The British actor Alan Rickman has died of cancer at the age of 69. In movies, he won fame for his role as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series and before that in films such as Truly Madly Deeply, Love Actually, Die Hard, Sense and Sensibility and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Rickman also won praise for his work on stage, in productions such as Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Private Lives and Cleopatra. There is something to remind us of his inimitable voice and comic timing. Taste of some of Alan Rickman’s work. Well, the American comedian, actor and writer Ruby Wax knew and worked with Alan Rickman for decades.
Many many years ago, maybe 30, I saw him in Edinburgh and I’d never seen anything like that. And so I was determined. I spent the rest of my life wooing him so he would be my closest friend. And then we lived together. He wasn’t my boyfriend. And no one ever had charisma like Alan.
So I knew ultimately he had to be famous because there’s been anything like it. And then he was a great comedian. I don’t know if people knew but I would sometimes give him lines and he could deliver far greater than any comedian I’d ever seen. But great actors really can do comedy, but I have never met anybody that could do it like him. Ruby Wax on Alan Rickman who’s died at the age of 69.
A person chief in Russia is accused of taking organized theft to a new high or perhaps a new low. If found guilty, Alexander Protopopov may end up in one of the jails he once oversaw.
Russian investigators believed that Alexander Protopopov committed highway robbery. Quite literally, they’ve accused him of stealing a road.
The road in question was 31 miles long when it was there in a remote part of northern Russia. Protopopov allegedly organized and oversaw the dismantling of the road and the 7000 reinforced concrete slabs of which it consisted. He then supposedly spent a year selling off the state property for personal profit. Mr. Protopopov is used to life behind bars though not as inmate. He is acting deputy chief of the Russian prison service. Investigators suspect he had accomplices .Under investigation too are a regional prison service official and a businessman. If Alexander Protopopov is found guilty of using his official position to misappropriate state property and to snitch those slabs, that could well be the end of the road.