Colombian rapper who went missing on tour found dead in Mexico A Colombian rapper who went missing while on tour in Mexico has been found dead and identified by his family, Mexican prosecutors said Monday. Rapper Byron Sanchez, who used the stage name B King, disappeared with Colombian DJ colleague Jorge Herrera on September 16 as they left a gym in an exclusive neighborhood of Mexico City, their manager told Colombian radio. Mexico City prosecutors said that another body found on September 17 presented “similarities” with that of Herrera, who performed under the name Regio Clown. His body had yet…
Author: AFP
Colombian rapper who went missing on tour found dead in Mexico A Colombian rapper who went missing while on tour in Mexico has been found dead and identified by his family, Mexican prosecutors said Monday. Rapper Byron Sanchez, who used the stage name B King, disappeared with Colombian DJ colleague Jorge Herrera on September 16 as they left a gym in an exclusive neighborhood of Mexico City, their manager told Colombian radio. Mexico City prosecutors said that another body found on September 17 presented “similarities” with that of Herrera, who performed under the name Regio Clown. His body had yet…
French fashion icon Christian Louboutin’s decision to name Will Smith’s son Jaden as his chief menswear designer is a bold choice that took the industry by surprise and stirred up fresh allegations of “nepo-baby” favoritism. When not following in the footsteps of his famous father into acting and rap music, 27-year-old Smith has been a regular at fashion shows for years, as both a high-profile front-row guest or as a model. His often eccentric dressing has frequently caught the eye, such as when he turned up to the Grammy Awards this year wearing a black Transylvanian castle on his head or…
With its marbled walls, exposed lightbulbs and plentiful mirrors, the bathroom at The Library, a nightclub in Lagos, Nigeria, is practically begging patrons to snap a photo. Then it comes, a message delivered on a gold-framed sign: “No selfies in the restroom… just kidding.” In Nigeria, bathroom selfies are no joke. From the buzzing mega-city of Lagos to the stuffy capital Abuja and conservative Kano in the north, bars and lounges are decking out their restrooms — not just to catch up with times but also to bring in new customers. AFP sent reporters to women’s bathrooms across Africa’s most…
Staff members stir rice as other pour water in a giant pot during an attempt to break the world record for the largest pot of Jollof rice, led by Nigerian chef Hilda Baci in Lagos, on September 12, 2025 [OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP] Guinness World Records has officially recognised Nigerian chef Hilda Baci for cooking the largest serving of jollof rice ever made, cementing her name once again in culinary history. The massive pot, prepared in Lagos last Friday, weighed an astonishing 8,780 kilograms (19,356 pounds, 9 ounces) of Nigerian-style jollof rice. Guinness confirmed the milestone on X, while Baci shared…
From rocky start to Oscar hopeful: Dwayne Johnson reinvents himself at Toronto Film Festival Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s surprise Oscars campaign for his first arthouse role in The Smashing Machine barreled into the Toronto Film Festival Monday. Johnson, 53, who has earned rave reviews playing fighter Mark Kerr, sat down with an audience before the movie’s North American premiere to reflect on a unique career. The former grappler and action hero has never lacked bulk. But when Johnson signed up to play Kerr, director Benny Safdie had an unusual request. “Benny, early, said, ‘I don’t know if you’ve ever…
Ariana Grande accepts the award for Video of the Year for “Brighter Days Ahead” during the MTV Video Music Awards [Angela Weiss/AFP] Ariana Grande won the MTV Video Music Awards’ top honor on Sunday, taking home Video of the Year for “Brighter Days Ahead”, which also claimed Best Pop Song at the ceremony near New York City. Visibly emotional while accepting the evening’s most prestigious award, the 32-year-old singer-songwriter and actor delivered an extended thank you to her fans, whom she described as “fiercely loving and supportive.” “Thank you for growing with me and being so supportive of me as…
Italian luxury king Giorgio Armani, designer to the stars and leader of a high-end lifestyle empire, has died at the age of 91. “The world lost a giant today. He made history and will be remembered forever,” fellow Italian icon Donatella Versace said on Instagram. The best-known contemporary designer, Armani opened his fashion house in Milan in 1975, quickly rising to the top of the industry and going on to dress Hollywood. His funeral on Monday will be private but well-wishers will be able to pay their respects at a memorial chamber open on Saturday and Sunday in Milan, his…
Instagram influencer Lochie Jones [Courtesy] The Australian embassy in Japan has issued a warning to travellers to behave respectfully after an Instagrammer drank offerings from a Japanese burial site, sparking widespread anger online. In the latest example of fame-seeking foreigners upsetting locals, Lochie Jones, reportedly an Australian tourist, posted a video of himself gulping from a can placed on a headstone as an offering. Moments earlier, he is seen flipping a coin to decide whether to open the beverage, which was likely left as a gift for ancestors in a common Japanese tradition. He is then seen burping in front of…
Cardi B cleared of assault in California case Rapper Cardi B was cleared of assault on Tuesday in a $24 million (Sh3 billion) civil trial in which she was accused of slashing a woman’s face with her fingernails. A colorful hearing in Los Angeles last week featured the “WAP” artist sporting wildly different wigs and sparring with lawyers, creating numerous viral moments. A jury in the city dismissed claims by plaintiff Emani Ellis that the then-pregnant singer assaulted her while she was on her way to a medical appointment in Beverly Hills in 2018. Ellis, who is Black, had alleged…
Venice Film Festival features star-studded lineup during 82nd edition The 82nd Venice Film Festival opens on Wednesday, promising a rich blend of politics, spectacle, and Hollywood glamour. Running from August 27 to September 6, the festival will feature 21 films vying for the prestigious Golden Lion, alongside a string of high-profile premieres and long-awaited comebacks from some of cinema’s biggest names. This year’s competition field brings together a strikingly diverse slate. Olivier Assayas adapts the bestselling The Wizard of the Kremlin, with Jude Law stepping into the role of Vladimir Putin. Kathryn Bigelow returns to filmmaking after an eight-year break…
Finalist female participants in Mr. & Ms. Kibera 2025 stand on the main stage in their gala outfits in Kibera [Luis TATO / AFP] A stone’s throw from Kenya’s largest informal settlement, a young woman glides down a spotlit catwalk, her delicate white dress at odds with the fake blood splattered across it and the tape covering her lips reading: “Stop, silence, gender-based violence”. The annual “Mr and Ms Kibera” pageant in Nairobi, gleefully attended by hundreds, is about more than just the contestants’ looks — it provides a much-needed platform for expression and protest. For many of those taking…
Burkina Faso junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore [Courtesy] If viral videos online are to be believed, R. Kelly and Pope Leo XIV agree on one thing; that Burkina Faso’s junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, is a remarkable head of state. The images, however, are artificial intelligence-generated propaganda, part of what experts describe as an extensive disinformation campaign designed to bolster the “personality cult” of the West African strongman. Beyoncé and Justin Bieber are among other celebrities whose faces and voices have been digitally manipulated using AI to sing the praises of Traoré. In one such video, attributed to disgraced R&B…
Unreleased Beyonce music stolen in Atlanta ahead of ‘Cowboy Carter’ tour show Computer drives containing unreleased music by US superstar Beyonce and plans related to her concerts were stolen last week in Atlanta, police said Monday, with a suspect still at large. The items were stolen from a rental car used by Beyonce’s choreographer and a dancer on July 8, two days before the pop icon kicked off the Atlanta leg of her “Cowboy Carter” tour, a police incident report said. Choreographer Christopher Grant, 37, told police that he returned to the car to find its rear window smashed and…
French Catholic priest Abbe Pierre, poses in Eldorado Theater in Paris on December 13, 1988, as he presents his second play “Permis de Vivre”, about Emmaus Foundation, directed by Marc Dufour.(Photo by Gilles LEIMDORFER / AFP) A French archbishop’s decision to promote a priest who was sentenced to jail for raping a teenaged boy has drawn new condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church for its record on sex abuse. Victim support groups and traditionalists have expressed outrage over the case of Dominique Spina, who was found guilty of raping a 16-year-old boy in 2006 and sentenced to five years in…
A handout sketch received from the Supreme Court of Victoria shows Erin Patterson, an Australian woman accused of murdering three people with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington [AFP] An Australian woman told police she “loved” members of her husband’s family she was later accused of killing with poison mushrooms, a court heard Tuesday. Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband in 2023 by serving them a beef Wellington laced with lethal “death cap” mushrooms. She is also accused of attempting to murder her husband’s uncle, who survived the meal after a long…
US actor Denzel Washington argues with a photographer next to US singer and actor ASAP Rocky as they arrive for the screening of the film “Highest 2 Lowest” at the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 19, 2025. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP) Hollywood star Denzel Washington had a tense exchange with a photographer before he received a surprise honorary award at the Cannes film festival on Monday. Washington, 70, was at the festival for the first time for the premiere of his latest film with New York director Spike Lee, “Highest…
US actor Denzel Washington argues with a photographer next to US singer and actor ASAP Rocky as they arrive for the screening of the film “Highest 2 Lowest” at the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 19, 2025. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP) Hollywood star Denzel Washington had a tense exchange with a photographer before he received a surprise honorary award at the Cannes film festival on Monday. Washington, 70, was at the festival for the first time for the premiere of his latest film with New York director Spike Lee, “Highest…
Celebrity Kim Kardashian [@kimkardashian/Instagram] A-list celebrity Kim Kardashian is to testify in a Paris court on Tuesday, an eagerly awaited appearance nearly a decade after masked men robbed her at gunpoint of millions of dollars of jewellery during the French capital’s fashion week. Ten suspects have been on trial since late April over the armed robbery in 2016, which saw jewellery worth some $10 million stolen from the reality TV star and influencer. The trial has attracted huge media attention, with close to 500 reporters accredited, and the courthouse on Paris’s historic Ile de la Cité is expected to come…
A man walks past movie posters at at AMC Theater in Montebello, California on May 5, 2025. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) Hollywood reacted with skepticism on Monday to US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 100 percent tariffs on foreign films, with movie insiders calling it a policy made up on the fly by a president who fails to understand how the industry works. “It makes no sense,” entertainment lawyer Jonathan Handel said of Trump’s idea. Handel told AFP that many US productions, from James Bond flicks to the “Mission Impossible” franchise, are filmed abroad for obvious creative…
Rajab Butt. [courtesy,Instagram] A Pakistani YouTube star has been charged with blasphemy after launching a perfume named after the very law he has fallen foul of, police said Tuesday. Rajab Butt has one of the largest online followings in the Muslim-majority country and has been embroiled in controversy for years, including over his brief custody of a lion cub. In a recent video, since deleted from his social media accounts, Butt launched his “295” perfume which refers to blasphemy legislation in the penal code. He said it followed a case filed against him last year, over an earlier video deemed…
Souleymane Cisse looks on onstage at the Tribeca Talks Directors Series during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. (Photo/Getty Images/AFP Malian director Souleymane Cisse, one of the fathers of African cinema, died Wednesday in a Bamako clinic aged 84, his daughter told AFP. Tributes poured in for Cisse, whose trailblazing work on the silver screen across more than half a century was marked by a commitment to African storytelling, deep humanism and profound political engagement. “Papa died today in Bamako. We are all in shock. He dedicated all his life to his country, to cinema and to…