Day: October 14, 2022

Luanda – Russian ambassador to Angola Vladimir Tararov defended Friday in Luanda the expansion of space cooperation between the two countries.

The diplomat was speaking to the press at the end of an audience granted by the deputy president of the MPLA (ruling party), Luísa Damião.

The meeting addressed cooperation between this political party and the United Russia party, in the fields of staff training, among others.

Asked about the launch of the Angolan satellite, he said that Angosat 2 can contribute to the country’s economic development, in areas such as agriculture, mineral exploration and others.

He stated that the launch of the satellite, carried out last Wednesday, is the first step, followed by other actions to explore the real capabilities of Angosat 2.

On the other hand, the ambassador Vladimir Tararov recalled that the MPLA and the United Russia party signed, in 2021, a cooperation agreement covering several domains.

He informed that Angola was invited to participate in the International Conference on Global Problems of Security and Peace in the World, to be held in Sochy, Russian Federation, in November this year.

Angosat 2, with two tons and a high information transfer capacity, travels 36 thousand kilometers from the Earth’s surface to geostationary orbit, where it will be at position 23E in space.

Audience

Still today, the MPLA vice-president received, in audience, the ambassador of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Hamdi el jalil Aaili, who expressed the country’s willingness to cooperate with Angola in the recovery of infrastructures, linked to health, education, energy and water and agriculture.

The official highlighted Angola’s experience in the field of demining, having said that the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic has a large area of mined territory.

Regarding the relations between the MPLA and the Polisario Front, he said that they are old and called for the need to strengthening the ties.

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Robbie Coltrane, the baby-faced comedian and character actor whose hundreds of roles included a crime-solving psychologist on the TV series “Cracker” and the gentle half-giant Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” movies, has died. He was 72.

Coltrane’s agent, Belinda Wright, said he died Friday at a hospital in his native Scotland, and but did not immediately release other details. She called him “forensically intelligent” and “brilliantly witty” in just one of many tributes made to him.

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who decades ago said Coltrane was her first choice to play Hagrid, tweeted Friday that he was “an incredible talent, a complete one off.”

“I was beyond fortunate to know him, work with him and laugh my head off with him,” she wrote.

Born Anthony Robert McMillan in Rutherglen, Scotland, Coltrane was in his early 20s when he began pursuing an acting career and renamed himself in honor of jazz musician John Coltrane.

He had a notable screen career, with credits including “Mona Lisa,” “Nuns on the Run” and Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of “Henry V” when he broke through on his own as a hard-bitten criminal psychologist in “Cracker,” the 1990s TV series for which he won best actor at the British Academy Television Awards three years running.

He went on to appear in all eight “Harry Potter” movies as the young wizard’s mentor and had a wide variety of other parts, including a Russian crime boss in the James Bond thrillers “GoldenEye” and “The World is Not Enough” and Pip’s guardian Mr. Jaggers in a 2012 adaptation of Dickens’ “Great Expectations.” More recently, he received rave reviews for playing a beloved TV star who may harbor a dark secret in the 2016 miniseries “National Treasure.”

On Friday, his “Nuns on the Run” co-star Eric Idle tweeted that he had been talking about Coltrane, “wondering where he was,” when he learned of his death.

“Such a bright and brilliant man. A consummate actor, an extraordinarily funny comedian and an amazing actor. He was also a very good friend,” Idle wrote.

Wright said Coltrane is survived by his sister Annie Rae, his ex-wife Rhona Gemmell and his children, Spencer and Alice.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

 

Young researchers and students are competing in a disaster challenge at a natural hazards forum in the Australian city of Brisbane.

The government-funded organization Natural Hazards Research Australia has said more Australians “than ever before are exposed to the damage and destruction of floods, bushfires, cyclones, heatwaves and storms.”

It reported that Australia has experienced 28 disasters that have cost more than $630 million, and 16 of these have occurred since 2000.

Experts have said that research is essential to improve Australia’s readiness for natural calamities.

At the inaugural Natural Hazards Research Forum in Brisbane, young researchers have been asked to solve a key conundrum in preparing communities for floods, fires and storms; how can disaster authorities get potentially life-saving advice to the “unengaged, the moving,” such as tourists or “the hard to reach”?

The winning entry aims to reach international tourists through Wi-Fi — essentially captive portals that compel visitors in flood or fires zones, for example, to watch a survival video before they can log onto the Internet at hotels, cafes or other destinations.

Mark Owens from the Country Fire Authority, an emergency service in the Australians state of Victoria, told VOA that the videos would be tailored for various locations and seasons.

“Making sure the message we actually get to them will actually change their behavior but also get them to do that for the future again and again, and that is why the videos will be tailored and changed seasonally, or, you know, if there is a La Niña coming through again,” he said. “So, you know, it might then really focus on floods for a big period of time instead of bushfire.”

Parts of Victoria state are currently facing one of the biggest floods in decades.

There have been rescues and evacuations along the Maribyrnong River in the city of Melbourne.

Thousands of people are also under evacuation orders for flooding in the states of New South Wales and Tasmania.

Two climatic phenomena — La Niña and the Indian Ocean Dipole — are fueling the flooding. Both occur naturally and are influenced by warmer ocean temperatures. They are dumping above-average rainfall across much of Australia, and experts say they are being super-charged by climate change.

Sydney is having its wettest year on record. More than 2 meters of rain have fallen on Australia’s biggest city, breaking the previous record set in 1950.

 

 

Source: Voice of America