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This was Gosia's only acting role. She now works for an architecture firm.
Heather continues to act to this day on both screen and stage.
Brian has continued to act over the years, most recently in commercials.
Rafal is now a legal advisor and lives in Poland.
Andrew has appeared in numerous TV shows since Spellbinder, recently including Cleverman, The Code, and Newton's Law.
Anthony is still an actor, recently starring in The Family Law.
Ryan has had international success as an actor – he's now most known for his role as Jason on True Blood.
Leonard grew up to work behind-the-scenes in TV as an art director.
Lenore continued acting after Spellbinder, but last appeared on screen in 2002, in Farscape.
Peter is still an actor, recently starring in Winter.
In Abidjan, time is money. Drivers who wait outside our stations want to fill their cars with passengers, and the young men nicknamed “Gnamgbro” are tasked with finding them. They sit with their heads out the windows, shouting the names of destinations to passers-by. In the recording, you can hear one of them shouting ...
St Paul’s Cathedral is a symbolic place in Abidjan, not just for religious reasons, but because of its design. It was built in 1985, 25 years after independence from France, and designed by Italian architect Aldo Spirito. Many artistic representations of our city use the cathedral.
Since 2014, our legislation has forbidden the use of plastic bags and smoking in public places. But we have a big problem with how to manage the garbage in the city, and our lagoon is really polluted. The government are working on it, but we do not yet have a monthly clean-up day. Many people also cycle in Abidjan, but...
Loza Maléombho is a young Ivorian designer (born in Brazil), who recently returned to live and work in Abidjan, where she has opened up a showroom in the city’s business district. Her brand has been described as a fusion between traditional cultures and sub-cultures, and contemporary fashion. After working with H&M, on...
Since 2010, the post-electoral crisis has given birth to a debate between two conflicting groups: supporters of Laurent Gbagbo – our country’s former president, who was arrested in 2011 for war crimes – and supporters of Alassane Ouattara, our current president. Gbagbo’s trial at the International Criminal Court commen...
Abidjan’s look is urban, relaxed and more recently, “Afro chic”. Regardless of standard of living, people in the city are inspired by French and American trends, but now this wave has returned to the source and people like to infuse their style with African fabrics, jewels and pearls.
Abidjan Places is one of my favourite Instagram accounts. It shares images from the city’s inhabitants, and paints a colourful picture of city life.
When we qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2006. The country needed this qualification; it united Ivorians under difficult circumstances after the war in 2002.
Sadly, this would have to be La Pyramide. In spite of its interesting design – it was constructed to bring the feel of an African market into an urban setting – the building is old and dirty. Today it has deteriorated, and is inhabited by illegal tenants, many of whom are homeless.
Our food always satisfies foreigners, and it’s diverse like our ethnic tribes – sweet, a little spiced and colourful.
In Abidjan, the best places to buy food are the street stalls, where it’s inexpensive, and there is always a spot nearby to buy a refreshing drink. At the end of the day, people like to get together to chat and eat while listening to music in the streets. We like to enjoy life in Abidjan, regardless of the situation in...
Zouglou Makers are a group of men who play a style of music known as Zouglou, which is typical to Abidjan. You can catch them live in many spots around town, mainly in the suburb of Yopougon.
It’s obligatory to try our aforementioned street food if you’re in the city. Garba is a personal favourite. The dish is semolina made of manioc (a tuberous tree root) with fried tuna – simple and delicious.
Orphelie Thalmas writes the Rhythmes d’Afrique blog, which focuses on art and culture in Africa, and recently won Best Blogger in Côte d’Ivoire. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
This video, made by Orphelie, shows Abidjan’s two faces. At the beginning, you will see her saying “ici c’est Babi” (“here is Babi”) – a nickname for Abidjan. The music is by DJ Leo, who plays the national Coupé Décalé music.
SEOUL • The two Koreas yesterday held a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony for what they hope will lead to the resumption of road and rail links across the divided peninsula.
A team of almost 100 officials from the South, including the transport and reunification ministers, took a two-hour train ride to attend the ceremony.
Better transport links were among the ice-breaking measures agreed upon by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North's leader Kim Jong Un in September.
While the South struck a cautious tone yesterday, the North openly urged it to push through joint projects despite sanctions on Pyongyang.
Seoul said the ceremony was meaningful, and showed that the two were willing to work with each other, but cautioned that it would not herald the start of actual work on reconnecting the Koreas - which remain technically at war after their 1950-1953 conflict ended without a peace treaty.
A South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman described the event as an "expression of a commitment", adding that construction would depend on "progress on the North's denuclearisation and circumstances concerning sanctions".
But the North's top railway official Kim Yun Hyok reiterated Pyongyang's stance that the South stop toeing the United States line on maintaining sanctions on the North until it gives up its nuclear weapons. "If (the South) keeps looking around to check someone's mood and continues wavering, reunification would never be...
Moments later, about 10 delegates from both the South and the North lined up along the railway and pulled yellow levers to link up the railway tracks in a symbolic gesture.
There were concerns that the train and other materials brought into the North for the ceremony could breach sanctions imposed on the isolated regime over its nuclear weapons, but the United Nations Security Council reportedly granted a waiver for the event.
The two sides wrapped up their joint railway and road inspections for the projects this month - the first time in years that a South Korean train travelled on North Korean tracks.
The ceremony comes as the US ramps up efforts to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons - a project that appeared to lose steam after the historic summit in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and Mr Kim Jong Un.
Both sides have recently accused each other of acting in bad faith, but on Monday, Mr Trump said that he was looking forward to his second summit with Mr Kim.
Senior officials from Russia, China and Mongolia attended yesterday's ceremony in the hope that the Korean peninsula could one day link up with Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway, and through China and Mongolia.
But experts said the North's transport infrastructure is so dilapidated that it could take decades and absorb billions of dollars to modernise and connect roads and railways across its borders.
Rep. Trent Franks slammed President Obama on Friday for imposing sanctions on Russia for political reasons, arguing that Obama’s “primary motivation is to delegitimize the election" of Donald Trump.
In an interview with MSNBC, Franks noted that Obama failed to act when it came to other Russian transgressions, such as standing behind Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s bombings of civilians in the country.
"Now he suddenly finds his tongue when he sees an opportunity to try to use Russia to, quote, 'delegitimize' the election of Donald Trump to be the president. I find that stunning," Franks said.
"I am completely convinced that Barack Obama's primary motivation here is to try to delegitimize the election here."
Franks's complaints echo those from Trump's camp. Transition officials have blasted the Obama administration's focus on the Russian hacks into Democratic organizations as an attack on the legitimacy of Trump's win.
While hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta may have had an impact on the election, there's no evidence to suggest that Russian hackers breached the vote tabulating process itself.
Franks also blasted the media for its characterization of his comments Thursday, when he said, "If Russia succeeded in giving the American people information that was accurate, then they merely did what the media should have done."
On Friday, Franks bristled at the suggestion that he was condoning hacks into American systems by foreign actors.
"Those comments were completely misconstrued," he said.
“I have been deeply committed to making sure their expansionism and their efforts did not result in the deaths of innocent people across the world."
Suranjoy Singh (52kg) and Amandeep Singh (49kg) assured India of at least two medals by advancing to the semi-finals while defending champion Akhil Kumar (56kg) brought a packed Talkatora to its feet with a dramatic revenge win over Iain Weaver to enter the quarter-finals of the Commonwealth Games boxing event.
The 29-year-old Haryana-boxer took on European silver-medallist Weaver in what was undoubtedly the bout of the day in front of a sell-out crowd, which could not stop chanting Akhil's name all through the three rounds.
And he gave them enough reason to celebrate with a thumping 11-6 win over Weaver, who had defeated him 12-6 in their previous meeting six months ago at the Commonwealth championships.
It was a bout that the fans had been waiting for and Akhil and Weaver put up a memorable show. The see-saw battle had Akhil trailing 0-1 at first, he drew level with right hook but the momentum kept swinging before the Indian ended the first round 4-3.
But Akhil went on a rampage in the second round and pulled off some clear uppercuts and body blows besides left jabs to make it 9-4.
Akhil seemed a bit unsettled in the third round when Weaver tried all-out attack but he kept his cool and guard to edge past the 20-year-old Englishman. The win has kept Akhil on course for a historic second successive gold in the Commonwealth Games, which no other Indian boxer has achieved earlier.
"My coach Jaidev Bisht had explained to me how to go about it. We had worked on our strategy. Weaver has good counter-punches but I have my own style of cross-punching which paid me dividends. This win answers all those who feel age is catching up with me," he said.
"I was glad that uppercuts and body blows fetched me points which did not happen when I lost in the Commonwealth championships," he added.
A miffed Weaver blamed the loss on bad judging saying "the scoring was not fair. I didn't get points."
Akhil has another tough one in hand now as he will take on former Olympic bronze medallist Louis Julie in the quarter-finals.
Earlier, continuing the unbeaten run for Indian boxing at the ongoing event, Amandeep and Suranjoy defeated Muhammad Fuad and Mohammad Subrie -- both from Malaysia respectively to assure themselves of their maiden medals in the Commonwealth Games.
While Amandeep won 7-1 over Fuad, Suranjoy defeated Surie 9-2.
Amandeep is now up against Ireland's Paddy Barnes, who beat Australian Andrew Moloney 5-3 in a tense quarter-final bout. Suranjoy, on the other hand, has set up an India-Pakistan match against Haroon Iqbal.
The Britain-based Iqbal, who is representing Pakistan after failing to get the nod for the English team, was tied 3-3 with Welshman Andrew Selby after the regulation three rounds but won the bout on countback.
"I am very happy to have assured myself of my first Commonwealth Games medal but the task would not be complete till I get the gold," Amandeep, a Commonwealth Championship gold medallist, said after his bout.
Interestingly, Amandeep had defeated Fuad by exactly the same margin in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth championships held here earlier this year.
The encounter had its fair share of drama after the initial lull, during which the first round ended 0-0. More than half of Amandeep's points came because of Fuad's recklessness.
Fuad was warned twice in the bout for ducking and ending up head-butting Amandeep in the process.
"That is why it became difficult to connect punches because he was ducking too much," said Amandeep.
Suranjoy was the second Indian to take the ring in the session and he did not disappoint either. The Manipuri, who has won six gold medals in the past one year, remained on course for a seventh after rallying to get the better of Subrie.
The Indian trailed 0-1 in the opening few seconds of the first round but more than made up once he got his rhythm against a pricky opponent.
"I won't be happy till I get the gold. Being in the semi-finals is fine but there is more to conquer," said Suranjoy.
The gold medallist from the inter-continental President's Cup last year, Suranjoy's energy, which never seems to diminish, proved to be decisive in the bout. The diminutive boxer said it was not all that tough after he figured out his rival's gameplan.
"Once I got a hang of how he plays, it was not too tough for me," the 24-year-old pugilist said.
In the other Indian pre-quarterfinal bouts, Manpreet Singh (91kg) entered the last-eight stage with a 15-3 triumph over Haruna Mhando of Tanzania.
In the last Indian bout of the day, Dinesh Kumar's (81kg) heartbreaking 8-9 loss to England's Obed Mbwakongo ended the country's unbeaten streak in the event.
The Commonwealth Championship gold-medallist was neck-and-neck with his rival till the last few seconds of the bout but Mbwakongo managed to sneak past with a jab in the last two seconds of the bout.
There were dramatic scenes outside the ring when Scot boxer Joseph Ham collapsed and had to be stretchered out of the arena after his loss in the bantam weight pre-quarters.
Though it was not clear what exactly was the cause of Ham's fall, officials seemed to be a case of exhaustion.
After a pivot into mobile payments, Ingogo has raised $9.1 million in a pre-IPO funding round.
The new funding will help Ingogo launch a mobile payment and accounting platform for small and medium businesses, in partnership with Xero. Ingogo had announced the evolution from its original taxi hailing app in August.
The Australian startup is now valued at $45 million and has raised $16.2 million in total capital. Based on the past month’s trading, Ingogo is processing an annual equivalent of more than $100 million in taxi payments. Petrie said this represents about 10 per cent of the incumbent Cabcharge’s payment volume annually.
Ingogo has stated plans to list on the ASX in the first half of 2015.
The startup’s latest funding round was led by UBS and Canaccord Genuity. With the addition of Chris Lee and Craig Winkler as investors, Ingogo now has three MYOB co-founders backing the startup. The other is Brad Shofer.
“This funding is a significant step for ingogo, and we are proud to show that funding rounds at this level can be done here in Australia,” said the startup’s founder, Hamish Petrie.
Ingogo also tapped into crowdfunding. The round was the first deal for VentureCrowd, an equity-based crowdfunding platform set up by Artesian Venture Partners. VentureCrowd contributed $1.2 million from about 50 pre-qualified individual investors.
“The response was amazing, with applications significantly oversubscribed, demonstrating that VentureCrowd is a robust, viable investment platform for startups and investors,” said Tim Heasley, COO of Artesian Venture Partners.
Also, Ingogo announced three new members to its board. Martin Dalgleish – who has served on several boards including Foxtel, Hoyts and SEEK – will be chairman. Shofer, co-founder of MYOB and a significant shareholder in Xero, and Naseema Sparks, chairman of DealsDirect, will serve as non-executive directors.
The beta for Ingogo’s Xero payment integration will be launched by the end of October with a full commercial version set to launch in early 2015, Ingogo said.
Interrupting the music and chat of the station's morning show, Obama phoned in from the Oval Office to acknowledge voter frustration with the recession-bound economy - and say that even though he's not on the ballot, his agenda is.
"Are we taking the steps now to move us in the right direction, or are going to go back to the policies that got us into that mess in the first place?" he said.
Other calls went to radio stations in Las Vegas, Chicago and Jacksonville, Fla., with large African-American listenership. On Monday, Obama phoned a series of nationally syndicated radio programs.
With polls forecasting major GOP gains - possibly including a controlling majority in the House - Obama also scheduled a postelection news conference for 1 p.m. Wednesday in the White House East Room.
He strove to energize a key Democratic constituency hours after polls opened in the East and Midwest.
On the line to radio station KVEG in Las Vegas, Obama said, "I know things are still tough out there, but we finally have job growth again ... It is all at risk if people don't turn out and vote today."
That call to the state with the nation's highest jobless rate aimed to boost turnout for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, locked in a tight contest with Republican tea party-backed candidate Sharron Angle.
"Harry Reid has been my partner," Obama said. "Every poll shows the race between Harry Reid and his opponent neck and neck. We know that if people who voted in 2008 turn out to vote in 2010, Harry will win. if they don't turn out, he will lose."
Obama said losing lawmakers like Reid would make it hard for him to "keep making improvements in the economy."
"Across the board, thing have gotten better over the last two years," Obama said on KPWR. "The question is, can we keep that up? But we can only keep it up if I've got some friends and allies in Congress and in the state houses."
The host and others on the "Radio Big Boy" program were vocal in their support, and told the station's listeners how "cool" is is to have Obama as president.
Toward the end, Obama joked, "I know that everybody's thinking we need to get back to some music," then turned serious.

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