Florida Sentinel Bulletin

SENDAI, JAPAN — Japan worked against the clock on Tuesday to avert nuclear fallout, as relief workers cranked up their searches for survivors of last week’s massive and deadly earthquake and tsunami.

The Asian economic powerhouse reeled as the death toll spiked to 3,373 and the stock market plummeted for a second straight day — a 10 percent drop this time — during what Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said was the country’s worst crisis since World War II — when American jets dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Shell-shocked people huddled in cramped shelters, grieved over lost loved ones, and worried about missing next of kin lost throughout villages and towns inundated by the powerful tsunami waves spawned by the 9.0 magnitude quake off the east coast of Honshu on Friday.

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama once said it was a “scandal” that then-President George W. Bush did not force renewal of a federal assault weapons ban. Now it is Obama himself who is steering clear of that and other politically sensitive gun-control measures, even while calling for a new discussion on weapons and “how we can keep America safe for all our people.”

The president asked for the new conversation on gun safety in an opinion column in Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ hometown paper, the Arizona Daily Star, over the weekend. He proposed strengthening and enforcing existing laws requiring gun sellers to perform background checks.

The body of 44 year old Rhonda Wells was found dumped in Mt. Caramel Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee along with 28 year old Jessica Lewis; both within days of each other.

Both women were well known prostitutes in the community although some residents didn’t know of their double lives.

Wells and Lewis both died from gunshot wounds to the head.

Police aren’t confirming a connection between the two murders but they don’t rule out the possibility of one killer.

A flyer posted around the neighborhood states that police are looking for a man between the ages of 20 and 23. It also features the pictures of both victims and notes that the suspect might be driving a Pontiac.

A South Florida man who went on the run for nearly two and a half years after he became the prime suspect in a murder was arrested in Minnesota thanks to “America’s Most Wanted.”

Abraham Mpaka, 46, was arrested Saturday by the FBI’s Fugitive Task Force at a library in St. Paul, authorities said.

Mpaka is accused of fatally stabbing girlfriend Coty Paul in North Miami Beach on Dec. 26, 2008. He is also a suspect in a Miami-area bank robbery from Dec. 10, 2008.

The Nigerian native has been featured on “America’s Most Wanted” three times since Paul’s murder. Authorities said a woman was watching the crime fighting show, recognized Mpaka as her friend’s boyfriend and called the police.

Mpaka was being held in a Minnesota jail and will be extradited to South Florida to face murder charges.

SENDAI, JAPAN — In a nation already besieged with grief over mounting casualties, fears of possible radiation and the threat of more earthquakes, the nightmare grew for Japanese residents Monday as thousands of bodies reportedly were found and crews struggled to keep damaged nuclear plants under control.

Friday’s 8.9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami killed thousands, based on official and Japanese media reports, but an exact accounting of the disaster remains hidden beneath widespread damage that rescuers are only beginning to penetrate.

The official death toll, rising every few hours, reached 1,833 on Monday. But that didn’t account for thousands of bodies Japan’s Kyodo News said had been found in the hard-hit Miyagi Prefecture on Japan’s northeast coast.

At least 2,369 people were missing on Monday, the National Police Agency said, and the number of dead is expected to go up as rescuers reach more hard-hit areas.
The earthquake and tsunami led to problems at three nuclear power plants, one of which remained a serious concern on Monday.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The woman accused of killing a Middle Tennessee State University women’s basketball player was released from jail Friday on bond, and her parents said they planned to take their daughter home and hoped to meet with the family of the slain student.

A Friday viewing was scheduled for the junior guard, Tina Stewart. Her funeral was set for Saturday in Memphis.

Meanwhile, the parents of the suspect, Shanterrica Madden, said they hope to talk soon with Stewart’s parents, with the families’ pastors on hand.

“That’s what we need,” said Madden’s father, Frank, said. “We all lost something here, and we need to just come together.”

Madden, 18, had her bond set at $100,000 Friday, and her preliminary hearing was rescheduled. She appeared in Rutherford County General Sessions Court on Friday wearing an orange jumpsuit on a charge of first-degree murder in the March 3 stabbing death of Stewart in the off-campus apartment they shared. Madden’s family sat in the courtroom along with Stewart’s boyfriend, Middle Tennessee basketball player KC Anuna.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) appeared on Morning Joe to discuss his testimony at the homeland terror hearings led by Peter King. At the hearings, Ellison, who is the first Muslim to be elected congressman, broke down when describing the actions of a Muslim paramedic who died responding to the 9/11 attacks.

“He gave his life for other Americans. His life should not be identified as just a member of an ethnic group or just a member of a religion but as an American who gave everything for his fellow Americans,” said Ellison.

Ellison went on to say on Morning Joe that he doesn’t believe Congressman King effectively advanced what to do about domestic terrorism.

A 14-year-veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department is out of job amidst allegations that he tried to benefit from false insurance claims.

Sgt. Dwayne Darby II and his roommate allegedly filed a fraudulent claim to avoid costly car loan payments, according a grand jury report released by the District Attorney’s Office Thursday.

The focus of the grand jury report were stolen car claims made in January of last year.

Darby’s roommate Kariem Mangum reported his 2006 Volvo stolen after allegedly conspiring with Darby to file a false insurance claim, according to the grand jury. Darby had a financial interest in the false claim because of his relationship with Mangum, according to the D.A.

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The FBI’s Cold Case Initiative is investigating the 46-year-old case of a Massachusetts minister who was beaten to death in Alabama while doing civil rights work, a spokesman said Friday.

The Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, was among a group of ministers who traveled to Alabama in response to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s invitation to join the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights.

The FBI launched an initiative in 2007 to investigate unsolved murders from the civil rights era. A spokesman with the agency, Chris Allen, said Reeb’s case is one that is currently open.

The lead state prosecutor for Selma, District Attorney Michael Jackson, said he has met with FBI agents at least twice about the case. He said the agency is actively investigating.

Reeb and two other white ministers had just finished dinner at a historically black restaurant in downtown Selma when they were attacked by a gang of whites on March 9, 1965. The city was a center for voting rights demonstrations by blacks and white supporters at the time.

Reeb, 38, died two days later, leaving behind a wife and four children.