dead

Actor Robert Kelker-Kelly, who was a familiar face in daytime dramas in the 1990s with turns in “Days of Our Lives” and “General Hospital,” has died.

Kelker-Kelly died Saturday evening at his home in St. Peters, Mo., the city’s Police Department confirmed Monday to The Times. Law enforcement officials responded Saturday evening to a report of an unconscious man who was not breathing. Police arrived at the actor’s home along with paramedics and “life-saving measures were administered but were unsuccessful,” police said.

Police said officers found nothing suspicious at the scene. A cause of death was not revealed, but police noted that Kelker-Kelly was said to have complained of chest pain before he became unresponsive. A spokesperson for the St. Charles County Ambulance District confirmed paramedics responded Saturday to a report of a man in cardiac arrest. Kelker-Kelly was 62.

Kelker-Kelly primarily acted in TV and was best known for his work in long-running daytime dramas, which also included “Another World.” Notably, he portrayed the rebellious heartthrob Beauregard “Bo” Brady in “Days Of Our Lives” from 1992 to 1995. He began his turn as Bo, which lasted for more than 586 episodes, following the departure of original actor Peter Reckell, who would return to the show off and on in the following decades.

During his tenure, Kelker-Kelly portrayed the spouse of Hope Brady and love interest of Lisa Rinna’s Billie Reed. She spoke negatively of that experience and called her co-star a bully in her memoir, released earlier this year. He did not respond to People’s request for a response at the time.

Kelker-Kelly made his official debut in “Another World” in 1987 and appeared in more than 400 episodes in a handful of roles until 1998, according to the actor’s IMDb page. He was also known for his work as Stavros Cassadine in “General Hospital” and its spinoff series “Port Charles.” John Martinuzzi originated the role. Kelker-Kelly’s “General Hospital” tenure lasted from 2001 to 2014 and was his final TV role. His television credits also include “Jack’s Place,” “Touched by and Angel” and “Rescue 77.”

The actor was born April 18, 1964, in Wichita, Kan. His mother was a nurse and his father a pathologist. Kelker-Kelly’s parents divorced when he was 7 years old, and he later moved in with his father. The actor was in and out of colleges but studied acting and grew fond of Shakespeare, according to People.

After his acting career, Kelker-Kelly became a professional pilot. He married production assistant Linda Ratner in 1988; they divorced four years later. Kelker-Kelly then married “Days of Our Lives” actor Miriam Parrish in 1997. That marriage ended in 2013. He is reportedly survived by a daughter, Amelia Rose Kelly.

Sass Jordan, the Canadian rock star known for hits such as “Make You a Believer” and “Tell Somebody” who served as a judge on all six season of “Canadian Idol,” has died. She was 65.

Jordan died Friday surrounded by her family, according to an announcement posted to Instagram Saturday. No cause of death was provided, but she had reportedly canceled a number of performances in Ontario, Canada, in September “due to a serious medical condition.”

“She remains in our hearts, an inimitable force of nature,” her family wrote in the statement accompanying a photo of Jordan cuddling a cat. “An irreplaceable being of light and joy!”

Jordan made her solo debut with her 1988 album, “Tell Somebody,” which led to her winning the Juno Award — the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy — for most promising female vocalist the following year. She moved to Los Angeles in 1990 before releasing her follow-up album, “Racine,” in 1992.

“Racine” remained one of Jordan’s biggest solo albums, with tracks including “Make You a Believer,” “I Want to Believe,” “You Don’t Have to Remind Me” and “Goin’ Back Again.” She also recorded a duet with Joe Cocker, “Trust in Me,” for the 1992 film “The Bodyguard” that year.

“I always think of music as medicine and as healing for myself and for anyone else who wants to join in,” Jordan said in a 2023 interview with the CBC about audiences still responding to her earlier hits when she performed. “[S]o it’s an extremely uplifting thing. … It’s amazing and it’s incredible to see that. It’s incredible to see people responding to something that is genuinely, like you said, 20 years old.”

Born on Dec. 23, 1960, in Birmingham, England, Sarah “Sass” Jordan moved from France to Montreal with her family at age 3 when her father, a French literature professor, took a job at Concordia University, according to a statement shared by her publicist Eric Alper after her death. Seeing David Bowie in concert as a young teenager inspired Jordan to dream of a career in music. She began singing and playing guitar with friends in Westmount Park and by age 16 she was performing with bands in downtown Montreal nightclubs.

“I’m an expert on rebellion,” Jordan told The Times in 1992, reflecting on why she ran away from home at 14. “I didn’t want that clean, wholesome life … It felt so fake. I identified with real people, oppressed people who were outside that life. I wanted to taste real life — street life.”

Throughout her career, Jordan would tour alongside acts including Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Van Halen. Her touring band in 1994 included Taylor Hawkins, who would go on to become the drummer for the Foo Fighters. Jordan’s most recent release is the live album from that tour, titled “Live in New York Ninety-Four.” Hawkins died in 2022 at age 50.

For six seasons, Jordan served as one of the judges on the reality competition series “Canadian Idol.” The show aired from 2003 to 2008 and mirrored the format of shows like “Pop Idol” and “American Idol.”

“Over four decades, she gave Canadian rock one of its most recognizable voices, carved out space for women in a genre long dominated by men, and opened doors for the young musicians who came through her band,” Alper said in his statement. “Sass Jordan leaves a catalogue that shaped Canadian rock through the late ’80s and ’90s, a blues renaissance in which her voice grew richer with each record, and a generation of artists, from Idol hopefuls to a future Foo Fighter, who learned from her what it means to give a song everything.”

Jordan is survived by her husband Derek Sharp, daughter Stella Jordan-Sharp, stepdaughter Brianne Sharp and brother Daniel Jordan.

Speaking at the final rally of his right-wing alliance ahead of Bosnia’s October 4 election, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik delivered a predictably controversial statement.

“Bosnia-Herzegovina is dead. It is an impossible country, it makes no sense,” Dodik told supporters of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) party in Banja Luka on Friday.

“It is now nothing more than an empty shell … for those who are trying to keep it alive, so they can prove themselves right about something,” said the former president of Republika Srpska, who is known for frequent separatist threats and for challenging the country’s constitution.

Dodik’s comments came as Bosnia remains deeply divided over its political future more than three decades since the 1995 Dayton peace agreement. It split the country into two semi-autonomous parts – the Serb-majority Republika Srpska entity and the Federation entity, where most Bosniaks and Croats live.

The agreement ended the 1992–95 Bosnian War and established a political framework for power-sharing among Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats.

On Sunday, voters across the country cast ballots to elect the three members of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s multiethnic presidency, representatives to the national parliament and leaders of institutions in the country’s two entities.

Dodik himself is not on the ballot after being stripped of his post last year, following his conviction for refusing to carry out decisions issued by Christian Schmidt, the international peace envoy who oversees the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement.

‘No political relevance’

Elvis Fejzic, a professor at the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo, said attempts by figures such as Dodik to dismantle Bosnia and Herzegovina amount to “populist rhetoric”.

“Politicians and political parties that act unconstitutionally do not determine the fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Fejzic told Al Jazeera, arguing that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s status as a UN member and internationally recognised state is secure.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina … will outlive all those who, through inflammatory statements, seek to obstruct its path towards integration and development,” he said. “Their statements have no political relevance whatsoever.”

Political analyst Tanja Topic said that while Dodik was not officially a candidate, he remained a central figure in the campaign and sought to present himself as a “senior official in international relations”.

Topic told Al Jazeera that the election result could produce several political scenarios in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from “cohabitation in Republika Srpska”, through the formation of a grand coalition, to a “blockage at the state level and the Council of Ministers continuing to operate in a caretaker capacity”.

Dodik’s rhetoric marks ‘long escalation’

Expert Adnan Cerimagic said Dodik’s rhetoric should be taken “seriously” and viewed as part of a “long escalation” rather than a reflection of the country’s current reality.

“For the past four years, his moves against the Dayton order and against Bosnia’s EU and NATO path have reached a new and dangerous level: in March 2025 the country came close to an armed standoff between Republika Srpska and state police,” Cerimagic, a senior analyst at the European Stability Initiative, told Al Jazeera.

“Casting Bosnia as a front-line in a supposed war between Christianity and Islam, and himself as a defender of Christian Europe, is aimed at the one people in Europe against whom a genocide has been committed since the Second World War and recognised as such by two international courts,” he added.

Cerimagic added that Dodik’s rhetoric may reflect uncertainty over the electoral prospects of his preferred candidate, as well as a belief that the European Union has less leverage over Bosnia than it once did.

Initial results are customarily released by the Central Election Commission late on election night and then refreshed every few hours.

In the days that follow, the commission progressively inputs votes from polling stations that remain outstanding, mobile voting teams, as well as ballots sent by mail and those cast at diplomatic and consular missions.

The final, official results must be published by November 20 at the latest.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has described violence against women as a “national shame” after the discovery of another woman’s body intensified public anger over the country’s persistent gender-based violence.

Eleven women’s bodies have been found in Ekurhuleni, a municipality east of Johannesburg, since July, prompting renewed fear and outrage after years of government promises to tackle violence against women.

Most of the victims were in their 20s or 30s. Some were found stripped and showing signs of sexual violence, according to authorities.

“There are women lying tonight in government mortuaries waiting to be identified, waiting for someone to claim them, waiting to be taken home and laid to rest,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address late on Tuesday.

“How can our hearts not be broken? How can we not be angry?”

He described violence against women as a source of “profound pain and national shame” and acknowledged growing anger among South African women.

Investigation Into the Killings

Ramaphosa said police had so far found no evidence that a serial killer was responsible for the 11 deaths. He stressed, however, that investigators were continuing to examine all possibilities.

Authorities have made arrests in connection with three of the killings, while investigations into the remaining deaths are continuing.

The president said none of the cases would be allowed to go cold, amid growing concerns over whether South Africa’s law enforcement agencies can adequately investigate violent crimes against women.

The latest deaths have revived criticism of the government’s efforts to tackle gender-based violence, despite repeated national campaigns and commitments aimed at reducing the problem.

South Africa’s Wider Crime Crisis

The killings are unfolding against a broader backdrop of severe violent crime in South Africa.

The country has one of the highest murder rates per capita in the world, while corruption, limited resources and weaknesses within the policing system have made it difficult to investigate and prosecute cases effectively.

Only about one in 10 murders is solved, highlighting the scale of the challenge facing investigators.

For communities in Ekurhuleni, the discovery of 11 women’s bodies has therefore become more than a series of individual criminal investigations. It has renewed questions about public safety, accountability and whether years of government commitments are translating into effective protection for women.

Ramaphosa’s remarks reflect the political pressure surrounding the issue as authorities face renewed demands to identify the victims, establish who was responsible for their deaths and prevent further violence.

With information from Reuters.

Dennis Haskins, an actor known best for playing Principal Richard Belding on the 1990s high school sitcom “Saved by the Bell,” died on Sunday night. He was 75.

Haskins’ friend and longtime caretaker, Kimberly Snow, confirmed the actor’s death. A cause of death is unknown, but Haskins had quietly battled Parkinson’s and was candid about other health issues. According to Snow, the actor died around 11 p.m. in a Burbank assisted living facility.

Snow, a former manager of Burbank’s since-shuttered Dimples Karaoke, shared the news of the actor’s death on Instagram, writing that Haskins was a staple at the joint, so much so that many of the patrons thought he owned it.

“A lot of people thought he owned it, but he didn’t,” the tribute read. “He just loved the place and its people. He enjoyed singing for people, meeting them, and taking selfies with his fans. Dimples closed down about 11 years ago, and people still associate him with his beloved ‘second home.’ He was known to most as Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell, but to us, he was much more than that.

“About eight years ago, he became ill,” the post continued. “He had been silent about his fight with Parkinson’s, among other health concerns, because he did not want the attention. He did not want to have to tell people. He would say, ‘What do I even say?’ So I respected his wishes and stayed quiet, and I helped him through his journey into the next chapter of his life.

“Late last night, that journey ended for him. He is now at peace and is probably entertaining the people in the sky. Just know that if you tried to reach out to him in the last few years, I did read your messages to him, and you were heard.”

Haskins played the earnest and beloved Mr. Belding across the “Saved by the Bell” franchise for 12 years, from 1988 to 2000. As recently as 2015, he reprised the role for a sketch on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” alongside Bayside High School alums Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen.

Haskins was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Nov. 18, 1950, to parents Dennis Button Haskins IV and Veneta Marilyn Yarbrough. One of three boys, he attended Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga and, later, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

He ultimately made his way to Los Angeles where he broke into acting, with his first on-screen gig playing a workman in “Archie Bunker’s Place” in 1981. He acted regularly through the ’80s, landing parts in television shows “Magnum P.I.” and “The Dukes of Hazzard” before finding his way to the part that would make him America’s favorite principal.

He played Mr. Belding across seven different series, including, “Good Morning, Miss Bliss,” “Saved by the Bell,” “Saved by the Bell: The College Years,” “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” “The Rerun Show,” “Robot Chicken,” and “Victorious.”

“It’s a tragic loss,” Jay Schachter, head of film and television for Stewart Talent in New York City, said in a statement to NBC.

“Everyone loved Mr. Belding and those of us who got to know Dennis, loved him even more,” Schachter said. “He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans.”

The man has been identified as 56-year-old Leighton Brown, an employee of the New York City Housing Authority.

According to local news, he was walking through east Brooklyn neighbourhood working an extra shift when the deadly incident occurred.

“We mourn deeply for the loss of Leighton Brown, a NYCHA employee who faithfully served Brooklyn residents and who was known for his warm personality,” the Office of the NYC Public Advocate wrote on social media.

The nor’easter has caused widespread power cuts. More than 160,000 households, nearly all in the north-eastern US, have lost electricity, according to tracker PowerOutage.

More than 2,400 flights were delayed and another 1,199 grounded on Saturday, according to FlightAware.

A full moon was projected to worsen coastal flooding. Streets and homes were inundated with floodwater in the coastal New Jersey communities of Surf City and Manasquan on Saturday.