Los Angeles - Dave Arneson, who co-created the Dungeons & Dragons game, which pioneered the format for role-playing video games has died aged 61 after a two-year battle with cancer. Wizards of the Coast, the company that produces Dungeons & Dragons, said Friday that Arneson died in a hospice in Minnesota on Tuesday.

Arneson developed the game in 1974 together with Gary Gygax, who died in March 2008. The game was one of the first to allow players to assume and develop an individual character while embarking on complex quests, and has inspired countless computer games.

New York - A deadly tornado ripped through the quiet Arkansas town of Mena killing three people, injuring more than 20 and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, officials said Friday. The twister touched down late Thursday night and reduced more than 100 homes to rubble, uprooting massive trees and leaving the town of 5,400 without basic services. The tornado also damaged the local hospital, jail and schools. The local Department of Emergency Management said several hundred more homes were damaged.

Washington - A second US Navy ship arrived Friday on the scene of a tense hostage stand-off near the coast of Somalia, where the captain of a US-operated ship was still being held by a group of four pirates, US defence officials confirmed. The USS Halyburton, a frigate, joined the USS Bainbridge, a destroyer that had arrived Thursday morning and taken up negotiations with the pirates, according to Commander Peter Schneider, a spokesman for the US Defence Department.

Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, was taken hostage Wednesday after a failed attempt by Somali pirates to capture the cargo vessel.

Washington - President Barack Obama on Friday pointed to some signs of progress for the US economy, which is going through one of its longest and deepest recessions since the Great Depression. "What you are starting to see is glimmers of hope across the economy," Obama said after a meeting at the White House with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other economic advisors.

In order to take the lead in offering the best value for US to India calling, Bharti Airtel, Asia's leading integrated telecom services provider, on Thursday launched the never before calling rate of 1 cent a minute on its online calling card service airtelcallhome. com, with the name of IndiaOne offer.

New York, Apr. 10 : Friends of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are trying to raise money to retire her old presidential campaign debt.

According to Daily News, they''re doing it by raffling "fantastic prizes" for a handful of lucky supporters - including two tickets to next month''s "American Idol" finale.