people all over the world.

Activities throughout the day included:

Events are also taking place internationally, with an image of a large Mandela painting by South African artist Paul Blomkamp featured in New York's Times Square.

British entrepreneur Richard Branson, speaking in a recorded message, has pledged 67 minutes of community service on Thursday to "make the world a better place, one small step at a time".

Meanwhile, concerts are planned later this week in the Australian city of Melbourne, featuring local and African artists.

'Less anxious'

Mr Mandela's ill-health gives extra poignancy to this year's Mandela Day, correspondents say.

For South Africans, the best birthday present for Mandela would be for him to recover and be among the people who love him most, says the BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela told a local radio station her former husband's 95th birthday was "a gift not only to the family... but to the nation".

She rejected the "prophets of doom" who have warned of chaos in South Africa when Nelson Mandela dies.

"The country will solidify and come together," she told Radio 702.

Mr Mandela's third wife, Graca Machel, said last Friday that she was "less anxious" about his health than before and that he was continuing to respond well to treatment.

Thursday also is the 15th anniversary of the couple's marriage.

Ahead of the anniversary, Mr Mandela's close friend and lawyer George Bizos described them as "a loving couple", the AFP news agency reports.

The Turkish army has said it returned fire into Syrian territory after more than a dozen bullets were fired into Turkey throughout Wednesday and two Turkish citizens were killed by a stray bullet from Syria.

A statement released by the Turkish army said clashes that started on Tuesday between opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters and militant Kurds affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- a Syrian Kurdish armed party with links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- in Syria's border district of Ras al-Ain, just opposite of Şanlıurfa's Ceylanpınar, are ongoing. Residents of the Turkish town could hear the sound of mortar fire and heavy gunfire from across the border.
The statement also said a stray bullet hit Nezir Atilla in the head on Wednesday morning in Ceylanpınar's Cumhuriyet neighborhood but his condition is not critical.
It added that four bullets also hit houses in Ceylanpınar during overnight clashes and up to 10 bullets had hit the Ceylanpınar Police Department building. The army statement said the units in Cenkeser Border Post responded to the fire as part of Turkey's “engagement rules.”
The army's statement came after one Turkish citizen was killed and another critically injured when they were hit by stray bullets in Ceylanpınar from Syria.
The incident, which happened on Tuesday, was the most serious spillover of violence into Turkey in weeks and highlights the growing concern that Syria's civil war is dragging in neighboring states.
The bullets came from the adjacent Syrian town of Ras-al Ain, where Kurdish militants have been battling anti-government opposition fighters under the flag of the FSA since Tuesday.
A 17-year-old Turkish man, Mahsun Ertuğrul, died on Wednesday after a stray bullet from the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain hit him in the chest, while another teenager, Ahmet Gündüz, remains in critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon after being hit by another stray bullet from the war-torn country on Tuesday.