Pittsburgh couple die in Hawaii crash

Pittsburgh couple die in Hawaii crash

HONOLULU

A couple killed on board a helicopter that crashed on Molokai island were nuclear engineers from the Pittsburgh area who were married less than a week earlier.

Nicole and Michael Abel both worked for Westinghouse Electric Co., company spokesman Vaughn Gilbert said Friday.

The Abels were on a 45-minute aerial tour of west Maui and Molokai when their helicopter crashed around midday Thursday.

All four passengers on the Blue Hawaiian Helicopters flight and their 30-year-old pilot, Nathan Cline, were killed.

Occupy-camp deaths

OAKLAND, Calif.

Leaders across the country felt increasing pressure Friday to shut down Occupy encampments after two men died in shootings and another was found dead from a suspected combination of drugs and carbon-monoxide poisoning caused by a propane heater inside a tent.

Citing a strain on crime-fighting resources, police first pleaded with and then ordered Occupy Oakland protesters to leave their encampment at the city-hall plaza where a man was shot and killed late Thursday.

The Oakland shooting occurred the same day a 35-year-old military veteran apparently shot himself to death in a tent at a Burlington, Vt., Occupy encampment.

On Friday, a man was found dead inside a tent at the Occupy Salt Lake City encampment, from what police said was a combination of drug use and carbon monoxide.

Top Mexico official dies in copter crash

MEXICO CITY

The country’s top Cabinet secretary, Francisco Blake Mora, a key figure in Mexico’s battle with drug cartels, died Friday in a helicopter crash that President Felipe Calderon said probably was an accident. Blake Mora, 45, was the second interior minister, the No. 2 post in the government, to die in an air crash during Calderon’s administration.

Prayer event puts Muslims on edge

DETROIT

A group that counts Islam among the ills facing the nation began a 24-hour prayer rally Friday evening in an area with one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States.

The gathering at Ford Field, the stadium where the Detroit Lions play, is designed to tackle issues such as the economy, racial strife, same-sex relationships and abortion. But the decade-old organization known as TheCall has said Detroit is a “microcosm of our national crisis” in all areas, including “the rising tide of the Islamic movement.”

“Our concern is that we are literally being demonized by the organizers of this group,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter, which last week urged local mosques and Islamic schools to increase security.

Judge’s visits with daughter limited

McALLEN, Texas

A Texas family-law judge seen beating his older daughter in a video she posted on YouTube has been placed under a temporary restraining order, and his ex-wife’s attorney said Friday it effectively prevents him from visiting his younger daughter.

Under the order issued Thursday by another judge, Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams is forbidden from visiting his 10-year-old daughter without getting permission from the girl’s mother, his ex-wife. The order also says Adams can’t disparage the woman or drink alcohol within 24 hours of seeing his child.

Associated Press