Nevadans give Romney another win
CARSON CITY, Nev., Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney was the projected winner in Nevada's presidential caucuses Saturday night, leaving the rest of the GOP pack in the dust.
CNN gave the former Massachusetts governor the victory based on his being favored by 47 percent of the caucus-goers with 13 percent of the precinct caucuses reporting. Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker from Georgia, was second with 22 percent, followed by Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning congressman from Texas, third with 19 percent and Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, at 12 percent.
CBS News also declared Romney, who was coming off a big win in Florida's primary, was the winner.
At stake are Nevada's 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention in August in Tampa, Fla. The delegates will be apportioned proportionately.
Romney also won Nevada during his unsuccessful 2008 bid to secure the party's presidential nomination.
Missing mushroom pickers found in Oregon
GOLD BEACH, Ore., Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Three mushroom pickers whose disappearance in an Oregon forest prompted a ground-and-air search were found alive Saturday, authorities said.
The Curry County Sheriff's Office said Belinda and Daniel Conne, both 47, and their 25-year-old son Michael, who have been living in an RV trailer while scoping out a place to live in Gold Beach, hadn't been seen since about noon Sunday at a Huntley Park campsite along the Rogue River.
About 100 law enforcement officers and others took part in the search for the three family members, the newspaper said.
Deputies found signs of the family along a logging road at the western edge of Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, and about 11:30 a.m. Saturday a helicopter crew spotted the trio.
The parents were hungry, somewhat dehydrated and cold, and their son had a sprained ankle and frost bite on his feet, authorities said.
Authorities said the family, who had taken shelter in a hollow tree, had seen and heard the aircraft in the area previously but couldn't get their attention because of the thick vegetation. They were found Saturday after they moved to a clearing.
The Connes were airlifted out of the ravine about 2 p.m. and transported to a hospital.
Canadian imam bans honor killings
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A senior Muslim leader in Canada Saturday ordered an end to so-called honor killings and domestic abuse, saying the Koran does not endorse such violence.
Imam Syed Soharwardy of Calgary, Alberta, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, issued the fatwa, or official religious edict, in Mississauga, Ontario, following the convictions in Kingston, Ontario, this week in the deaths of four Muslim women killed by relatives who felt the family's honor had been besmirched by their lifestyle.
"Those who think honor killing is OK are dead wrong," the Toronto Sun quoted Soharwardy as saying. "There is no place for violence in Islam.
"A very small minority" of Muslims adhere to the concept and "need to be corrected."
Postmedia News reported Soharwardy, who also is the spiritual leader at the Al-Madinah Calgary Islamic Center, said earlier the fatwa, backed by dozens of other imams and Muslim scholars from across North America, is meant to drive home the point that abuse and killing is not proscribed by the Koran.
"That kind of mentality has to be changed, and has to be confronted," he said.
Soharwardy said he had been researching the issue for some time but it was the recent murder trial that led him to act.
The imam said he and other scholars also want non-Muslims to understand that anti-female sentiment is not sanctioned by Islam.
2 dead, 2 hurt in Arizona plane crash
SHOW LOW, Ariz., Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A couple were killed, and their son and daughter-in-law were injured, Saturday when their airplane crashed in Arizona, authorities said.
The couple who died were identified as Gerald and Ruth Hatch. Transported to hospitals with serious injuries were their son Robb and his wife Kelly, The White Mountain Independent reported.
The family was en route to Las Vegas when the plane went down near the west end of the runway at Show Low Regional Airport, the newspaper said.
Show Low Police Chief Jeffrey Smythe said authorities were alerted by a motorist who saw the fireball from the crash.
The newspaper said officials believed the plane had just taken off from the Show Low airport.
