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Saturday, September 13, 2008 At least 25 people have been killed and many more injured when a Metrolink commuter train collided yesterday afternoon with a Union Pacific freight train in the Chatsworth district of Los Angeles. Around 250 firefighters have responded to the accident scene. Estimates are that 350-400 people were on the number 111 commuter train which departed from Los Angeles’ Union Station at 3:35pm PDT. The collision occurred on Friday at about 4:25pm PDT on Metrolink’s Ventura County Line. The area in which the crash took place is hilly and contains a single track; it is just north of the Chatsworth Metrolink station. The force of the collision sent the locomotive of the Metrolink train to penetrate deep into the lead bi-level passenger car of the three-car train. The collision then knocked the Union Pacific and Metrolink locomotives on their side along with the lead passenger car. This…

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Tuesday, November 15, 2005 People rallied in 300 locations across Australia today to protest the Federal Government’s proposed changes to industrial relations laws, WorkChoices. According to police, around 150,000 people congregated in Melbourne, from where speeches were broadcast throughout the country. In Sydney, thirty thousand gathered in Belmore Park and Martin Place to watch the broadcast before marching to Chifley Square. Sharan Burrow, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), said that under the changes many working conditions would be under threat, including “penalty rates, public holidays, overtime pay, control over rostered hours, shift penalties, even 4 weeks annual leave.” The government has claimed, despite various expert assesment to the contrary, and opposition from major Australian religious and charity organisations and some concern from its own backbench, that the IR changes will improve the economy and ultimately benefit workers, and dismissed the protests as having “little effect”.

A compilation of brief news reports for Wednesday, September 29, 2010.

 Correction — March 19, 2008 The next protest is scheduled for April 12, 2008. The article below states April 18 which is incorrect.  Saturday, March 15, 2008 The Internet group Anonymous today held further protests critical of the Church of Scientology. The global protests started in Australia where several hundred protesters gathered at different locations for peaceful protests. In a global speech, the Internet protest movement said Scientology “betrayed the trust of its members, [had] taken their money, their rights, and at times their very lives.” The protesters welcomed the public interest their protests have led to, and claimed they witnessed “an unprecedented flood of Scientologists [joining] us across the world to testify about these abuses.” The group said it would continue with monthly actions. In a press statement from its European headquarters, Scientology accused the anonymous protesters of “hate speech and hate crimes”, alleging that security measures were necessary because…

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Saturday, June 27, 2009 The death of Michael Jackson on Thursday has caused retail demand for his songs and for memorabilia to increase. Yesterday, the top nine selling items at Apple’s iTunes Store were albums by Jackson, with first and second being a “hits” album and the 1982 album Thriller. Amazon.com similarly reported selling more Jackson merchandise in the 24 hours following his death than it had sold in the preceding 11 years, and that sales of Jackson CDs accounted for 60% of its total business on Thursday. Yesterday morning the top seller in the album chart for Amazon’s U.K. division was Off the Wall, followed by Bad and Thriller in second and third places, respectively. Many stores, including Graywhale CD Exchange in Salt Lake City, several record stores in Danville, Virginia, and many retailers in New Zealand, have all reported selling out of Jackson’s CDs and DVDs. The flagship…

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Saturday, March 14, 2009 Rico Daniels is a British TV presenter living in France who is known for his two television series — The Salvager — whilst he still lived in the UK and then Le Salvager after he moved to France. Rico has been in a variety of jobs but his passion is now his profession – he turns unwanted ‘junk’ into unusual pieces of furniture. Rico’s creations and the methods used to fabricate them are the subject of the Salvager shows. Rico spoke to Wikinews in January about his inspiration and early life, future plans, other hobbies and more. Read on for the full exclusive interview, published for the first time:

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Buffalo, New York —Residents in Buffalo, New York fear that demolishing a nearly 200-year-old livery and stable which partially collapsed on Wednesday June 11, could cause an environmental hazard. Wikinews has learned that according property records with the city, the stable was converted into a gasoline station and auto repair shop in 1950, and is designated as a body shop. During that time at least four fuel storage tanks were installed on the property. Two are listed as 550 square feet while the other two are 2,000 square feet. All of the tanks are designated as a TK4, which New York State says is used for “below ground horizontal bulk fuel storage.” The cost of installing a tank of that nature according to the state, at that time, included the tank itself, “excavation and backfill,” but did not include “the piping, ballast, or hold-down slab orring.”…

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