Briefly World

Vietnam jails high school principal in sex scandal
HANOI: A Vietnamese high school principal was on Friday sentenced to nine years in prison for having sex with students. Sam Duc Xuong,was convicted for having sex with 8 students aged 13 to 18,with most encounters occurring in his office at Viet Lam High School in northern Ha Giang province,said Judge Mai Van Hung.

Finally,Taylor war crimes trial winds up
LEIDSCHENDAM: Winding up the three-year trial of Charles Taylor,prosecutors Friday described the former Liberian president as an intelligent and charismatic man who tightly controlled the rebels conducting a campaign of atrocities during Sierra Leones civil war. Taylor has pleaded innocent to 11 counts of murder,rape,and using child soldiers in the civil war.

NATO ministers mull Afghan transition
BRUSSELS: NATO is on track to start transferring control of Afghanistan to government forces,the alliances chief official said Friday. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged allies not to start leaving in a rush after July,when the first NATO troops are due to depart.

Berlusconi offered bribe to official
London: Reports emerged Friday that a Moroccan official was offered bribe to raise the age in the birth certificate of a Morocco-born dancer at the heart of a teen sex scandal engulfing Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reported the Moroccan registry official was promised a large amount of money to change the birth date of Karima El Mahroug.