Voters in two Vermont towns approved measures on Tuesday calling for the indictment of US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for what they consider violations of the Constitution. More symbolic than anything, the items sought to have police arrest Bush and Cheney if they visit Brattleboro or Marlboro, or to extradite them for prosecution elsewhere -- if they are not impeached first. In Brattleboro, the vote was 2,012 to 1,795. In Marlboro, which held a town meeting on the issue, it was 43 to 25 with three abstentions.
■ UNITED STATES
D&D creator dies
Gary Gygax, co-creator of the iconic Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game and considered the father of modern role-playing gaming, died in his home on Tuesday, his wife said. Gygax had been suffering from a number of health problems including an incurable heart aneurism, Gail Gygax said. He was 69. First published in 1974, the D&D game, in which players create magical and heroic characters and guide them through a series of adventures, soon turned into a cultural phenomenon. There was no game board in this interactive, imaginative adventure: just paper, pen, the dungeon master's rule book and a set of multisided dice.
■ UNITED STATES
Gunman caught on tape
Recordings of 911 calls made as a gunman rampaged through a fast-food restaurant capture the screams, moans and banging that ensued after he killed a paramedic and fired at panicked customers. A video shows Alburn Edward Blake entering the West Palm Beach, Florida, Wendy's restaurant on Monday and going straight to the bathroom, authorities said on Tuesday. He emerged to fatally shoot Lieutenant Rafael Vazquez, who had gone back into the restaurant to exchange a kid's meal toy his child had received. Blake then fired about 20 more shots, wounding four others. "Then you can see him return to the center of the restaurant where he shoots himself in the head and takes his own life," police said. "He stood silent the whole time."
■ UNITED STATES
Identical triplets born
When they get older, Logan, Eli and Collin Penn may blanch at the notion that they wore nail polish at a news conference. But it is the only way their parents know how to tell the boys apart. The identical triplets were born yesterday on Long Island, New York. Allison Penn, the mother, was impregnated through in-vitro fertilization, said Victor Klein, a specialist in multiple births who delivered the boys. Identical triplets are born at a rate between one in 60,000 and one in 200 million, Klein said.
■ UNITED STATES
New York building collapses
A vacant five-story apartment building scheduled for rehabilitation partially collapsed on Tuesday, leading to the suspension of dozens of rush-hour suburban trains amid fears the vibrations could cause more bricks to fall. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Two of the upper Manhattan building's walls and several interior floors partially collapsed, Department of Buildings spokeswoman Kate Lindquist said. Two days ago, bricks began falling from the building. Engineers for the owner's company visited the site and deemed it unsafe. They contacted city officials to get permission to demolish them. The partial collapse occurred while inspectors from the buildings and fire departments were at the site, he said.
RSS