One third of London’s buses to run on waste fats and oils

ATP - Almost a third of London’s bus fleet will soon be running on a greener blend of diesel, resulting in a huge reduction in CO2 emissions of 21,000 tonnes each year which comes on top of the 48,000 tonne CO2 reduction from 2013 levels as a result of the introduction of lower emitting buses such as hybrids.

Two bus operators, Stagecoach and Metroline, have signed deals with Argent Energy to supply them with B20 green diesel. The cleaner burning fuel is made from blending diesel with renewable biodiesel from waste products, including cooking oil and tallow from the meat processing trade. 

Paris climate change deal ‘signals end of fossil fuel era’, say experts

The international climate deal agreed in Paris is a turning point in history which signals the end of the fossil fuel era, it has been claimed.

The final draft of the agreement has received a largely positive response from environmental and aid campaigners, experts and analysts, although there are concerns it does not go far enough to tackle climate change.

Emma Ruby-Sachs, acting executive director of campaign group Avaaz, said: “If agreed, this deal will represent a turning point in history, paving the way for the shift to 100% clean energy that the world wants and the planet needs.”

Russia goes ballistic in Syria; Turkey issues a warning

Russia does not appear to be forgiving of the downing of its plane after Turkey cited airspace. The country has been aiming at Turkey at its economic and military ends drawing warning from the country to avoid further conflicts. 

Russia warned previously it will retailiate against Turkey following the downing of its warplane. Consequently, it has been doing so for the past days that it has prompted concerns across the globe including possibly risking NATO's military intervention. According to McClatchy, a United Nations official said that the Russian seemingly have "gone ballistic" in their efforts to end Turkey's influence across Northern Syria.

Russia suspends visa-free travel with Turkey

ATP - Russia announced Friday that it will suspend visa-free travel with Turkey amid the escalating spat over the downing of a Russian warplane by a Turkish fighter jet at the Syrian border.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Moscow will halt the existing visa-free regime starting Jan. 1, saying that Turkey has become a conduit for terrorists and has been reluctant to share information with Moscow about Russian citizens accused of involvement in terrorist activities.

Turkey's downing of the Russian military jet Tuesday, the first time in half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane, has drawn a harsh response from Moscow. Russia has since restricted tourist travel, left Turkish trucks stranded at the border, confiscated large quantities of Turkish food imports and started preparing a raft of broader economic sanctions.

Turkey's Erdogan warns Russia not to "play with fire"

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday warned Russia not to "play with fire" in a dispute over the downing of a Russian warplane this week, but added he did not want to harm relations with Moscow.

Relations between the former Cold War antagonists have a hit a recent nadir after Turkey shot down the jet near the Syrian border. Erdogan made the comments in a speech in northeast Turkey broadcast live on television. (Reporting by Daren Butler; Writing by David Dolan)

Ukraine closes its airspace to Russia in latest escalation

ATP - Ukraine’s prime minister says his government has decided to close the country’s airspace to all Russian planes.

Kiev banned all Russian airlines from flying into Ukraine last month, but Russian planes have been allowed to fly over its territory.

The decision to shut the airspace was announced by Arseny Yatsenyuk at a televised government session on Wednesday. It comes as tensions simmer between Russia and Ukraine following Russia’s annexation of Crimea last year and a separatist war in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 8,000 people and left parts of the industrial heartland in ruins.

The Russian gas monopoly Gazprom announced earlier on Wednesday that it was cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine because the country had not paid in advance for supplies.

Putin: Turkey Shooting Down Russian Warplane Is 'Stab In The Back'

ATP - Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Turkey's decision to down a Russian warplane near the Syria border a "stab in the back."

Speaking at a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II, Putin on Tuesday accepted his condolences on the death of a Russian pilot who was reportedly captured and dead.

Putin said the Russian Su-24 jet was shot by a missile from a Turkish jet over Syria about 1 kilometer (just over a half-mile) away from the Turkish border, which he described as a "stab in the back by the terrorists' accomplices."

Nigeria Internet Market Poised to Hit N1.1trillion by 2017

ATP - Regional Director, Nigeria and Central Africa, Alcatel Onetouch, Nick Imudia, in an interview with Vanguard revealed a significant growth Nigeria’s internet penetration. Alcatel OneTouch is a brand within TCL Communication, an international multicultural company which designs, develops, and markets globally a growing range of mobile and Internet devices.

TCL Communication is a public company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (2618.HK) and part of TCL Corporation one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world.

NDLEA Arrests Drug Baron With 576Kgs Of Methamphetamine

ATP - The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a suspected drug baron, Tochukwu Ubah, alleged to be coordinating a large volume of methamphetamine and ephedrine distribution in the country.

This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Mitchell Ofoyeju, Head, Public Affairs, NDLEA, in Lagos on Sunday.

The statement said Ubah was arrested by the agency’s Special Enforcement Team (SET) at the old local section of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos upon arrival from Enugu.

Nigerian president arrives in Tehran

He was welcomed at airport by Vice-President Mohammad Shariatmadari.
The 3rd GECF summit will open here on Monday in presence of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and 9 other heads of states.
The GECF aims to create coordination in production, exporting and controlling price of natural gas in the world level.
It was founded by Iran, Russia and Qatar and a number of other countries in December 23, 2008.
Member countries of GECF produce 42 percent of world gas, 67 percent of gas resources in the world, 38 percent of gas transferring by pipe and 85 percent of LNG trade in the world.
Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates are 12 original members of the forum and Netherland, Norway, Iraq, Oman, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Peru are observer members in the forum.

Hacker group Anonymous claims ISIS is planning 'worldwide day of terror' TOMORROW

ATP - ANONYMOUS has claimed ISIS is planning a series of terror attacks around the world tomorrow after hacking into its secret data network.

The cyber attackers declared war on the jihadis, also known as ISIL and Daesh, in the wake of the Paris attacks last week.

And now the group has released a statement claming the terrorists are planning up to EIGHT attacks on the same day - tomorrow, November 22.

NCC says MTN, Globacom, Etisalat violate porting process time

The Nigerian Communications Commission on Saturday said MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Etisalat violated the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) process time obligations in the third quarter of 2015.

The commission made this known in its `2015 3Q Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Report’, obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

The regulatory body said to address the increasing cases of port request rejections, it had resolved to monitor operators and take appropriate actions.

First electronic plants developed

Professor Magnus Berggren of the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University in Sweden along with Ove Nilsson, professor of plant reproduction biology, Dr. Roger Gabrielsson, and Dr. Eleni Stavrinidou are the first to successfully incorporate electronic polymers in living plants. The development was reported in the Nov. 20, 2015, edition of the journal Science Advances. The researchers successfully incorporated electronic architecture in all parts of a rose.

The most difficult hurtle to cross in the project was the development of a polymer that was flexible enough to accommodate the multiple surfaces that plant vascular systems have without producing rejection.

Meet the dogs that can sniff out cancer better than some lab tests

ATP - Lucy, a cross between a Labrador retriever and an Irish water spaniel, failed miserably at guide dog school. Curious and easily excitable, random scents distracted Lucy from her master's path, and it wasn't long before she was unceremoniously kicked out.

But her owners knew their smart dog held promise. They decided if her nose was getting her into trouble (she was after all, bred to be a hunting dog), why not train her to sniff out something useful?

For the next seven years, Lucy learned to sniff out bladder, kidney and prostate cancer, and was even used in a study. Over the years she has been able to detect cancer correctly more than 95% of the time. That's better than some lab tests used to diagnose cancer.

Children’s exposure to marijuana while in the womb improves visual ability

ATP - Mothers who used marijuana during pregnancy were found to have improved the visual ability of their babies. A new study shows that the exposure to marijuana while in the womb can significantly enhance the ability to track moving objects at the age of four.

Marijuana has improved the children’s global motion perception, which is involved in motion processing and visual-motor control. The findings could help health professionals to counteract the negative effects of drug use in pregnancy, researchers say.  

The findings come from the results of a visual test in a group of four-year-old children who had been exposed to combinations of marijuana, alcohol, methyl amphetamines or nicotine while in the womb.

Nigeria: Lagos-Badagry Expressway - Until the Lord Provides

"God will provide for us. He is our Tate (Father). I only wish He would provide until He provides!" Yiddish saying.

Lagos Badagry Expressway

The quotation above is a Yiddish proverb. Yiddish was the international language of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe until the middle of the 20th century. I have noticed that English translations of their sayings, tend to sound sort of 'tongue-in-cheek '; the saying above is a case in point. Blasphemous as the saying may seem to an English speaking person and especially in this part of the world, the context of this write-up is not about religion of any shade or colouration.

When Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) came into office as governor of Lagos State on May 29, 2007, he came with the vision to transform Lagos into a mega city. Aspects of this mega city project included the rehabilitation of infrastructures formerly taken care of by the federal government, but had been neglected soon as Abuja became Nigeria's capital in 1991. Of greater interest to this writer, however, is the Lagos Rail Mass Transit project.

How to smuggle 48,000 cans of Heineken into Saudi Arabia? Disguise it as Pepsi

you can try it if you want

Legally, alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia. In reality, however, there are people in the country who drink.

If you're wondering how exactly they actually get that alcohol, consider the multiple reports in the Saudi press that describe how the Saudi authorities at border with United Arab Emirates caught a man with 48,000 cans of Heineken – all disguised as Pepsi cola.

Investment in Nigeria’s oil, gas industry down by 20 percent – Chevron boss

Chevron

Ali Moshiri, the President of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production, has said the total investment in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, which stood at $20 billion in 2014, has dropped by 20 per cent in 2015.

Moshiri disclosed this in Lagos at the 33rd annual conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists.

Moshiri stated that Nigeria accounted for $20 billion out of the $600 billion investment in the global oil and gas industry in 2014.

Man who's never flown before builds plane from scratch... But will it fly?

Asmelash Zeferu on his plane

On June 15 2015, Asmelash Zeferu sat at the end of a runway, over a decade of work malfunctioning around him. The Ethiopian amateur pilot was as shattered as his propeller.

There had been doubters, those who had called him "mad." Many had turned up at the airfield, 40 kilometers north of Addis Ababa, to watch him take off. He had been ready to prove them wrong.

But it wasn't to be. The propeller, hand-crafted from laminated wood, had broken.

The cause? High amounts of friction, taking with it the smoke exit system too. It was time to return to the drawing board and now, following months of repairs and remodeling, Zeferu is ready to line up on the runway once more.

Calling all aspiring astronauts! NASA is hiring!

T.A.T - If you've ever wanted to be an astronaut, now might be your chance – provided you can satisfy a few pesky job requirements, that is.

For three months only, from December through February, NASA will accept applications for aspiring space voyagers to join the current 47-man astronaut team.

The space agency says the call, the first since 2011, is necessitated by the impending return of current astronauts to American soil and the prospect of a possible journey to Mars. The space agency promises, in a press release, that chosen astronauts will have the opportunity to be a part of an “unprecedented transition to commercial spacecraft for crew and cargo transport to the space station.”