Trains collide in Calif., killing 10 commuters

Trains collide in Calif., killing 10 commuters

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Metrolink commuter train believed to be carrying up to 350 people collided with a freight train Friday, killing 10 people and injuring more than 100 others.

Firefighters put out a fire under part of the wreckage and pulled people from a Metrolink car, which was partly torn open and left lying on its side. Several other cars in the Metrolink train remained upright.

The freight train’s engine was also turned onto its side, with the rest of the train splayed out like an accordion behind it.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Byron Ward said two people were confirmed dead.

Authorities had no immediate injury count, but county fire Inspector Ron Haralson said he was certain they were numerous.

He said the trains collided at 4:32 p.m. in the Chatsworth area of the San Fernando Valley.

Va. anti-spam law declared unconstitutional

RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Supreme Court declared the state’s anti-spam law unconstitutional Friday and reversed the conviction of a man once considered one of the world’s most prolific spammers.

The court unanimously agreed with Jeremy Jaynes’ argument that the law violates the free-speech protections of the First Amendment because it does not just restrict commercial e-mails — it restricts other unsolicited messages as well. Most other states also have anti-spam laws, and there is a federal CAN-SPAM Act as well, but those laws apply only to commercial e-mail pitches.

4 workers die in collapsed trench

VERDEL, Neb. — Four construction workers in northeast Nebraska died in a collapsed trench after one of them fell in and his co-workers tried to rescue him, officials said Friday.

The four men were working on the drainage trench near Verdel on Friday morning when part of it collapsed, the Knox County Sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Travis Lunn, 24, of O’Neill, fell into the collapsing trench, officials said. The three others tried to rescue him but also became trapped in the dirt.

Pakistanis upset over U.S. attacks

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The furor intensified Friday over Washington’s decision to pursue Islamic militant targets inside Pakistan, with opposition lawmakers threatening the country could pull out of the war on terror if the U.S. refuses to respect its borders.

About 100 protesters burned American flags after the latest missile attack left at least 12 people dead in the North Waziristan region of the troubled northwest. Residents said they heard the sound of propeller-driven U.S. Predator drones circling overhead before the explosions.

President Bush secretly approved more aggressive cross-border operations in July, current and former American officials have told The Associated Press.

Pope assails fanaticism

PARIS — Pope Benedict XVI denounced fundamentalist fanaticism as he addressed cultural figures, including Muslim leaders, at the start of a French pilgrimage Friday, which enflamed debate in Paris over the influence religion should have on politics.

In separate remarks, including in a speech to conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Benedict encouraged a role for religion in shaping public policy, a stand that quickly enraged some of France’s staunch advocates of secularism.

Car bomb kills 32

BAGHDAD — A car bomb ripped through a crowded commercial district in a mainly Shiite town on Friday, killing at least 32 people, Iraqi officials said — the latest attack north of Baghdad where violence has been slower to decline than elsewhere in the country.

The explosion, which wounded 43 others, was apparently targeting a police station in the town of Dujail but instead badly damaged a nearby medical clinic, according to police. Concrete barriers largely protected the police station, the officials said.

The blast took place about 50 yards from the police station in an area packed with shoppers preparing for Iftar, the daily meal at which Muslims break their sunrise-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

Associated Press