Ex-president of Peru gets 20 years for corruption

PERU: A court in Peru has sentenced former President Alejandro Toledo to 20 years and six months in jail for corruption and money-laundering.

Prosecutors say he took $35m (£27m) in bribes from a Brazilian construction company which was awarded a contract to build a road in southern Peru.

Toledo, 78, was in office between 2001 and 2006.

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He was arrested five years ago in California, where he had lived and worked for many years, and extradited to Peru last year.

The Brazilian company Odebrecht admitted paying millions of dollars in bribes to officials across Latin America and the US to secure government contracts.