STUCK MONT. MAN KEPT WITS BY PLAYING 'ANGRY BIRDS' : HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A man stranded for three days on a snowy mountain road in Montana attributed his survival to God, a rationed supply of beef jerky and the video game "Angry Birds" that he played on his cellphone to keep his wits.
David Weatherly said Thursday that his sport-utility vehicle became stuck in the snow Sunday afternoon on a back road in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, where he had gone to take photographs of the scenery and wildlife.
After discovering he had no phone reception and concluding that nobody else would brave the remote road in the blustery weather, the 42-year-old postal employee took stock: He had a pouch of beef jerky, some water and a little coffee.
"I'd seen stories of how people had basically been able to survive off that and I figured if they could do it, so could I," Heatherly said.
So he set up a regimented routine and stuck to it. He napped for 45 minutes out of each hour in the Chevrolet Trailblazer, setting his cellphone's alarm so that he could wake up to run the heater for 15 minutes.
OHIO ADOPTIVE DAD INDICTED ON 31 COUNTS OF RAPE: COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An adoptive father accused of raping three boys in his care was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday after an investigation police say began with an undercover detective talking online with someone who had expressed an interest in taboo sexual encounters.
Troy police Capt. Chris Anderson said between 10 and 15 of the 31 grand jury charges carry potential sentences of up to life in prison for the man, whom The Associated Press is not identifying to protect the children's identities.
Police have said the 39-year-old man regularly raped the three boys at his home in a quiet residential neighborhood of ranch homes in Troy, a city of 25,000 residents a 90-minute drive west of Columbus.
PAUL HESITANT TO BACK ROMNEY IF HE WINS NOMINATION: COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Republican candidate Ron Paul refused Thursday to commit to backing Mitt Romney if the former Massachusetts governor becomes the party's nominee for president.
An anti-war candidate, Paul said he'd need more information about Romney's international agenda to make that decision.
"I'd talk to him and see what kind of a foreign policy he is going to have," Paul, a congressman from Texas, told reporters at a rally two days before most of Missouri's counties hold their Republican caucuses. "Mitt's a friend and we talk a lot. We just disagree on the issues."
BEAUTY QUEEN SHAVES HEAD FOR CANCER RESEARCH MONEY: ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Miss Alaska pageant requires contestants to perform a public service project. Under Debbe Ebben's silver tiara is evidence of hers.
The reigning Miss Chugiak-Eagle River has raised more than $4,000 for children's cancer research for the St. Baldrick's Foundation, and last weekend, delivered on a promise to people who pledged by allowing her brown tresses to be buzzed off.
ND SUPREME COURT CONSIDERS FIGHTING SIOUX CASE: BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota's Supreme Court grilled the state Board of Higher Education's lawyer Thursday about the board's tardiness in challenging a law that requires the University of North Dakota's sports teams to carry the Fighting Sioux nickname.
State lawmakers first approved the pro-nickname law in March 2011. Yet it wasn't until last month, after the law was repealed and then revived in a referendum campaign, that the higher education board sued to block the law, Justice Daniel Crothers said.
