Entertainment
BREAKING: Popular Actor, Harry B. is dead
Harry Belafonte, a singer, songwriter and groundbreaking actor who started his entertainment career belting, Day O, in his 1950s hit song “Banana Boat” before turning to political activism, has died at the age of 96, the New York Times reported.
The cause of Belafonte’s death was congestive heart failure, his longtime spokesperson Ken Sunshine told the Times on Tuesday.
As a Black leading man who explored racial themes in 1950s movies, Belafonte would later move on to working with his friend Martin Luther King Jr during the United States civil rights movement in the early 1960s.
He became the driving force behind the celebrity-studded, famine-fighting hit song, We Are the World, in the 1980s.
Belafonte once said he was in a constant state of rebellion that was driven by anger.
“I’ve got to be a part of whatever the rebellion is that tries to change all this,” he told the New York Times in 2001. “The anger is a necessary fuel. Rebellion is healthy.”
Belafonte was born in New York City’s borough of Manhattan but spent his early childhood in his family’s native Jamaica. Handsome and suave, he came to be known as the “King of Calypso” early in his career.
He was the first Black person allowed to perform in many plush nightspots and also had racial breakthroughs in movies at a time when segregation prevailed in much of the US.
In, Island in the Sun, in 1954, his character entertained notions of a relationship with a white woman played by Joan Fontaine, which reportedly triggered threats to burn down theatres in the US South. In 1959’s, Odds Against Tomorrow, Belafonte played a bank robber with a racist partner.
In the 1960s, he campaigned with King, and in the 1980s, he worked to end apartheid in South Africa and coordinated Nelson Mandela‘s first visit to the US.
Belafonte travelled the world as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, in 1987 and later started an AIDS foundation. In 2014, he received an Academy Award for his humanitarian work.
Belafonte provided the impetus for We Are the World, the 1985 all-star musical collaboration that raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia. After seeing a grim news report on the famine, he wanted to do something similar to the fund-raising song, Do They Know It’s Christmas?, by the British supergroup Band Aid a year earlier.
We Are the World featured superstars such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles and Diana Ross and raised millions of dollars.
“A lot of people say to me, ‘When as an artist did you decide to become an activist?’” Belafonte said in a National Public Radio interview in 2011. “I say to them, ‘I was long an activist before I became an artist.’”
Even in his late 80s, Belafonte was still speaking out on race and income equality and urging President Barack Obama to do more to help the poor. He was a co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington held the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president in January 2017.
Belafonte’s politics made headlines in January 2006 during a trip to Venezuela when he called President George W Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world”. That same month, he compared the US Homeland Security Department with the Gestapo of Nazi Germany.
An anthology of his music was released to mark Belafonte’s 90th birthday on March 1, 2017. A few weeks before the launch, Belafonte told Rolling Stone magazine that singing was a way for him to express injustices in the world.
“It gave me a chance to make political commentary, to make social statements, to talk about things that I found that were unpleasant – and things that I found that were inspiring,” he said.
The Magistrate Court in Ikorodu on Tuesday ordered that Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) tests be conducted on Liam Aloba, the son of late Nigerian singer, Ilerioluwa Aloba, popularly known as Mohbad.
The DNA tests are to be conducted in an accredited and recognised hospital, both in Nigeria and abroad.
Magistrate Adefisoye Sonuga gave the order while ruling on an application filed by late Mohbad’s Father, Joseph Aloba who sought for a paternity test.
The late Mohbad’s wife, Omowunmi Cynthia Aloba, was listed as the respondent in the application which was brought pursuant to Order 8 Rules 1 & 8 of the Family Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) 2012, and Order 9 Rules 8 & 9 of the Magistrate Courts (Civil Procedure) Rules 2009.
The applicant seeks an order of the court directing the Chief Medical Officer /Chief Pathologist or any other appropriately qualified officer of the Military Hospital Yaba, Lagos, who is in charge of the remains of the late Mohbad presently at the Military Hospital Yaba Lagos, to remove any tissue/ hair or any part of the body of the deceased for the purpose of conducting a DNA test on Master Liam Aloba, at a recognised and accredited Government or private medical facility within Lagos State or other agreeable hospital outside Lagos State.
The application also sought an order of the Court directing that a DNA Test be conducted in relation to the paternity of Master Liam Aloba, being the alleged son of Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba (the Deceased), in a recognised and accredited medical facility outside of Nigeria at the expense of the Applicant.
In documents put before the court, Aloba stated that there remains uncertainty regarding the paternity of Master Liam Aloba and given the sensitivity of the matter, it is imperative that the paternity be conclusively settled.
He also insisted that paternity is a live issue with regards to determining the Respondent’s maintenance obligations and the child’s welfare and the DNA is therefore necessary to avoid further delays and prejudice.
When the proceedings came up today, Augustine Adegbemi from the law firm of Dr. Wahab Shittu (SAN) & Co. represented Mr Joseph Aloba while Kabir Akingbolu appeared for the late Mohbad’s wife, Wunmi.
Through his counsel, the applicant moved his application and with no opposition from the respondent counsel, the magistrate granted the order as prayed.
The court gave the following directives:
That two (2) DNA tests be conducted in an accredited and recognized hospital, both in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.
That both parties or their representatives be present when the sample is taken.
Further proceedings were then adjourned to November 11th, 2025.
Popular Bollywood filmmaker/producer, Kayode Peters, has died in Canada.
The news of his death was shared by his family via his official Instagram page on Saturday, announcing that Peters died peacefully on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 2025, in Toronto, Canada.
The statement read, “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved, Kayode Peters Adewumi, who passed on peacefully this morning… KP braved, challenged and conquered a long-time illness until his last breath.
“Fondly known as KP, he was celebrated not only for his talent as a filmmaker, actor, and producer but also for his warmth, generosity, and kind-hearted spirit. As a beloved son, husband, father, brother, and friend, his impact was felt both on and off the screen.
“He will be deeply missed by many.
“As we grieve this painful loss, we kindly ask for kindness and privacy while we take time to make arrangements for his funeral and to heal. Further details will be shared in due course.
“Thank you for your love, condolences, and continued support.”
Peters was both an actor and producer. He played the role of Koko in Twilight Zone and Flatmates, the hit comedy sitcom in the early 2000s.
He was also known for his work on several stage plays and sitcoms, including Extended Family and Being Farouk, while significantly contributing to Nigeria’s contemporary theatre and television space.Green job opportunities
He is survived by his wife, Alexander, and their children.
Famous Nigerian media personality and TV host, Frank Edoho, has revealed that his second marriage has crashed.
Edoho married his second wife, Sandra Onyenuchenuya, after his first marriage to Katherine Obiang hit the rocks in 2011.
Featuring in a recent episode of the Tea With Tay podcast, the TV personality disclosed that he and his second wife had separated.
He explained that he did his best for the two marriages but they all failed.
He said, “Maybe I’m not good at marriage, I must confess. The two women I had been married to are not my soul mates. Love of your life is different from your soul mate. The love of your life is the person who comes to your mind when you think of love. But your soul mate is someone who understands you even before you express yourself and you naturally align with.
“I know that I went above and beyond for the two marriages. I carried my partner… I can abandon everything for her. But you don’t blame them for falling out of love with you. Take the footballer Kaka for example, he’s a Brazilian and he looks as handsome as an Indian. Very handsome guy, even when he retired from football, he was still handsome. But his wife divorced him. Do you know what she said? ‘He is too good’.”
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