News Breakers: Jam Master Jay, Madge, Zeppelin, Modest Mouse, Ferry

Report: Police have lead in murder probe; Madge returns to Malawi; theme park gets Led out; rockers tout video contest; Ferry apologizes for Nazi comments.

Man reportedly confesses to role in shooting

One of several unsolved hip-hop murders might be getting some closure. According to a report in the Boston Herald today, an unnamed witness has told police that a man has confessed to a role in the October 2002 murder of Run DMC DJ Jam Master Jay. The witness reportedly told police that Ronald "Tinard" Washington, 43, confessed to being an accessory to the murder of Jay--real name Jason Mizell, who was shot to death in his Queens, New York, studio on October 30, 2002.

The reported breakthrough comes in one of several murder cases that have remained dormant for years, including the fatal shootings of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. But in an odd twist, Washington also confessed to playing a role in the 1995 murder of Randy "Stretch" Walker, a close associate of late rapper Tupac Shakur. Walker was reportedly a witness to Shakur's shooting in Manhattan in 1994, two years before the rapper was fatally shot in Las Vegas.

Anonymous law-enforcement sources told the Herald that Washington is expected to be named in the Walker and Jay cases when the federal government unveils a massive indictment soon, charging several rap artists in a number of violent acts as part of an ongoing federal investigation in New York into the link between hip-hop and violent crime. The unsolved 1997 drive-by murder of the Notorious B.I.G. in Los Angeles is also being investigated as part of that probe.

"They want to blame me for all the blood in rap," Washington told the paper. "They are trying to pen me up for these murders. ... It's all lies. She's [the unnamed witness] telling them that I was mad at Jay because he [was] doing better than I am, that I killed Stretch because he owed me something and I wanted it. She is making up lies because they threatened to deport her."

Madonna returns to Malawi

Madonna arrived in Malawi on Monday with David Banda, the young local boy she is adopting, amid rumors she intended to adopt a second child from an orphanage in the impoverished southern African nation. The pop singer, who sparked controversy last year when she decided to adopt one-year-old David Banda from a local orphanage, landed at Lilongwe's airport in a private jet, a witness at the airport told Reuters. Wearing dark glasses and a black outfit, Madonna carried Banda, now about 18 months old, as she walked onto the tarmac. She and her entourage quickly left the airport in a convoy of vehicles.

The singer is expected to visit an orphanage just outside the Malawian capital in connection with her charity work in the country, as well as travel to the Home of Hope orphanage, where Banda lived before Madonna applied to adopt him. A spokeswoman for Madonna says she has no plans to adopt another child despite media reports that the singer and her British film director husband Guy Ritchie wanted to add a young Malawian girl to their family.

Theme park gets the Led out

A new Hard Rock Theme Park in South Carolina is set to open a looping roller coaster inspired by Led Zeppelin. Operators of the Myrtle Beach park, which is linked to the chain of rock-and-roll-themed hotels and restaurants, plan to open "Led Zeppelin -- The Ride" early next year. The ride will climb more than 150 feet in the air before plunging downward and spiraling around with the band's hit "Whole Lotta Love" blaring from an on-board audio system. Park operators said band members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones helped pick the name, logo, passenger vehicle design, and song for the ride.

Modest Mouse plans video contest

Modest Mouse was apparently impressed with the Decemberists' green screen tete-a-tete with Stephen Colbert last year. The Portland-based band has partnered with mtvU for a green screen challenge, offering fans the opportunity to conjure original animation to backdrop the music video for "We've Got Everything," the second single from the band's new album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.

The winner of the contest will receive a high-def digital video camera and an exclusive video slot on mtvU and mtvU.com. Hit up mtvU.com to download footage provided by the band poised in front of a blank green screen, aka your digital canvas. All entries must be submitted by Wednesday, May 9.

Bryan Ferry apologizes for Nazi comments

Roxy Music founder Bryan Ferry is in Don Imus mode, backpedaling from comments he made last week in an interview last month with a German newspaper. Ferry reportedly told Welt Am Sonntag that he admired Nazi artistic endeavors, including the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl, Albert Speer's architecture, mass marches, and flags, saying they were "just amazing" and "really beautiful."

Ferry, 61, issued an apology today, saying, "I apologize unreservedly for any offense caused by my comments on Nazi iconography, which were solely made from an art history perspective. I, like every right-minded individual, find the Nazi regime, and all it stood for, evil and abhorrent." Several Jewish organizations told Reuters that they were satisfied with Ferry's clarification and apology.