A billion people have no regular access to clean drinking water, according to the World Health Organization. One company is using the sun and a simple chemical reaction to produce clean water wherever it’s needed – including in disaster zones. Ben Gruber reports.
Pope under fire for allowing paedophile priest to continue as minister
March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Rome, Mar. 13 (ANI): With the emergence of reports that Pope Benedict allowed a paedophile priest to continue with the ministry, the Bishop of Rome has been drawn directly into the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal.
The priest, who was convicted of child abuse, was sent from Essen to Munich for therapy in 1980 on the approval of the Pope, who was then a cardinal, The Times reports.
In 1986, the paedophile cleric, recognized as H, was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and fined DM 4,000 (1,800 pounds today).
According to the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, there had been no complaints against H during the therapy at a church community in Munich.
It added that the decision to let him continue working in Grafing was taken by Gerhard Gruber, now 81, who was vicar general of the archdiocese.
An American group, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said: “It boggles the mind to hear a German Catholic official claim that a credibly accused paedophile priest was reassigned to parish work without the knowledge of his boss, then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger.”
However, Gruber was quoted by the paper as saying that the Pope was not aware of his decision because there were 1,000 priests in the diocese at the time and he had left many decisions to lower-level officials.
“The repeated employment of H in pastoral duties was a serious mistake … I deeply regret that this decision led to offences against youths. I apologise to all those who were harmed,” he said.
He did not indicate whether the convicted paedophile would be allowed to continue working in the church.
Any expulsion of a priest from the Church, however, must go through the Vatican. (ANI)
Sleep problem linked to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in kids
March 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Washington, Mar 2 (ANI): Intrinsic sleep problem might be an underlying cause of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, a new study has found.
Dr. Reut Gruber, Director of the Attention, Behaviour and Sleep Lab at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found during a study that children with ADHD had a total sleep time that was significantly shorter than that of controls.
The findings suggested that children in the ADHD group had an average total sleep time of eight hours, 19 minutes, which was 33 minutes less than the average sleep time of eight hours, 52 minutes in controls
“I do not believe that sleep per se is the cause of ADHD, but it may make the symptoms worse in children with sleep problems. There are reports in the literature in which treating sleep problems led to improvement in ADHD symptoms but I suspect that these results were seen in children with sleep apnea,” said Gruber.
“More research needs to be done in order to determine if sleep affects ADHD children with no primary sleep disorder,” Gruber added.
Lack of sleep on regular basis accumulates to become a sleep debt, which can produce significant daytime sleepiness and neurobehavioral impairment.
Previous studies have shown that disrupted sleep can affect daytime learning and attention in childhood and can lead to ADHD-like symptoms.
According to the authors, this study may suggest that ADHD children suffer from an intrinsic sleep problem that could be related to the underlying pathophysiology of the disorder.
They report that the impact of sleep duration on neuropsychological functioning in children with ADHD should be investigated further.
The study appears in journal Sleep. (ANI)