Florida Sentinel Bulletin

GEORGIA — A Valdosta State University freshman’s parents are distraught after finding out about her death on Facebook.

Jasmine Benjamin, 17, was found dead in her dorm’s common study room area. Valdosta Police did not suspect foul play at first, but the case has since turned into a homicide investigation because of suspicions that her body was moved.

Benjamin’s mother, Judith, and her stepfather, James, told the local station that university officials never notified them about their daughter’s death. Instead, they learned about it from a friend’s Facebook post.

James said police told him her death went unnoticed for 12 hours because her fellow students thought she was just sleeping on the study room couch.

CAIRO — An Egyptian court convicted in absentia Wednesday seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor,  Terry Jones, sentencing them to death on charges linked to an anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.

The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and are thus unlikely to ever face the sentence. The charges were brought in September during a wave of public outrage in Egypt over the amateur film, which was produced by an Egyptian-American Copt.

During the trial, the court reviewed several videos of the defendants, especially a video of Pastor Terry Jones burning the Quran, Islam’s Holy Book. All the defendants, except Jones, hold Egyptian nationality.

CHICAGO  — Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. quietly resigned Wednesday, effectively ending a once-promising political career months after the civil rights icon’s son went on a mysterious medical leave while facing separate federal investigations.

Just two weeks after voters re-elected him to a ninth full term, Jackson sent his resignation letter to House Speaker John Boehner, citing his ongoing treatment for bipolar disorder and admitting “my share of mistakes.”

The House Ethics Committee is investigating his dealings with imprisoned ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and for the first time Jackson publicly acknowledged reports of a new federal probe believed to be looking into his possible misuse of campaign money.

“I am aware of the ongoing federal investigation into my activities and I am doing my best to address the situation responsibly, cooperate with the investigators, and accept responsibility for my mistakes,” he wrote, adding “they are my mistakes and mine alone.”

A 13-year-old girl has been charged with killing her 2-year-old sister in their Dekalb County home.

Tyasia Jackson was reportedly babysitting her younger, Sasha Lamaya Ray, and her other siblings when the toddler went missing at some point. Her body was found Monday afternoon outside their home on North Waldrop Trail in Decatur. Shelton Latroy Ray, the biological father of Sasha, said that Jackson called him on Monday around 11 p.m. from jail and admitted to killing the 2-year-old.

Black Friday madness can strike anyone and apparently Anthony Perry is not immune!  Perry allegedly left his girlfriend’s two-year-old son alone in his parked car at 1:30 am — the day after Thanksgiving — so that he could make a mad dash into Kmart to buy a TV.  Perry was arrested and charged with child reckless endangerment.

Reportedly, officers had to break into the Springfield, Mass. man’s car to gain access to the little boy who had been left sleeping.

Police got word of the alleged child abandonment from the store’s plaza security.  Interestingly enough, when police located Perry, he was home, along with the large-sized TV that he had purchased.  As to how the 34-year-old man-made it back to his residence with his colossal TV and sans his vehicle is still being investigated.

MIAMI — Family members of a 13-year-old Florida girl fatally shot while riding a school bus with her younger sister say they forgive the boy who allegedly did it, but the victim’s mother insisted Wednesday that he also “has to pay for what he did.”

A 15-year-old boy was charged with manslaughter after police say he took a gun out of a backpack and showed it to other students during the ride to school Tuesday. Investigators say he fired it once in an apparent accident, striking Lourdes Guzman.

The girl, known as Jina to her family and friends and identified as Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus on her Facebook page, died later at a Miami hospital.

A 27-year-old Annapolis woman has been charged with first-degree assault after allegedly stabbing her half brother in the neck during Thanksgiving dinner.

Shenika Allsup, and her brother, Deonte Antionio Wallace, 23, had been arguing prior to the alleged attack before it escalated to violence. At some point, Allsup allegedly picked up a fork and stabbed her brother several times.

An officer responding to the incident reportedly found Wallace in the building’s parking lot holding his neck. The officer found two stab wounds at the base of Wallace’s neck. He was immediately transported to a local hospital soon after.

His injuries were not life-threatening.

Anti-violence activist Diane Latiker was excited the other day as she showed a visitor around her modest one-story headquarters in the heart of the Roseland community on Chicago South Side.

She’s excited about providing a free Thanksgiving Dinner to teens on Saturday, November 17, at Christian Fenger Academy High School. Latiker plans to do so through her 9-year-old nonprofit, Kids Off the Block, which last year served more than 500 teens and their families, she told reporters. Besides donations, families throughout the community plan to prepare meals for the event.

“Last year, Isiah Thomas donated turkeys,” the mother of eight beamed as she mentioned the retired NBA player. “We fed so many children and their families. It was great. I started it five years ago because so many kids were coming to me and telling me they didn’t have Thanksgiving Dinner. We hope to beat last year’s numbers.”

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes hit two media centers in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, as Israel warned it was widening its range of targets to go after military commanders of the territory’s Hamas rulers. Palestinian militants meanwhile fired at least one more long-range rocket at Tel Aviv, the fourth day in a row which the Israeli heartland has come under fire.

The fifth day of Israel’s campaign against Gaza rocket operations finds it at a crossroads of whether to launch a ground invasion or pursue Egyptian-led truce efforts. Israel has said it is not prepared to enter into a truce without guarantees the rocket fire won’t resume.

“The Israeli military is prepared to significantly expand the operation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Early Sunday, the military carried out dozens of attacks on rocket-launching sites, a major training base and the two media centers. Israeli gunboats also fired on militant sites on the Gaza shore line, the military said without elaborating.

Seven were killed in airstrikes Sunday, including five children ranging in age from one to 11, according to Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health official.

Two of the children, a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy, were from the same family and were killed by an airstrike on the three-story home in the town of Beit Lahiya. Hamas security officials said three missiles struck the house, owned by a Gaza family with links to militants’ rocket squads. It was not known if any militants were in or near the house at the time of the strike. Another strike targeted a Hamas militant in his car outside his home in the Shati refugee camp near Gaza City, but also killed an 11-year-old girl passing by at the time, al-Kidra said.

The deaths bring to 53 the number of Palestinians killed since the operation began on Wednesday. Twenty of the dead were civilians, and more than 400 civilians have been wounded, al-Kidra said. On the Israeli side, three civilians have been killed and more than 50 wounded by rocket fire.