RNC votes to block CNN, NBC from hosting debates

RNC votes to block CNN, NBC from hosting debates

BOSTON

The Republican National Committee approved a resolution Friday to block two television networks from hosting GOP presidential primary debates.

Friday’s vote affirms RNC chairman Reince Priebus’ threat against CNN and NBC unless the networks dropped plans to air programs about possible Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton. The vote was unanimous.

Priebus said CNN has “an obvious bias.”

“That’s a network that won’t be hosting a single Republican primary debate,” Priebus declared, receiving a standing ovation from Republican activists from across the country gathered for the committee’s summer meeting in Boston.

In a statement, CNN said a division of the company planned to air a documentary about Clinton in 2014.

Bear attacks 12-year-old girl

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.

As 12-year-old Abby Wetherell headed toward home from an evening jog on her grandfather’s woodsy property in northern Michigan, a terrifying sight caught her eye: a black bear was chasing her.

The bear knocked the girl down twice and lashed one of her thighs with its powerful paws as she screamed for help, then coolly played dead. Her father and a neighbor scared the animal away, and Abby was flown to a hospital, where she was doing well after surgery.

“We’re very proud of the way she handled herself,” her grandfather, David Wetherell, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday. “She’s kind of amazed us.”

Bombings kill 7 around Iraq’s capital

BAGHDAD

Officials in Iraq say two bombings around the capital, Baghdad, have killed seven people.

Police officials said that the deadlier of the two attacks took place Friday night when a bomb exploded as people left a soccer field. They said the attack in western Baghdad killed five people and wounded 15. Earlier Friday, authorities said two soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit an army patrol in Mahmoudiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.

Medical hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

Lawyers challenge death penalty again

DENVER

Lawyers for theater shooting suspect James Holmes launched another legal assault on Colorado’s death penalty laws Friday, arguing they don’t set clear standards and that they make it too hard for jurors to weigh mitigating factors.

They also complained that Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos A. Samour is ruling on defense motions too quickly and asked him to allow them to argue their points “fully and fairly.”

Holmes is accused of opening fire in a theater full of people watching a Batman movie in suburban Denver in July 2012, killing 12 and wounding 70. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Homes evacuated

BOISE, Idaho

Deputy sheriffs Friday expanded evacuation orders to 1,600 homes near the Idaho mountain resort community of Sun Valley as a wind-driven wildfire burned its way through sage and pine trees.

The evacuation orders for the 100-square-mile Beaver Creek Fire included homes in drainages and foothills west of the towns of Hailey and extending to north of Ketchum in central Idaho.

Associated Press