Babies who use many gestures to communicate when they are 14 months-old have much larger vocabularies when they start school than those who don't, US researchers have said.

They said babies with wealthier, better-educated parents tend to gesture more and this may help explain why some children from low-income families fare less well in school.

"When children enter school, there is a large socioeconomic gap in their vocabularies," said the University of Chicago's Meredith Rowe, whose study appears in the journal Science. Gestures could help explain the difference, Ms Rowe told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago.

Vocabulary is a key predictor of school success. Earlier research showed that well-off, educated parents tend to talk to their children more than their poorer, less-educated peers.

US Judges jail children for money

Two judges pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting more than $2.6 million from a private youth detention centre in Pennsylvania in return for giving hundreds of youths and teenagers long sentences.

Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan in Pennsylvania, admitted that they took payoffs from PA Childcare and a sister company, Western PA Childcare, between 2003 and 2006.

When someone is sent to a detention centre, the company running the facility receives money from the county government to defray the cost of incarceration. So as more children were sentenced to the detention centre, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare received more money from the government.

Teenagers who came before judge Ciavarella in juvenile court were often sentenced to detention centres for minor offences generally classified as misdemeanours. Young teenagers were given three months detention sentences for "simple assault" resulting from a schoolyard scuffle that would normally draw a warning.

The judges attempted to hide their income from the scheme by creating false records and routing payments through intermediaries.

Imam convicted in sex abuse case

A court in central Bosnia sentenced an imam yesterday to 18 months in jail for sexually abusing a girl during religious classes, the first such conviction of a Muslim religious official in the Balkan country.

Resad Omerhodzic was accused of taking female students to a remote mountainous village and abusing them sexually. A family of one girl filed charges against him.

"This is a conspiracy against me," Mr Omerhodzic said after leaving the courtroom in Travnik flanked by his supporters. "I was sentenced... because of a media campaign." His lawyers said they would appeal.

Nobody from the girl's family was available for comment after the verdict.

Brazilians see bright side of crisis

"What crisis?" Brazil's President famously asked as financial turmoil began whipping around the world last year. Six months later, that still seems to be the view of many Brazilians.

Despite mounting job losses among the growing signs that the crisis could hit Latin America's biggest economy hard, the land of Carnival, samba and soccer appears stubbornly optimistic it will emerge nearly unscathed from the crisis.

An opinion poll this month showed a majority of Brazilians expect their economy to recover shortly. Car sales in January grew for the second consecutive month and bustling shopping malls in major cities are a far cry from the consumer gloom in Europe or the United States. One explanation for the upbeat outlook is that Brazilians are natural optimists.

"It's a cultural thing, a mix between a positive world view and indifference - 'it's all in God's hands anyway so let's have fun'," says political scientist Jose Luciano Dias.

China's 'largest gift' to West Africa

Chinese President Hu Jintao laid the first brick of a 2.6 km "Friendship Bridge" in Mali's capital yesterday, calling it China's largest ever gift to impoverished West Africa.

Mr Hu launched the construction project during an African tour meant to extend trade and investment links with the continent. The Chinese President then flew to Senegal, the second stop in a tour that analysts say aims to reassure Africa that Beijing will not ease up on aid during hard economic times.

China has built many infrastructure projects in African countries that emerged from European colonial rule. But with a booming economy that has been hungry for resources, its interest has diversified and trade with Africa has multiplied 10-fold since 2000.

"The third Bamako bridge will be the largest project carried out in West Africa paid for with money donated by China," Mr Hu said.