According to the authority, with the promulgation of the Mental Health Act 2012, such practices are deemed as illegal hence their warning.

In Ghana, faith-based healing centres and prayer camps are the first point of call by relations of mental health patients.

Some spiritual homes and herbal centres are known to be engaged in the act of chaining patients believed to be suffering from mental disorders when treating them.

This, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority, Dr Akwasi Osei said is an infringement of their human rights, hence the call on them to seize forthwith or be made to face the law.

“We are really bent on ensuring that by the end of the year, nobody in Ghana, mentally ill will be in chains or shackles and we have started the process. We have released 17 people from prayer camps in the Central Region. Beyond that we have been to two other camps to make sure that nobody is in chains and we are extending this process nationwide. We have our regional coordinators in various regions and they have started going round and sensitizing various organisations,” Dr Osei said.

Aside these challenges, there are other problems that are hindering the Mental Health Authority from delivering on its mandate

In 2016, the Accra Psychiatric Hospital shut down its Out-Patient Department, turning away patients due to the lack of basic supplies.

Dr Akwasi Osei had described the situation as worrying. He said the various Psychiatric Hospitals in the country are “seriously handicapped.”

“The Ministry [of Finance] has to simply release money for us to run the service. That notwithstanding, the Board has also been in discussion with the Ministry and the Board is going to convene another emergency meeting on this situation,” he said.

‘Accra Psychiatric Hospital OPD shuts down’

In the same year, the hospital shut down its OPD over lack of some working basic items including A4 sheets to record health information.

A member of the Hospital’s Public Relations Unit, Edwina Ankomah, lamented said the hospital is in dire need of basic things like “gloves, disinfectants and stationery and paper.”

Persons who visited the Accra Psychiatric Hospital on Wednesday, were turned away, and the hospital’s administrators have said they were compelled to take such a decision due to worsening financial constraints.

–

By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Mental Health Authority to prosecute entities abusing patients appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

In an opinion piece published by the Indian newspaper the Times of India, Zuckerberg equates internet access to education and health provision, claiming it could help relieve the poverty of one billion people in India who are not currently online.

“Instead of welcoming Free Basics as an open platform that will partner with any telco, and allows any developer to offer services to people for free, they claim – falsely – that this will give people less choice,” he wrote. “Instead of recognizing that Free Basics fully respects net neutrality, they claim – falsely – the exact opposite.”

Free Basics, part of Facebook’s Internet.org campaign, offers a selection of basic apps including travel, weather and news, to smartphone users in developing countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through a deal between Facebook and local mobile operators, the data to access those services is free.

Zuckerberg went on to describe meeting local farmers Ganesh and Bharati Nimbalkar in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Free Basics had given them access to online weather tools and to commodity prices on Reuters Market Light, which helped them secure better deals and in turn allowed them to invest in new crops and livestock.

“This isn’t about Facebook’s commercial interests – there aren’t even any ads in the version of Facebook in Free Basics. If people lose access to free basic services, they will simply lose access to the opportunities offered by the internet today.”

India is two days away from the end of a public consultation on net neutrality, with the national regulator already ordering the mobile operator Reliance to suspend the Free Basics service over concerns about net neutrality.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been running a public consultation over net neutrality since March 2015, the principle being that no service should be prioritised over another so that every citizen has equal access to everything online.

Critics’ biggest objection of Facebook’s initiative has been that Free Basics offers only a select few services chosen and controlled by Facebook, which the company says is to keep data costs to a minimum.

Net neutrality campaigner Nikhil Pahwa asked why Facebook had opted for that model over “the option of giving the poor free access to the open, plural and diverse web?”

“Free Basics and its peer telecom operator models are not open, plural or diverse, and can be harmful for India’s democracy,” he wrote. “It is a form of vertical integration that is anti-competitive and is inimical for India’s fledgling startup ecosystem. It gives Reliance Communication and Facebook the power to pick winners and losers online.

“With telecom operators making money from websites and apps instead of from consumers, their focus will shift to meeting the needs of their business clients, over the needs of consumers. The incentive to invest in better, faster and cheaper access to the entire internet will be replaced with one of providing better, faster and cheaper access to its websites and apps.”

Pointing to estimates that India will have 500 million internet users by 2017, Pahwa referred to Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, who hasexpressed concerns about the Internet.org project.

“In the particular case of somebody who’s offering … something which is branded internet, it’s not internet, then you just say no,” he said. “No it isn’t free, no it isn’t in the public domain, there are other ways of reducing the price of internet connectivity and giving something … [only] giving people data connectivity to part of the network deliberately, I think is a step backwards.”

A spokesperson for Facebook said: “We are committed to Free Basics and to working with Reliance and the relevant authorities to help people in India get connected.”

A Reliance spokesperson has commented: “As directed by TRAI, the commercial launch of Free Basics has been kept in abeyance, till they consider all details and convey a specific approval.”

–

Source: The Guardian

The post Mark Zuckerberg defends Facebook’s motives in free internet project in India appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“Yahoo will now notify you if we strongly suspect that your account may have been targeted by a state-sponsored actor,” said Bob Lord, Yahoo’s chief information security officer, in a blog post announcing the change.

“We’ll provide these specific notifications so that our users can take appropriate measures to protect their accounts and devices in light of these sophisticated attacks. Our notifications provide targeted users with specific actions they can take to help ensure that their Yahoo accounts are safe and secure.”

Those actions include turning on two-step verification; changing their password to a stronger one that has never been used before; updating their account recovery information; and checking recent activity on their account.

Yahoo’s move comes two months after Facebook made a similar announcement in October, telling its users that it would notify them “if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state”.

In December, Twitter warned a number of its users that they may have been the targets of a state-sponsored attack, including several experts in information security and privacy.

Google, meanwhile, made this move in June 2012 for a subset of its users who it believed might be targets for phishing, malware or other attacks from state-sponsored “bad actors”.

By necessity, all of these companies decline to provide detailed information on the potential attackers they have identified.

“In order to prevent the actors from learning our detection methods, we do not share any details publicly about these attacks,” wrote Lord. “To protect the integrity of our methods and processes, we often won’t be able to explain how we attribute certain attacks to suspected attackers,” explained Facebook.

The likelihood of online attacks coming from state-sponsored actors has been increasingly talked about in 2015.

Richard Ledgett, deputy director of the US National Security Agency, claimed in October that “if you are connected to the Internet, you are vulnerable to determined nation-state attackers”.

–

Source: The Guardian

The post Yahoo to notify its users about ‘state-sponsored’ hacking attacks appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Twitter reportedly plans to introduce measures that spell out to trolls that their undesirable communications have an effect in the offline world, as well as on the internet. By making it clear that trolls’ actions exist “in the real world” and encouraging victims to expose their abusers by publishing their names, it hopes to eradicate trolling and improve its brand.

Twitter has been valued at a reported £22bn, a fraction of rival Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s social media behemoth has over one billion users and is valued at £167bn.

A number of high-profile users, including celebrities and politicians, have closed their Twitter accounts after falling prey to trolls lurking among the site’s 320 million users. Labour MP Stella Creasy received rape threats from a man who was eventually jailed, while Sara Payne, the mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah, closed her account after receiving abuse.

Daisley told the Independent: “We have spent longer on user safety than any other thing. The measures have directly correlated to a reduction in the amount of bad behaviour.”

–

Source: The Guardian

The post Twitter pledges to clamp down on trolls appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Toshiba is likely to approach its lenders for the new commitment line, a company spokesman said on Tuesday. The Nikkei financial daily earlier said it would likely seek help from banks including Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

The move comes after Toshiba in September secured a 400 billion yen commitment line, and gives the company a wider safety net as it seeks to recover from the book-keeping scandal in which it overstated profits from around 2009.

Moody’s recently downgraded the company’s debt rating to junk status, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange has placed Toshiba stocks in a special “watch” category to see whether it can improve internal controls. Both moves have made it harder for the company to raise funding through debt or new shares.

The company said last week it would slash 6,800 consumer electronics jobs, taking total cuts beyond 10,000, including previously announced plans, as the sprawling conglomerate focuses on chips and nuclear energy. It also expects a record net loss this year.

Toshiba shares were up 1.2 percent on Tuesday compared to a flat overall stock market

–

Source: Reuters

The post Toshiba says to seek new $2.5 billion credit line for restructuring appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

In its annual World Oil Outlook report, OPEC estimates that EVs will represent a mere 1% of the global car market in 2040. Hybrids, however, which the organization considers mostly gas-powered due to their onboard gas-burning engines, will command 14% of the market by the same date.

“Without a technology breakthrough, battery electric vehicles are not expected to gain significant market share in the foreseeable future,” the group predicts. It also estimates hydrogen- and natural gas-powered cars will also fail to make a significant impact on oil consumption because of the high cost and lack of fueling infrastructure.

OPEC does concede that hybrid sales will increase and cars will become more efficient. That said, oil demand will continue to grow over the next 25 years due to burgeoning mobility markets, namely China and India.

This prediction should be taken with many, many grains of salt, so to speak, as OPEC has a stake in increased oil consumption. And of course it will be quick to downplay the role battery electric vehicles will play in the future.

That said, even with obvious bias aside, it seems awfully shortsighted. That’s because EVs could play a far bigger role in modern transportation than you might expect.

Mary Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), would like to mandate that all new cars sold in California by 2030 be zero emissions vehicles, according to a Bloombergreport. Although that’s just a dream right now, it could become reality.

If it were law, global carmakers would have to adjust in a big way. If they have to rethink their product portfolio for California, they’ll adjust accordingly for the U.S. market as a whole — the second largest car market on the planet. That means that if California were EV only, most of the world could become that way, too.

And, as for the battery technology breakthroughs, clearly OPEC hasn’t been paying much attention to lithium-air batteries, or to Elon Musk’s Gigafactories either.

–

Source: Mashable

The post About 94% of cars will still be powered by fossil fuels in 2040 – Report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Looks like Chevrolet picked a terrible time to introduce the 2016 Malibu Hybrid. And that’s too bad, as this fuel-sipping hybrid delivers an excellent ride wrapped up in a sleek little package.

The Malibu is Chevrolet’s midsize sedan, slotting in between the compact Cruz and the full-size Impala. This year the Malibu is completely redesigned and features a whole host of safety features and driver’s aids.

This is the first year the Malibu is offered as a full hybrid. Previous models were available as a mild hybrid, where the electric motor functions merely as a power booster to the gasoline powered engine. The gasoline engine in mild hybrids shut off during braking, coasting, and when stopped, saving fuel.

The first thing I noticed in my quick preview drive of the Malibu Hybrid during a Chevrolet-sponsored press event near San Francisco was how easily it switched from the electric motor to the 1.8-liter gasoline engine. It’s very quiet and seamless, with no telltale jerk on the chassis.

The second thing I noticed was the new braking system. Many early hybrids suffered from a non-linear braking feel, a result of capturing the kinetic energy from the braking and storing it in the battery. The system has gotten better over the years, and the Malibu Hybrid shares the same blended regenerative system as the new Chevrolet Volt. The result is smooth braking from first touch to final stop.

MPGs and all the torque
The Malibu Hybrid’s two drive modes are optimized separately for the city and highway speeds. The second mode helps mitigate the lower highway fuel economy often seen in other hybrids. GM-estimated fuel ratings are 48 mpg in the city, 45 mpg on the highway, and 47 mpg combined. That combined number beats the Hyundai Sonata, Toyota Camry, and Ford Fusion hybrids, and equals the combined rating of the Honda Accord hybrid.

Total output from the gas engine and electric motor is 182 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque, and the Malibu can cruise at speeds of up to 55 mph on electricity alone.

Like the gas-powered 2016 Chevrolet Malibu, the Hybrid gets the same influx of safety features and aids, like Teen Driver, which helps new drivers by monitoring their trips and issuing a report card, adaptive cruise control, parallel parking assist, front collision warning and braking, blind spot monitoring, and lane keeping assist.

The Hybrid fortunately wears the same sheet metal as the traditionally powered Malibu. The fleet-car look is replaced with a sleek and sexy design aesthetic, with a new Camaro-inspired front end. The longer wheelbase of the 2016 model gives more leg room to rear passengers, and the gently curving creases along the side impart a modern look.

Wi-Fi hotspot standard
Inside a 7-inch touchscreen is standard, but a larger 8-inch screen is available. Opt for the larger screen if you want the MyLink navigation and Teen Driver systems. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard. OnStar 4G LTE with Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities is standard and wireless phone charging is available.

Pricing has not been announced, but the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid is expected to go into production in the spring of 2016.

–

Source: Cnet

The post 2016 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid saves gasoline – report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

At the turn I’m on the brakes for a brief moment, then back on the throttle, turning the wheel to aim towards the apex. The precise steering does what I want it to and shows no lag.

Things get magic in the turn as I feel the car rotate underneath me, helping me out with all-wheel-drive and a little added steering angle at the rear wheels. A few turns later, there’s a moment of slip. But instead of ending up in a cow pasture, the car uses its handling systems and traction control to get itself back on the line I wanted.

Throughout these driving exercises, I’m sitting up high. And I’ve got room in the cabin for six more people.

Audi put almost everything from its impressive array of automotive engineering and tech into the 2017 Q7, the latest generation of its largest SUV. The Q7 seats seven, but in the third row it comes down to a choice of passengers or cargo. Making that transition easier, power-folding third row seats come standard.
Less of a brawny SUV than a modern crossover, the Q7 has a roof line that hits 5 foot 8 inches, so many people will be able to look right over the top. That height makes it relatively easy to load cargo onto a roof rack. And rather than the flat single-frame grille of older Audi models, the Q7 shows off some new design thinking with a more sculpted front end. The general shape shows function over form, but Audi manages a few design touches, such as the low side trim pieces that designer Edwin Ollifers called “blades” during a press briefing.

Most importantly, the new Q7 is a showcase for handling, cabin and driver-assistance technologies. All of which make this luxury SUV a bit of a playground.
First up, the Virtual Cockpit replaces the instrument cluster with a high-resolution 12.3-inch LCD showing maps and other infotainment screens overlaid with virtual gauges. After spending a few days behind the wheel, I was slightly disappointed with this system compared to the version I saw in the Audi TT Roadster.

In the TT, I could access every infotainment function, from entering destinations to searching for music, using the Virtual Cockpit display in front of me. In the Q7, Audi retains a traditional center-mounted LCD in the dashboard, with some functions only available on it. Audi makes destination search easy by providing just one entry box where you can enter a street address or a business name. But, frustratingly, I could only use that on the center display, not on Virtual Cockpit. Likewise, I could only access the car’s connected features, from parking availability to local fuel prices, on the center screen. The Virtual Cockpit in the Q7 only let me view navigation, vehicle information, the stereo and phone screens.
Audi’s navigation system remains one of the most striking in the industry, pulling maps from Google Earth into the car over a dedicated 4G/LTE connection. The destination search I described above streamlines inputs over previous Audi systems and taps into that data connection for online business searches. You can enter letters or numbers by tracing them with your finger on the console-mounted touchpad.

Adding to this information-rich environment, Audi gives the Q7 a head-up display, which showed me my speed and the current speed limit, along with turn-by-turn directions for navigation.

The whole infotainment system, which Audi calls “MMI Navigation Plus with Virtual Cockpit”, integrates data better than any car in the industry. I really couldn’t get enough of it.

Supercharged and fuel efficient
For an engaged driving experience, I could change the virtual gauges on the instrument cluster from a small to large format. The head-up display still served as my primary means of checking the speed, but the virtual tachometer was helpful when I used the paddle shifters or sport mode with the Q7’s eight speed automatic transmission.
Superchargers aren’t commonly used on engines today, but Audi sticks one on the Q7’s 3-liter V-6 engine, bringing its output up to a healthy 333 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. On the throttle, the Q7 gave me comfortable acceleration — not neck-breaking but more than enough for passing maneuvers.

One problem with superchargers comes from the drag they put on the engine, which reduces fuel economy. Audi solves this problem with what it calls “supercharging on-demand”, essentially disconnecting the supercharger’s turbine when the car coasts or runs at steady speed. As another fuel-saving technology, the Q7 includes an idle-stop feature, which shuts down the engine at traffic stops.

Both of these technologies worked seamlessly for me. I particularly liked how I could control idle-stop, with a soft or hard press on the brake pedal to either keep the engine running at a stop or make it shut down.

Audi’s DriveSelect system let me choose between different drive modes, including Comfort, Dynamic and Offroad, each of which is a preset for throttle, steering and suspension. The Q7 I drove came with the adaptive suspension option, giving it an air suspension and four-wheel-steering, that last piece of technology similar to what you will find on the new Porsche 911.

The four-wheel-steering makes the rear end of the Q7 better follow the front end in hard cornering, and it gives the whole SUV better maneuvering in tight parking spaces — although in most situations you won’t even notice it working. The air suspension hunkers the Q7 down in dynamic mode and gives the body a little more lift in the Offroad setting.

While not quite up the level of the BMW X5 M, these systems come together to make the Q7 handle much better than a car of its size should. However, this doesn’t entirely disguise its 5,000-pound weight, as I could still feel that bulk pull it in the turns.

This impressive handling is likely not what most buyers of seven-passenger SUVs are looking for, though. Comfort mode loosened up the steering a little and took some of the tension out of the throttle. Here the Q7 proved an easy driver, the kind of car you can jump in for a quick shopping trip. My one faint criticism of the driving dynamics is that the ride could be a little softer in Comfort mode. As it was, I wanted the air suspension to flow a little more smoothly over rough asphalt.

Ultimately, the Q7 is a driver’s car for those who also need to haul around family members and a lot of stuff.

Sensor fusion
What makes that performance driving character kind of funny is the fact that the Q7 can come with a wealth of driver assistance options, enough that it’s getting darn near to being able to drive itself. Setting my speed with the adaptive cruise control, the Q7 maintained a comfortable following distance from traffic up ahead. It could even brake down to a full stop without my intervention. At the same time, lane-keeping assist made the steering wheel wriggle under my grip, the system intent on keeping the car dead-on between the lane lines.

When I loosened my grip on the wheel, the Q7 did an admirable job steering itself. However, after some tens of seconds it flashed a warning on the Virtual Cockpit instrument panel telling me I needed to steer. Then it deactivated the system. The Q7 won’t tolerate abuse of its driver-assistance features.
Those features add a lot of convenience to the Q7, but there is quite a bit more to the car. Camera and radar sensors give it 360-degree awareness. A blind spot monitor system, alerting me to cars in the lanes to either side, is a given, but one of my favorite new features stops you from dooring cyclists. Radar at the rear corner of the car stays active after you park, and if you open the door when it detects a cyclist or car coming up, string lighting in the door flashes red.

The Q7’s collision warning, which Audi calls Pre-Sense, is also bicycle-friendly. This system flashes a warning, and can even slam on the brakes, if you’re about to hit something. When I drove down a winding road, it flashed on as I approached a cyclist up ahead.

Audi also gives the Q7 a surround-view camera system, which makes parking easy, and uses the radar to warn you about traffic when you back out of parking spots. Surprisingly, Audi doesn’t offer an automated parking feature on the Q7, despite its robust sensor load clearly making that possible.

Tech trend
Audi’s current toolkit of technologies and drivetrains is making every new generation of each model something of a revelation. This impressive trend goes back to the 2015 A3 and 2016 TT. The Q7 holds up this trend well, but it’s also costly. Base price only comes to $54,800, which roughly converts to £36,880 or AU$75,895. But take it up to Prestige trim, bringing in the Virtual Cockpit display, and it jumps to $64,300, roughly converting to £43,220or AU$89,052.

Once you add the Driver Assistance package for all those safety features, and the Adaptive Chassis, bringing in four-wheel-steering, you’re over 70 grand. If you really want to go crazy, add the 23-speaker Bang and Olufsen premium audio system for another $5,000, which converts to £3,360 or AU$6,925.

The Q7’s closest current rival would have to be the Volvo XC90, which emphasizes comfort and elegance over driving dynamics. Or you can look to the BMW X5, a rival for handling, but third-row seating only comes as an option.

–

Source: cnet

The post Audi makes 2017 Q7 SUV handle like a sports car appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

There are so many registrations, in fact, that the FAA is planningf to take the website offline on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET for maintenance in order to prepare for the influx of incoming drone registrations; the administration is anticipating 400,000 drones could be sold this holiday season. The drone registration will return online on Thursday at 6 a.m. ET, following the nine-hour maintenance.

On Dec. 14, the FAA announced all drones weighing between 0.55 and 55 pounds — including cameras and other payloads — would need to be registered before they could be legally flown in the sky.

Drones purchased after Dec. 21 must be registered before they are flown for the first time. People who purchased drones prior to then have until Feb. 19, 2016, to register, letting the FAA “trace the ownership of an aircraft in the event of an incident,” according to its website.

Penalties for those who fail to register their drones are stiff.

The FAA says it could assess penalties up to $27,500, and criminal penalties are much higher; they include fines of up to $250,000 and/or jail time for up to three years, according to an FAQ.

–

Source: Mashable

The post Over 45,000 drones registered in 2 days – Report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Now, the company is trying something far more common, and perhaps with better chances of success: an affordable Android with a metal case and a decent set of features.

Other features of note are front-facing stereo speakers, dual nano SIM slots and the return of capacitive Android navigation buttons to the phone’s face (HTC’s last two phones, the One M9 and A9, don’t have those).

The HTC One X9 is currently available in China for 2,399 yuan ($370) without a contract; global pricing and availability have not been announced.

–

Source: Mashable

The post HTC One X9 offers solid specs with affordable price tag appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.