Category:June 25, 2009

Thursday, June 25, 2009 

Audio Wikinews News Brief for June 25, 2009
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The Audio Wikinews - News Brief is a two to five minute audio newscast summary of each day's top stories on Wikinews.

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From Wikinews, the free news source, this is the Audio Wikinews Brief for Thursday, June 25, 2009. I'm James Pain, and here are today's current stories.

Breaking News According to TMZ.com and the Los Angeles Times, singer and songwriter Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50. However other reports state that Jackson is in a coma after being rushed to UCLA Medical Center. Rescue crews from the Los Angeles Fire Department had earlier responded to his home in Hombly Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. According to TMZ, staff members found the star to be not breathing. A 911 call was made and received, according to Fire Captain Steven Ruda, from Michael Jackson's home at 12:21 p.m.(PDT). Paramedics responded to his home just before 12:30 p.m. (PDT) after receiving the 911 call. Paramedics attempted CPR, for a suspected cardiac arrest but could not revive Jackson. Although there has been no official confirmation of the identity of the patient, the celebrity website TMZ, which has previously reliably broken similar stories, has taken the step of reporting on the death of the star. Also, the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press have said they have confirmed his death with anonymous sources familiar with the situation. According to CNN, the road on which Jackson lived has been blocked off in an attempt to reduce traffic at the location.

Corus, the fifth largest steelmaker in the world is set to cut 2000 jobs in both the United Kingdom and The Netherlands. 123 jobs are reported to be going in The Netherlands with the remainder going in the United Kingdom. Corus have blamed the job cuts due to the “further deterioration” for the demand of steel in both the United States and Europe. The company has around 50,000 employees world wide.

At a press conference held Wednesday in Paris, France, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi called on Iran to release Silva Harotonian, an Iranian citizen working for a United States aid agency. Saberi was jailed in Iran on charges of spying, and prior to her release shared a cell with Harotonian. Harotonian was convicted of attempting to initiate a revolution, and received a sentence in January of three years in jail.

A report published in the science journal Nature, of results from the Cassini probe, indicate the discovery of the existence of liquid water on Saturn's moon Enceladus, and with it the possibility of extraterrestrial life.However until further flybys and missions can be carried out other mechanisms for the presence of salt water ice cannot yet be ruled out.

The search engine giant Google is reportedly not accessible in some parts of China and Google.com services such as mail were down from Wednesday night to Thursday morning Beijing time. Google officials have not commented but said they were investigating reasons behind the outage.

Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland has agreed to cut 103 members of staff and to close its German department. The ruling body agreed with the cuts claiming that it would save money and also increase the school's chances of entering the world’s top 100 universities. According to the BBC, the university wishes to ensure that most of the academic staff takes part in "high quality" research, so those who just teach students are most at risk of losing their jobs.

The Peel P50, a single door, three wheel microcar went on display at New York's Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum on Monday. The little car can travel as fast as 38 mph (61 kph), and comes equipped with a handle on the car so the driver can pull the car to back up. Only twenty of the vehicles have survived since 1963, and the original price of £199 has soared to approximately £40,000 (US$ 65,000) today.

The United States defeated Spain in the semifinal round of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, claiming their first berth in the tournament's final. The United States, ranked #14 in FIFA World Rankings, snapped Spain's 35-match unbeaten streak heading into the game. The United States will play defending Confederations Cup champion Brazil or host team South Africa on Sunday in the tournament finals.

Former champion Maria Sharapova of Russia saw her comeback attempt come to an early end, as Argentina's Gisela Dulko beat her, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Dulko faces 10th-seeded Nadia Petrova in the third round, after the Russian beat Shahar Peer of Israel, 6-3, 6-2.

This has been a News Brief from Wikinews.org, the free news source, and has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. Until next time, thank you for listening and good day.