END TIME! 70-Year-Old Man Arrested For Raping 8-Year-Old Girl

 

The Ogun State Police Command has arrested a 70-year-old man, Gabriel Akindele, for allegedly raping an eight-year-old girl, who is deaf and dumb. The incident was said to have happened on Tuesday on Michael Ayegusi Street, Owode Ijako, in the Ado-Odo/ Ota Local Government Area of the state.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the suspect was arrested following a complaint from the mother of the victim. He said, “The mother, who noticed an unusual behaviour from the girl after the incident, used sign language to inquire from her daughter.

“The girl informed her of the incident, which prompted the mother to report the matter to the police.” Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said  after a complaint was made about the matter, the Divisional Police Officer, Sango Ota, Akinsola Ogunwale, detailed detectives to the scene; and the old man was subsequently arrested.

The PPRO said the suspect allegedly confessed to the crime. Oyeyemi added that it was discovered that he lured the girl to the toilet where he raped her.

He added that the Commissioner of Police,  Ahmed Iliyasu, had directed that the case be transferred to Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Abeokuta, for proper investigation.

Read More »

Court grants Fani-Kayode N50m bail

James Tsoho, justice of the federal high court, Abuja, has granted Femi Fani-Kayode, spokesman of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organisation, bail in the sum of N50m, and one surety in like sum.

In his ruling on Thursday, Tsoho held that the offence Fani-Kayode was alleged to have committed was a bailable one.

He, therefore, granted the defendant bail as requested by Afedayo Adedipe (SAN), his counsel.

However, he ruled that Fani-Kayode be remanded in prison until he perfected his bail condition.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting  Fani-Kayode on five-counts of money laundering to the tune of N26m.

The anti-graft agency is also prosecuting him on 17-counts of money laundering ‎to the tune of N4.9bn at the Lagos division of the federal high court.

Before his arraignment on Thursday, he has been in the custody of the EFCC for 21 days after he was arrested‎ in Lagos and transported to Abuja.

The judge fixed December 14, for the commencement of trial.

Read More »

Why Do Sleepy People Drink More Soda?

 

Credit: Sean Locke Photography | Shutterstock

People who don't get enough sleep drink more soda and energy drinks than those who get the recommended amount of sleep per night, a new study finds.

In the study, researchers analyzed information from nearly 19,000 U.S. adults who participated in a national health survey from 2005 to 2012, which included questions about diet and sleep habits.

People who said they generally slept 5 hours or less per night drank an average of 21 percent more sugar-sweetened beverages, including soda and energy drinks, than those who generally slept 7 to 8 hours per night, the study found.

"We think there may be a positive feedback loop, where sugary drinks and [loss of sleep] reinforce one another, making it harder for people to eliminate their unhealthy sugar habit," study co-author Aric Prather, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement.

In particular, those who slept less drank more caffeinated sugary drinks, the researchers found. The participants who usually slept 5 hours or less per night consumed 33 percent more caffeinated sodas and sugary energy drinks than those who got the recommended amount of sleep. People in the study consumed about the same amount of decaffeinated sodas, regardless of how much they slept, the researchers found.

The researchers noted that because the study was conducted at a single point in time, they can't tell whether sugary caffeinated drinks actually cause people to sleep less or whether people who don't get enough sleep are turning to sugar and caffeine to stay alert. But the researchers said it's possible that both are true, and that some people get caught in a vicious cycle in which their sleep habits affect their beverage choices and their beverage choices affect their sleep. [10 Interesting Facts About Caffeine]

"This data suggests that improving people's sleep could potentially help them break out of the cycle and cut down on their sugar intake," Prather said.

The findings held even after the researchers took into account factors that could affect how much people slept or their consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, including their age, household income, marital status, physical activity levels and whether they had been diagnosed with asleep disorder.

There was no link between how long people slept and their consumption of juice, tea or diet drinks, the researchers said.

It's important to note that the participants in the study reported their own sleep habits, and it's possible that some people did not report their sleep accurately. Future studies could assess people's sleep habits objectively, with either a device that records brain waves or a wearable sleep monitor, Prather said.

Future studies also need to follow people over time to see how people's sleep habits and beverage consumption affect each other, Prather said.

The study is published online today (Nov. 9) in the journal Sleep Health.

Read More »

More Science Says Smartphones Spoil Sleep

Credit: Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley/Shutterstock.com

The more time you spend on your smartphone, the worse you'll sleep, a new study suggests.

People in the study who used their smartphones for more time during the month-long study period got less sleep and were less likely to sleep well than those who spent less time on their phones, according to the study.

And people who used their smartphones right before bedtime took longer to fall asleep, according to the study, published today (Nov. 9) in the journalPLOS ONE.

The findings suggest that "exposure to smartphone screens, particularly around bedtime, may negatively impact sleep," the researchers wrote.

In the study, researchers asked 653 adults to install an app on their Android phones that recorded how many minutes the phone's screen was turned on, whenever the phone was not in airplane mode. The researchers collected the data from each person's phone over 30 days. Two of the study's authors work for the company that made the app. [9 Odd Ways Your Tech Devices May Injure You]

The people in the study were part of a larger, ongoing project called the Health eHeart Study and had provided information about their medical histories and lifestyle habits. In addition, some of the people in the study completed a questionnaire about their sleep habits, the researchers wrote.

Results showed that the participants used their phones, on average, for 1 hour and 29 minutes each day, the researchers found. There was no link between smartphone use and people's amount of physical activity, mood or body mass index, according to the study.

However, smartphone use was linked to sleep.

Among the 136 study participants who also provided information about their sleep habits, the researchers found that more smartphone screen time was associated with decreased sleep quality, a shorter amount of sleep time and a longer amount of time needed to fall asleep. More screen time was also linked to lower "sleep efficiency," which is a ratio of the amount of time spent in bed compared to the amount of time actually sleeping.

But in particular, smartphone use around bedtime was linked to lower sleep efficiency and longer time needed to fall asleep, according to the study. This finding suggests that "the relationship between overall smartphone use and sleep may be driven by exposure near bedtime," the scientists, led by Matthew Christensen, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote.

"That increased screen time in the hour of and after bedtime, but not the hour before, was associated with [a longer time needed to fall asleep] agrees with the notion that screen use just before attempting to fall asleep may be particularly problematic," the researchers wrote.

Indeed, previous studies have suggested that screen time at night is associated with poor sleep and shorter sleep time, according to the study. This may be due to exposure to the blue light from screens, which may suppress the brain's production of the hormone melatonin, which is involved in sleep, the researchers wrote.

Apple, for example, is trying to address this problem with the "Night Shift" feature on the company's phones, which shifts the display from blues to warmer tones at night.

The researchers noted that there are several limitations to the study. For example, the participants, all of whom decided to join an app-driven study, may not be representative of the general population. In addition, it is possible that the measurements of screen time were not entirely accurate, because people may have let others use their phones for part of the time, or may have been unaware that their phone was "on," such as when it was in a pocket.

The investigators also noted that the study does not prove there is a cause-and-effect between smartphone use and worse sleep. It could be, for example, that people who generally have trouble going to sleep are more likely to turn to their phones at bedtime, the authors wrote.

Read More »