It is OK to spank children as long as their dignity is maintained - Pope Francis

Pope Francis

Pope Francis said it is OK to spank children to discipline them — as long as their dignity is maintained.

The Pope made this comments during his weekly general audience in the Vatican, where he dealt with the role of fathers in the family.

He outlined the traits of a good father — one who forgives but is able to “correct with firmness” while not discouraging the child.

According to AP news agency, the pontiff commended the behavior of one father who had told him, "I sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them."

"How beautiful!" Francis is quoted as having said. "He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them, but does it justly and moves on."

Defending the pope's remarks, Rev. Thomas Rosica, who collaborates with the Vatican's press office, said Francis was not condoning violence or cruelty against children, but speaking about "helping someone to grow and mature."

"Simply watch Pope Francis when he is with children and let the images and gestures speak for themselves! To infer or distort anything else ... reveals a greater problem for those who don't seem to understand a pope who has ushered in a revolution of normalcy of simple speech and plain gesture," Rosica wrote.

E-cigarettes can compromise the immune system in the lungs

Electronic cigarette

New study has shown that vapour from e-cigarettes can compromise the immune system in the lungs, leaving them more vulnerable to infection by harmful bacteria and viruses.

Scientists from John Hopkins University in Maryland, exposed mice to e-cigarette vapour twice a day for two weeks at a level designed to proportionally mimic the amount a person who regularly used e-cigarettes would inhale. They then administered some of the mice with an influenza virus and others with the streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, which is responsible for pneumonia, sinusitis and other illnesses.

Compared to a control group, the mice that had been exposed to the vapour were less able to fight off illness, and some died. Professor Shyam Biswal, senior author of the study, said the findings suggested “e-cigarettes are not neutral in terms of the effects on the lungs” and said that studies should now be carried out on people, particularly those with common lung problems such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which often affects smokers and ex-smokers – the main users of e-cigarettes.

Debate over the public health impact of e-cigarettes remains fierce. They have been shown to be highly effective in helping smokers to quit, and there is a broad consensus that despite some uncertainty over their health impact, they are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.

However, this very uncertainty means other health experts remain concerned e-cigarettes could pose risks to future generations, particularly given evidence from some countries that they are becoming more popular among young people who have never smoked.

There are also concerns that more tobacco companies are increasingly entering the e-cigarette market, and so, World Health Organisation has recommended they be banned in indoor public spaces – a measure the Department of Health in England has ruled out, but which is being considered by the Welsh government.

The new study, published in the PLOS ONE journal, also found e-cigarettes contain DNA-damaging toxins known as free radicals – but at levels about 1 per cent of that found in a cigarette. “We have observed that [e-cigarettes] increase the susceptibility to respiratory infections in mouse models,” said Professor Biswal. “This warrants further study in susceptible individuals, such as COPD patients who have switched from cigarettes to e-cigarettes or to new users of e-cigarettes who may never have used cigarettes.”

However, Professor John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies said the most important point was that harm to the lungs was less from e-cigarettes than from tobacco.

“The lung is an exquisitely delicate organ and therefore nobody with any common sense would believe that inhaling heated vapour many times a day would be harmless,” he said. “What matters here is not a comparison of the effects of e-cigarette vapour compared with nothing, but the effects compared with those of tobacco smoke.

“Harm to the lungs will be less with electronic cigarettes than tobacco cigarettes, and any smoker who cannot quit using nicotine, and doesn't find medicinal products effective, would be well advised to try an electronic cigarette.”

Green tea helps kill cancer cells while promoting health of normal ones - researchers

A woman picks tea leaves at the Moriuchi Tea Farm in Shizuoka, Japan
(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Green tea may help kick-start cycles of cancerous cell death while leaving healthy ones alone, scientists have claimed.

A compound found in the tea called epigallocatechin-3-gallate – or EGCG – could trigger a process of destroying malignant cells, researchers at Penn State’s Center for Plant and Mushroom Foods for Health have found.

While the tea has always been known to contain powerful anti-oxidants that are beneficial to all-round health, new developments have shown that the compound is partly responsible for destroying cells that are likely to lead to growth of deadly tumours.

Associate professor Joshua Lambert said: “EGCG is doing something to damage the mitochondria and that mitochondrial damage sets up a cycle causing more damage and it spirals out, until the cell undergoes programmed cell death.”

As the mitochondria – the membrane of a cell – is killed, the chances of the malignant cells returning or growing is further reduced by inducing oxidative stress while feeding the benefits of anti-oxidant into normal cells.

The presence of sirtuin 3, a protein vital to the health and life-span of cells, is also found to be increased in healthy cells and reduced in cancerous ones with the help of the EGCG compound.

The findings could be vital in developing alternative medicines to chemotherapy, that do not pose harmful side effects, or for formulating effective preventative treatments, researchers believe.

The study has been published in the Molecular Nutrition and Food Research journal.

Nigeria under Jonathan is in safe hands—IBB

Nigeria's Former military leader Ibrahim Babangida said Nigeria under president Goodluck Jonathan is in safe hands.
He made this statement when he played host to Jonathan and his campaign entourage in Minna

IBB said Jonathan was a leader who would continue with the dreams of the country’s founding fathers.

Excerpt of his speech during the occasion:

I feel deeply touched Mr. President because on your own, you travelled to Germany to see me just coming out from hospital after a gruesome nine-hour operation on my back and tummy, I felt deeply touched by your kind presence.
Then when I struggled and traveled back to Nigeria, you found time to also visit and see how I was doing. I thank you Mr President and I want to tell you that I appreciate that very kindness.
You have also made a very good decision to visit me during your campaign tour because Minna is known for producing Presidents. Either from your name sake, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe who was born in Zungeru, not very far away from here.
....I want to commend the party and the party leadership for being very strong and one of the good things that this party has done, Mr Chairman of the party, is that our vision about the formation of two parties is good for this country.
I have seen in PDP a party or organisation that is devoid of religion, ethnicity and so on and this is something we prayed for and you are showing the lead and I want that to continue.
If others are breaking up, you must remain strong and I think that is how it should be.
I’m glad you backed the President, back him strongly. The passion which the President has got, I share a common passion with him. That passion is making sure that Nigeria stays peaceful, stable, developed and transformed.
It is a passion in Mr President that anytime I see you, talk to you, I come out with the impression of a very young man who has passion for this country.
I wish you well on this and I want to assure all of you that Nigeria under Jonathan, we are in safe hands.

Man gets nine life terms for raping lover's daughters.

A 28 years old Ayanda Sikhakhane, from Mshayazafe hostel in Thokoza, was slammed with nine life sentences for raping his lover’s children. Ekurhuleni, repeatedly raped a 12-year-old girl, and raped her 10-year-old sister, the older was raped on eight occasions and the younger one once.

During trial, he claimed he was in a consensual relationship with the 12 year old girl, but the judge dismissed it as “absolute nonsense”, saying a child could not give consent for sex and that this was an indication that Sikhakhane had no remorse for his actions.


Handing down the sentence in the high court in Joburg, sitting in Palm Ridge, Judge Eben Jordaan lambasted Sikhakhane for being ungrateful. he said the children’s mother worked extremely long hours to provide for all of them including Sikhakhane, who was unemployed, and whom she expected to take care of her children but unknown to her, she had left her children at home with a snake when she goes to work at night.


According to the judge, "The manner in which it happened was despicable. To prevent the neighbours from hearing as he raped them, he would turn on the radio and TV loud,”


Despite his lawyer plea for leniency because he was a first offender and needed a second chance, the judge handed him life sentences


The children’s mother moved in with Sikhakhane at the hostel at the beginning of 2012 after they had been in a relationship for a year. the 31-year-old mother cried tears of joy after the sentence, saying, “He got what he wanted now. When he was raping my children, where did he think this would end?”

To Kill A Mockingbird' author Harper Lee to publish second novel

Author Harper Lee

88-year-old author Harper Lee is set to publish her second book. According to a statement from Lee released by the publisher Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, the book, "Go Set a Watchman," is essentially a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird," although it was written before the Pulitzer Prize-winning "To Kill a Mockingbird," which was published in 1960 and, until now, was Lee's only novel. .
The 304-page book will be Lee's second, and the first new work in more than 50 years. The title appears to be taken from Isaiah 21:6: "For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth."  The book will be released July 14.

Harper Lees's first book, "To Kill a Mockingbird" is one of the most bestselling books of all time. It has sold more than 40 million copies, continues to sell a million copies per year and has been translated into 40 languages. It was released on July 11, 1960, won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a 1962 movie of the same name, starring Gregory Peck in an Oscar-winning performance as the courageous attorney Atticus Finch.

Although occasionally banned over the years because of its language and racial themes, the novel has become a standard for reading clubs and middle schools and high schools. The absence of a second book from Lee only seemed to enhance the appeal of "Mockingbird."

I will marry again - Saidi Balogun

Saidi Balogun

Saidi Balogun, a popular Yoruba/Nollywood actor, in a recent interview with Encomium magazine, disclosed he is ready to get married again.

The actor said , 

“I have said it, I have gotten someone to marry and they should let the issue end there. It’s my private life and should be treated as such.”

His marriage with Fathia Balogun has since collapsed.