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CALIFORNIA

No injuries in train collision

RIALTO | A commuter train collided with a freight train Thursday in Southern California, producing no serious injuries but bringing back memories of a deadly commuter-train wreck in the region just two months ago.

A Metrolink train heading east from Los Angeles toward San Bernardino collided with a BNSF train about a half-mile from the Metrolink station in Rialto around 11:30 a.m., agency spokeswoman Joanna Capelle said.

The trains sideswiped each other and both remained upright on the tracks, Rialto police Lt. Joe Cirilo said. Five people were taken to area hospitals.

BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said the 102-car freight train had almost made it onto the side track when the Metrolink struck a flatbed car hauling iron.

There were 15 passengers and crew on the Metrolink train and three on the freight train, Miss Capelle said. Miss Kent said none of the freight train’s crew was hurt.

The crash comes about nine weeks and 100 miles distant from a September train crash that killed 25 people and injured 135.

GEORGIA

Court shooting mistrial denied

ATLANTA | A judge has denied a mistrial for an Atlanta man who escaped during his rape trial and went on a courthouse shooting spree that left four people dead.

Jurors are deciding whether Brian Nichols, 36, should be executed for killing a judge, a court reporter, a sheriff’s deputy and a federal agent in the violence that began in downtown Atlanta. He was convicted earlier this month in the 2005 killings.

His attorneys asked for a mistrial in the death penalty phase after prosecutors played a tape of Nichols apparently threatening to kill a prosecutor. They didn’t give defense attorneys a transcript of the call.

Superior Court Judge James Bodiford said playing the call violated a court order but the offense wasn’t serious enough to merit a mistrial.

HAWAII

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