■ UNITED STATES
Baby born with extra digits
Something was different about newborn Jeshuah Fuller, but his proud parents couldn't quite put their finger on it. Then his doctors, always on their toes, figured it out. Jeshuah was born with a few extra digits -- six fingers on each hand, six toes on each foot. Jeshuah, born in Brooklyn on Tuesday, is healthy and weighs just over 3kg. His rare condition, called polydactylism, is usually genetic. His dad was born with an extra finger on his left hand. Jeshuah's mom, Quana Morris, said she had an ultrasound image taken during her pregnancy and knew he would have extra fingers. "We were counting them on the sonogram," she told the Daily News. The extra toes, though, were a surprise.
■ UNITED STATES
Tech blamed by probe
Virginia Tech was too slow to tell staff and students about a shooting incident in April that fast evolved into the bloodiest campus massacre in US history, an investigation concluded on Wednesday. The probe, by the US State of Virginia, pointed to errors by university police and officials in the immediate aftermath of an early morning shooting of two students on April 16 by mentally disturbed gunman Cho Seung-hui. Within hours of the first shooting in the West Ambler Johnston residence hall, 23-year-old Cho went on to massacre 30 students and faculty inside another building before killing himself.
■ UNITED STATES
Dog becomes millionaire
Leona Helmsley's dog will continue to live an opulent life and then be buried next to her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate. Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a US$12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public on Tuesday in surrogate court. She also left millions of dollars for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, and two of four grandchildren from her late son, Jay Panzirer. Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other children, Craig Panzirer and Meegan Panzirer, for "reasons that are known to them," she wrote.
■ UNITED STATES
CBGB founder dies aged 75
Hilly Kristal, whose rock club CBGB served as the birthplace of the US punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands like the Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads, has died after a battle with lung cancer, his son said on Wednesday. He was 75. Kristal, who lost a bitter fight last year to stop the club's eviction from its New York home of 33 years, died on Tuesday at Cabrini Hospital, said his son, Mark Dana Kristal. As the club headed toward its final show with Patti Smith last October, Kristal was using a cane to get around and showing the effects of his cancer treatment. He was hoping to open a Las Vegas version of the infamous venue.
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