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British Airways and Solena are gaining momentum in their goal of producing sustainable jet fuel with technology partners for their GreenSky London initiative now in place and British Airways confirming its financial commitment, a statement from the United Kingdom carrier’s office in Nigeria has said.

GreenSky London is a project that will see the construction of a state-of-the-art facility to annually convert about 500,000 tonnes of waste normally destined for landfill into 50,000 tonnes of sustainable low carbon jet fuel, 50,000 tonnes of biodiesel, bio-naphtha and renewable power.

Solena’s technology consortium has continued to grow and this includes Solena Fuels Corporation, which will provide the high temperature gasification process that converts waste matter into synthesis gas and the overall integrated biomass gasification to liquids solution.

Oxford Catalysts Group will supply the fisher-tropsch reactors and catalyst which will convert the cleaned synthesis gas into liquid hydrocarbons, according to BA.

According to the statement, Fluor has started the pre-front end engineering and design for the project.

Fluor is a world leader in project execution and bio-fuel projects, and is providing engineering services to support Solena.

The statement read, “British Airways has committed to purchasing, at market competitive prices, the jet fuel produced by the plant for the next ten years which equates to $500m at today’s prices.

“Barclays has also been appointed as advisor to explore the optimal funding through export credit agencies. A competitive letter of Interest has been obtained from one of the agencies including associated term funding.”

According to BA, GreenSky London has signed an exclusive option on a site for the facility and consent work for the site has begun.

The airline said more than 150 jobs would be created to operate the facility, as well as 1000 construction positions. The partners aim to have the site operational by 2015.

The Chief Executive Officer, British Airways, Mr. Keith Williams, said, “We are delighted that the GreenSky London project is getting ever closer to fruition. With world-class technology partners now in place, we are well on our way to making sustainable aviation fuel a reality for British Airways by 2015.”

It also quoted the President and CEO of Solena, Mr. Robert Do, as saying, “Our GreenSky London project will provide clean, sustainable fuels at market competitive prices that will help address British Airways’ sustainability goals.

“The British Airways off-take agreement represents the largest advanced biofuel commitment ever made by an airline and clearly demonstrates the airline’s leadership and vision in achieving its carbon emission reduction targets. We are proud to have created a consortium of world class companies with expertise in the synthetic fuels sector to support our project.”

The CEO of Oxford Catalysts Group, Mr. Roy Lipski, said, “Oxford Catalysts is pleased to be playing a key role in the enabling of GreenSky London. This project looks set to become a landmark in the development of the sustainable fuels market, both in the UK and worldwide.”

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is not worried by the prophecies about the world ending on Friday, as he knows that it has another 4.5 billion years left.

“I know when the world will end … In about 4.5 billion years,” Gulf News quoted him as saying.

The 60-year-old said this in response to a question about the timing of his annual news conference, held on the eve of what according to New Age prophecies might be an apocalypse.

Putin explained his calculation by saying the world was at the centre of the Sun’s “functioning cycle” of seven billion to 14 billion years, which meant the Sun would turn into a white dwarf in 4.5 billion years.

“What is there to be afraid of if it’s inevitable?” he said.

An era in the Maya Long Count calendar is due to end at sunrise on December 21, an event interpreted by some groups as the end of days.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is not worried by the prophecies about the world ending on Friday, as he knows that it has another 4.5 billion years left.

“I know when the world will end … In about 4.5 billion years,” Gulf News quoted him as saying.

The 60-year-old said this in response to a question about the timing of his annual news conference, held on the eve of what according to New Age prophecies might be an apocalypse.

Putin explained his calculation by saying the world was at the centre of the Sun’s “functioning cycle” of seven billion to 14 billion years, which meant the Sun would turn into a white dwarf in 4.5 billion years.

“What is there to be afraid of if it’s inevitable?” he said.

An era in the Maya Long Count calendar is due to end at sunrise on December 21, an event interpreted by some groups as the end of days.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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Tighter visa restrictions are sending the “wrong signal” to foreign students and many are being lost to others parts of the world, Boris Johnson has warned.

Speaking in India, the mayor of London said the UK should strongly welcome foreign students, not deter them.

Rules preventing them staying after graduating unless they get a £20,000 job were putting many off, he added.

Ministers say they are committed to reducing net migration levels and students cannot be exempted from this.

There are about 300,000 students from outside the European Union enrolled at courses at UK institutions and numbers rose 6% in 2010-11 – the last year for which official figures are available.

On the second day of a visit to India in which he is seeking to boost economic and cultural links, Mr Johnson said new rules for student visas were having a negative impact.

The new rules mean higher standards of English are needed for students and they can only remain in the UK after graduating if they have a skilled job with a graduate-level salary from an accredited employer.

The London mayor said the number of Indians applying for degrees in the UK was down 9% this year and was set to fall further in 2013.

He said he had written to the home secretary Theresa May to express his concerns and to press for the government to set up a commission to look at whether the UK was losing prospective foreign undergraduates to countries with different visa requirements.

“The policy on visas is, in my view, sending the wrong signal. There are so many stipulations that we are starting to lose business to Australia, America and Canada,” he said.

“The extra stipulations, such as the need to have a salary of up to a certain amount before you are allowed to stay on mean we need to be very careful that we are not doing stuff that actively deters foreign students and at the moment the policy seems to put people off.”

‘Unnecessary alarm’

Mr Johnson said the UK had a “strong” reputation for attracting students from around the world and the £2.5bn in fees they paid every year helped universities pay for places for UK students.

“It is a great idea to have a London that is open to that kind of business. I am saying to government ‘don’t do things that are going to cause unnecessary alarm and prejudice against the UK.”

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, there were 39,090 Indian students on UK courses in 2010-11, 13% of the total non-EU student population and second only to China.

In what Mr Johnson said was an “exciting” development, the Amity University of Delhi announced on Monday that it wants to open a campus for 15,000 foreign students in London.

Mayoral sources suggested that the Greater London Authority would seek to work with the private university to establish whether any of the land it holds would be suitable for the site.

‘Brightest and best’

Some MPs are worried about the impact that the government’s crackdown on bogus colleges and university visa procedures is having on foreign students’ perceptions of the UK as a place to study.

The government has said it still wants to attract the “brightest and the best” to come to the UK but is focused on reducing net migration levels from more than 200,000 now to the tens of thousands.

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in September, the home secretary said the government would take on “powerful vested interests” which opposed its policy and the higher education sector could not be treated differently because of its value to the economy.

“I agree that we need to support our best colleges and universities and encourage the best students to come here,” she said.

“But to say importing more and more immigrants is our best export product is nothing but the counsel of despair.”

Mr Johnson and other MPs are urging ministers to remove student visa statistics from the government’s overall net migration target.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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The Federal Labor Agency says the number of Germans unemployed dropped only slightly in October over the previous month, leaving the overall jobless rate unchanged at 6.5 percent.

Labor agency head Frank Weise said Tuesday the numbers show that even though economic growth has slowed amid the European financial crisis the job market overall remains robust.

Overall 2.753 million people were out of work in October, down 35,000 from September. When adjusted for seasonal factors, however, the number of jobless rose 20,000 for an adjusted unemployment rate of 6.9 percent.

October 2012 also saw 16,000 more jobless than in October 2011.

The Economy Ministry this month cut its growth forecast for 2013 to 1 percent from 1.6 percent, though increased this year’s outlook slightly from 0.7 percent to 0.8 percent.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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A Missouri obstetrician separated a baby’s head from his body during delivery and then shoved the newborn back into the mother and performed an emergency C-section to cover up the ghastly blunder, a couple claims in a lawsuit.

Arteisha Betts and Travis Ammonette, of Florissant, filed a 10-count complaint in St. Louis County Circuit Court last month claiming doctors wrongly pushed them to have a vaginal delivery, decapitated their son and then tried to cover it up, according to local Patch and Courthouse News Service.

The details of the couple’s claim are horrifying.

During a February 2011 appointment, the couple claimed, Dr. Susan Moore told them their baby boy would have to be delivered by caesarian because his abdomen was too large for a normal birth, according the CNS report.

Betts went into labor on March 22, just 28 weeks into what is normally a 40-week pregnancy.

The delivering doctor at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, Dr. Gilbert Webb, refused to perform a C-section and “would only agree to deliver her baby by way of attempted trial of vaginal delivery,” the complaint said, according to Patch.

Webb refused to allow them to go to a different hospital, and “Betts consented to a trial of vaginal delivery under duress and protest,” the complaint said.

During the birth, the boy’s head breached, but the rest of his body got stuck in the birth canal, the complaint said.

In an attempt to pull the boy loose, Webb applied traction to his head and “separated (the boy’s) head from his cervical spine,” the complaint said.

Blood “shot out” from the newborn’s neck in full view of his parents, the complaint said.

Webb then “pushed” the boy’s head and body back into the birth canal and scrambled to perform a C-section, slicing into Betts before anesthesia kicked in, the complaint said.

During the procedure, Webb “surgically and completely removed” the boy’s head from his body, the complaint said.

The doctor then tried to cover up the boy’s wounds before handing him over to his parents — though the complaint doesn’t say how he did this.

The suit, filed in late September, names Webb and Moore, along with Midwest Maternal & Fetal Medicine Services and Signature Medical Group as defendants.

The couple accused the group of wrongful death and negligence and is seeking unspecified damages.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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A mother died within hours of giving birth at home after a private midwife committed a horrifying catalogue of errors, an inquest heard.  

Claire Teague, 29, was left bleeding in bed after Rosie Kacary allegedly pulled out her placenta following the delivery.

The midwife is also accused of failing to realise a large section of the placenta had not come out and not stitching a tear.

Mrs Teague complained to her husband, Simon, about feeling weak and in pain after the birth but Kacary left and only returned after ‘repeated contact’.

When she came back to the couple’s home in Woodley, near Reading, Berkshire, she discovered Mrs Teague had stopped breathing.

Instead of performing CPR on a firm area such as the floor, Kacary is said to have done it on the bed, where it was less effective.

Mrs Teague, who suffered haemorrhaging and three cardiac arrests, was taken to hospital by ambulance but died later that day.

Giving evidence in Windsor yesterday, Mr Teague said he and his wife lost a twin following an emergency caesarean at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading in 2009. A girl, now three, survived.

Following the trauma, when Mrs Teague conceived again she wanted to give birth at North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke.

Claire Teague was rushed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading (pictured) after she stopped breathing at home following the birth of her child

But he said his wife was ‘brainwashed’ into having a home birth by the midwife, who insisted it was safe. Mrs Teague gave birth to their son, Harrison, at home at around 6am on August 1, 2010.

Her husband told the hearing he became ‘anxious’ as Kacary ‘pulled on the cord six or seven times in an aggressive manner’. He added: ‘Eventually the placenta came out with a lot of force and tugging.’

The midwife, he said, examined the placenta by torchlight in the dark bedroom and told the couple that parts remained in the uterus but would come out naturally.

Dr Helen Allott (pictured) said in good light it would have been apparent part of Mrs Teague’s placenta was missing

Mr Teague also said Kacary insisted a tear his wife suffered during the delivery was not serious enough to need a suture.

The midwife left at 10am. Mr Teague claimed that when she eventually returned and attempted to resuscitate his wife, she ‘didn’t seem to know what she was doing’.

The inquest heard from a paramedic who described the ambulance that took Mrs Teague to the Royal Berkshire Hospital as ‘swimming in blood’.

Doctors established around a third of the placenta – measuring 8in by 3in – had not been delivered. Dr Helen Allott, a consultant gynaecologist, told the hearing haemorrhaging could be caused by a section of placenta remaining in the mother as it would prevent the uterus from contracting.

She also said the placenta should never be ‘tugged’ and the decision to have a home birth after previous complications was ‘high risk’.

Another doctor, Suad Hirsi-Farah, who treated Mrs Teague, said she had suffered a tear which would normally be stitched immediately in hospital under anaesthetic.

Mr Teague claimed Kacary expressed doubts about her own conduct. ‘She came up to me and said “I should have stayed longer, shouldn’t I?”’ he said. But Kacary, 50, told the inquest she tried to pull out the placenta only three or four times. She said she believed it had emerged complete and would have recommended hospital treatment if she thought otherwise.

She denied claims she examined Mrs Teague in a dark room and said she attended refresher emergency medicine courses each year and had never been told to move someone on to a floor to perform CPR.

‘My whole practice has always been extremely kind and gentle and thoughtful and caring,’ she added. ‘I did the best I could under the circumstances.’

The midwife, who qualified in 1998 and has practised privately since 2003, has overseen 96 home births.

A post mortem examination found Mrs Teague died from lack of oxygen caused by severe haemorrhaging due to a retained placenta.

The inquest continues.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Prompted by the fatal shooting rampage at a suburban Milwaukee spa, two local lawmakers are pushing legislation to tighten enforcement of gun rules in domestic violence cases.

But it’s unlikely their proposed changes would have prevented 45-year-old Radcliffe Haughton from buying a handgun just two days after his estranged wife obtained a restraining order against him. He used the gun to shoot seven women at the spa, killing his wife and two others, before fatally shooting himself.

Still, Sen. Lena Taylor said the shooting highlights the need for better enforcement of laws that require restraining order recipients to surrender their weapons.

“Across Wisconsin there are inconsistent standards, or sometimes none at all, for the collection of weapons owned by domestic abusers,” the Milwaukee Democrat said Monday as she and Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber pushed for the bill.

Haughton opened fire at the Azana Day Spa around 11 a.m. Sunday, just three days after his estranged wife, Zina, obtained a four-year restraining order. He was ordered to turn over all of his firearms to a county sheriff, though it’s unclear whether he turned in any weapons.

But he bought the .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun used in the attack from a private owner on Saturday, according to police in Brown Deer, the Milwaukee suburb where Haughton lived. The seller did nothing illegal, however, because Wisconsin law only requires background checks and a 48-hour waiting period from gun dealers, not from private individuals.

Three of the victims remained hospitalized late Monday.

Taylor’s legislation calls for requiring individuals who are subject to a restraining order to surrender their firearms within 48 hours or face arrest. The bill failed to pass in 2010, after the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups fought it.

Tony Gibart, policy coordinator for the Wisconsin Coalition against Domestic Violence, supports Taylor’s bill but admits it may not have done anything to stop Haughton.

“We don’t know what would have prevented this situation,” he said.

Jeff Nass, president of Wisconsin Force, an NRA-chartered state association, said such a law would have done nothing to prevent Haughton’s shooting spree.

“It’s just one of those things that make some people feel better,” Nass said. “It’s just like a restraining order. We know how effective those are. The tragedy is, it’s hard to understand how people think and what deranged people do.”

Court records show that Haughton had terrorized his wife for years, including threatening to throw acid on her face, dousing her car with tomato juice and slashing her vehicle’s tires.

The former car salesman was charged with disorderly conduct last year after police responding to a 911 call saw him point what appeared to be a gun at his wife from a window at their home. Officers took cover, and a 90-minute standoff ensued. It ended peacefully.

But police said Monday they were never able to confirm a gun was involved because Zina Haughton wouldn’t allow them into the couple’s home. The charge against Radcliffe Haughton was later dropped when a police officer failed to appear in court.

Police said the officer asked the prosecutor to reschedule but the prosecutor refused. A call to the prosecutor Monday evening seeking comment rang unanswered.

According to court records, Zina Haughton had told police her husband didn’t own any guns. But she was concerned enough about her safety that she got a police escort when she went to the house earlier this month to pick up a few items.

When she drove to work after picking up the items, her husband was waiting in a car outside the spa. He leaned out of the vehicle and, in front of her and two co-workers, slashed her vehicle’s tires, according to court documents. He was later arrested.

In her request for a restraining order, filed in that case on Oct. 8, Zina Haughton wrote that her husband had threatened to kill her if she ever left him. He also at various times had threatened to throw acid on her face and burn her and her family with gas, she claimed.

“His threats terrorize my every waking moment,” Zina Haughton wrote.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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