Dede Sophie

Fiji  Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has moved quickly to ensure exiled University of the South Pacific Vice Chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, returns to Fiji as soon as possible. He has also acted to assist Dr Padma Lal, widow of the late Professor Brij Lal, to bring the ashes of the famed academic back home to Fiji from Australia. She too had been refused entry to Fiji, along with her late husband. Dr Padma Lal, with late Professor Brij Lal. Photo: ANU/Fiji Times “I am ready to meet Dr Lal and Professor Ahluwalia personally,” said Rabuka. “I will apologise on behalf of the people of Fiji for the way they were treated.” Rabuka said he had promised his government would bring to an end the injustices suffered by Professor Ahluwalia, and Professor Brij Lal. These made headline news. He affirmed today that the Vice Chancellor and Dr Lal are now free to enter the country.” Dr Lal had been prevented from coming to Fiji with her husband’s ashes for them to be taken to his birth-place at T

Imagine this. A high altitude village in the Western Himalayas of India that is made up of a small group of people living in Tibetan styled mud and stone houses and who are surrounded by snow capped mountains and the rolling hills of the mighty Himalayas. Now, imagine their mountainous land being the home to a rich array of fossils of marine animals and plants from millions of years ago. Sounds impossible right? Well, such a village exists at an altitude of 4400 metres above MSL in the high Himalayas of Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh. This village called Langza is a picturesque village that lies at the base of the Chau Chau Kang Nilda peak and that is just made up of a few hundred people. The interesting thing is that Langza and most of Spiti valley was under the ancient Tethys sea many millions of years ago and it was home to many ancient marine flora and fauna. The entire mountain landscape that we see today was all under a huge ocean before the tectonic plates shifted leading to t

The ‘Recharge’ suffix used by Volvo cars can be somewhat confusing, writes Brian Byrne. Initially used for any version of one of its models that had an electric drive component, it could mean petrol-hybrid, plug-in petrol hybrid, or a fully electric car. The C40 Recharge is that last, and unique so far in the Volvo range in that the model is only available with battery-electric power. I’ve reviewed the C40 Recharge before, earlier this year. And also the XC40 Recharge, the electric version of the company’s compact SUV, as well as the related Polestar 2. They share powertrains, interiors to a great degree, and infotainment interfaces. So my recent stint with the C40 Recharge brought very familiar impressions. The reason for my revisiting the particular model was its powertrain, this time a single RWD electric motor instead of the AWD dual motors of my C40 of earlier this year. The C40 Recharge is essentially an XC40 with a coupe rear end, a format that has become an almost de rigeur var

This is the last ever Jaguar F-Type model that will be produced, and also marks the end of new Jaguar sports cars powered by internal combustion engines, writes Brian Byrne. From 2025, Jaguar will only launch electric new models. The Jaguar F-Type 75 is a special edition unveiled last October, the ’75’ recalling the number of years since the XK120, the brand’s first sports car, was launched. The last of the F-Type line is powered by V8 petrol engines outputting 450hp and 575hp, the latter for the R version. Both are all-wheel-drive, but there’s also a RWD version available. There’s also a convertible.  

Kia Ireland has commissioned three pageant elements for this year’s St Patrick’s Festival Parade in Dublin, under the title ‘A Future That Moves Us’, writes Brian Byrne. The pageant will be a total of 100 metres long within the Parade, exploring the balance between nature and humans and highlighting Creativity, Nature, and Oceans — that last a reflection of Kia’s global support for the Ocean Clean-up project. The pageant is being built by Buí Bolg Youth Arts based in Wexford. A fleet of electrified Kia vehicles will be provided to assist the various celebrations of the Festival from March 16–19. This will include a vehicle display area at the Festival Quarter in Collins Barracks, National Museum of Decorative Arts. Pictured are Ronan Flood, Managing Director of Kia Ireland with Richard Tierney CEO of St Patrick’s Festival, at the partnership launch in Collins Barracks, National Museum of Decorative Arts.