Cleveland Browns wideout Donte Stallworth, who hit a pedestrian with his car earlier this month, is being investigated to determine whether alcohol played a role in the fatal accident. Stallworth has told Miami Police officers that the 59-year-old construction worker was rushing to catch a bus in the early morning hours of March 14 when he struck him with his Bentley. He had flashed his lights, but the incident occurred too fast for Stallworth to avoid hitting the man, the wide receiver said. But a report released by police on Tuesday refuted Stallworth’s account. The man was not in the crosswalk, the report says, citing comments from callers and an accident scene analysis. Stallworth was driving about 50 mph, 10 mph above the speed limit, and a police diagram shows that Reyes was hit in the far left lane of the six-lane MacArthur Causeway – not in a nearby crosswalk. The report says that Stallworth stopped a few feet away. No charges have been filed against Stallworth pending the outcome of blood tests to determine whether alcohol was a factor. Among the calls from people who dialed 911 that morning are a woman who said, “There’s a man laying in the middle of the road…He’s dead. He’s dead … He was just laying in the middle of the road. I think he’s dead.” Stallworth’s attorney said his client is cooperating with police. Stallworth, who was scheduled to receive a $4.75 million signing bonus the day before the accident, has said he is “grief-stricken” over the accident. He signed a seven-year, $35 million contract with the Browns before last season but was injured most of the year.

Child Abuse on the Rise in Jamaica Child abuse reports skyrocketed last year in Jamaica, according to a report from the country’s Office of Children’s Registry. The report, which was released Saturday, revealed that the office got 3,784 reports of child abuse in 2008, reports CNN. The office only received 425 reports in 2007, signaling a large jump in the small Caribbean island of about 2.8 million people. An official from the OCR office said the rise could have something to do with Jamaicans becoming “increasingly mindful of their legal responsibility to report such incidents,” and are hoping to stop the upsurge of violence against children in the nation. Between January and November of last year, 73children were murdered in the country. The severe consequences of not reporting abuse could also have something to do with the higher number of reported cases, he said. “If someone has information of suspected child abuse and fails to make a report to the Registry, that person can be charged a maximum fee of $500,000 or-and six months imprisonment,” the official said. 
Fifteen Nigerian Athletes Killed in Crash A vehicle crash in Nigeria is responsible for the death of 15 football players, reports the BBC. The accident happened in Plateau state as the group was on its way to play a game in Abuja. The country’s roads are some of the most dangerous in the world and thousands of people die each year in accidents on the road, reports the BBC. Mohamed Sanusi, the Nigeria Football Federation head, said 11 players died on the accident scene and four others died in the hospital. Two players survived their injuries, but are “on the danger list,” he said. “It is really another very sad day for Nigerian football,” said Sanusi. A crash in the area not too long ago killed female athletes.

Belafonte is to sell civil rights leader’s papers.  Three important documents written by or related to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., including notes for King’s last, undelivered speech, are slated for auction Thursday in New York, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who had a close relationship with the Rev. King and King’s wife, Coretta, put up for auction the papers, which experts at Sotheby’s auction house have estimated in value at between $720,000 and $1.14 million. Read more here.

Charges against Rangel put Dems in a pickle. With Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York the subject of an investigation by a House ethics panel over his ownership of several rent-controlled apartments in New York, his failure to pay taxes on an offshore rental property, and his use of office letterhead to solicit donations for a public-policy school that would bear his name, he could be in trouble with the Democratic Leadership that was critical of Republicans who behaved badly. Read the rest here.Fannie and Freddie were warned against the mortgage crash. Documents show that top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were warned years ago that the firms were offering mortgages that could pose a long-term danger to the nation’s largest mortgage brokers, borrowers and the industry, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. In documents obtained by the newspaper, Fannie and Freddie pushed into new, risky markets despite debates within the companies about whether the moves were the best way to go.

Train crash was engineer’s fault.

The head-on collision of two trains near Los Angeles on Friday that killed more than two dozen people was caused when an engineer failed to heed to a traffic signal, a spokeswoman for the commuter rail system told The Associated Press. “It was human error,” Denise Tyrrell of Metrolink said, noting that it did not appear that the engineer had survived. But a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board said that it had not yet finished its investigation and would “look at everything before we rule anything in or out.” As of Sunday evening, authorities put the death toll at 25, with 135 injured – 45 of whom were in critical condition. Fifty had minor injuries and 40 others were treated at the crash site and released, CNN reported. There were 220 passengers on the train when it crashed at 4:30 p.m. in Chatsworth, which is a suburb just northwest of Los Angeles. “It was like running into a brick wall at 60 miles an hour,” an injured passenger told CNN affiliate KABC. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said it was the worst crash he had ever seen. Meanwhile, investigators say they will check text messages between the engineer and two teens to see whether there is a connection between the communications and the crash.

South Africa suffers over 100 weekend bush fires. Over the weekend, over 100 bush fires sparked across South Africa, leaving at least 20 people dead, reports the BBC.  Fourteen of the deceased died in fires in the KwaZulu-Natal province and three others died when their shack caught on fire in the Eastern Cape, say police. Three people in the Mpumalanga province also perished in the blazes. The fires, which started in the bush, spread and were made worse by strong winds, leaving dozens of people homeless in Cape Town. And a local forecaster is not optimistic about them ending soon. “There are still fires burning on the eastern Highveld, in Swaziland and northern KwaZulu-Natal and there are isolated fires over Limpopo,” said the forecaster. The fires, which have already burned 125,000 acres of land, are unprecedented in the nation. “This particular situation has never been experienced before. Reports are coming in from all over the country,” a spokesman from Johannesburg’s Emergency Services told the BBC.

Plane crashes in Congo. A plane, carrying charity workers, crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, reports the BBC. Fifteen people and two crew members were aboard the plane when it crashed. The aircraft lost contact Monday night with ground control after leaving Kisangani, and 10 minutes before reaching the city Bukavu. The plane crashed in pouring rain. A rescue helicopter was not able to land near the crash, so it is unknown whether there are any survivors. Because the country has a bad air safety history, many humanitarian agencies coordinate their own air travel. They used Air Serv, a non-profit.

Plane crash in Guatemala kills 10. A Guatemalan plane carrying 14 people crashed Sunday, killing 10 people, reports CNN. Eight Americans are among the dead.  About 45 minutes after the Cessna Caravan 208 took off, the pilot started making calls about engine failure, according to the country’s director of civil aeronautics. But the air-traffic tower lost contact with the plane at 9:45 a.m. and it crashed in Zacapa, killing the pilot, co-pilot and the Americans on board. The other four passengers were taken to a hospital after the crash. “It seems like the pilot tried her best to make a safe landing in an open field but was not successful. On impact, the aircraft was split into pieces,” a Zacapa firefighter told reporters at the scene.  

Civilians killed by Sudan’s government forces, witnesses say. Sudanese forces attacked a refugee camp in Darfur, killing at least 32 civilians early Monday, witnesses say. The witness accounts of the attack are chilling. More than 50 vehicles “packed with armed men wearing police and security forces’ uniforms … hit us with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns,” resident of the refugee camp, Mandela Abdullah Mohammed, told The Associated Press. He also said the victims included many women and children. One rebel group spokesman from the Sudan Liberation Army claimed an even higher death toll – 45 people dead and 135 people wounded – due to the Sudanese soldiers “storming” the camp and attacking. “The government sent a strong military force and attacked the camp with the intentions of killing civilians,” another spokesman for the group told AP.  A Sudanese military spokesman, though, insists they had good reason to fire on the camp. “They were surprised by heavy gunfire from within the camp. There was an exchange of fire and a number of victims,” the spokesman, Sawarmy Khaled, said.  But the United Nations say they received reports about Sudanese police surrounding and attacking the camp in southern Darfur, which resulted in “injuries and deaths of civilians.” The United Nations would not give an estimate on the death toll, but a coordinator for nearby clinic run by Doctors Without Borders says that at least 65 people were admitted for treatment for gunshot wounds. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is facing genocide charges brought on by the International Criminal Court for allegedly supporting attacks against the nation’s ethnic Africans. Since fighting started in Darfur in 2003, about 300,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been made homeless.

Spanish airplane crash investigated

 In Spain, investigators continue to look into what might have caused a passenger jet to crash during takeoff killing 153 people. The jet, Spanair Flight JK5022, was carrying 172 people when it crashed at Barajas Airport in Madrid Wednesday afternoon. “The government will do all it can to support the families in this difficult situation. The whole government, logically, is affected, very affected, as are all Spanish citizens, by this tragedy,” said Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Nineteen people, including two infants, survived the crash, according to Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez. According to survivors, passengers could hear an explosion as the plane was taking off. “They were about 200 meters [600 feet] in the air, and then they were landing but not crashing. They were landing, like, little by little; it was not like they [fell] down suddenly,” a reporter told CNN. One of the aircraft’s engines caught on fire, according to local officials. Since the jet’s engine was made in America, the United States National Transportation Safety Board will send an investigation team to look into crash causes, a spokesman said.

Algeria suffers two deadly car bomb attacks. Algerians are mourning the deaths of 50 people after car bomb attacks on consecutive days, reports CNN. On Tuesday, an explosion near a military school killed 43 people and wounded 38 in what’s being labeled a “terrorist attack,” said the nation’s interior ministry. Then on Wednesday, a car bomb attack outside of a hotel killed 11 people. No group has taken responsibility for the attacks yet, although the group al-Qaeda Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for two recent blasts.