NRA takes aim at Manchin of W.Va.

NRA takes aim at Manchin of W.Va.

CHARLESTON, W.Va.

The National Rifle Association is targeting U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin after years of endorsing the West Virginia Democrat.

Manchin has continued to push to broaden background checks to include firearms sold online or at gun shows.

The NRA says it launched a TV ad Wednesday urging state residents to call Manchin over the measure.

Miss. honors Evers’ civil-rights work

JACKSON, Miss.

Civil-rights leader Medgar Evers helped create a more inclusive and open Mississippi by increasing black voter registration, Gov. Phil Bryant said Wednesday during a service marking the 50th anniversary of Evers’ assassination.

A racially diverse crowd of more than 150 people gathered outside the Mississippi Museum of Art in downtown Jackson for speeches, gospel singing and the ringing of bells to remember the NAACP leader who was killed outside his home just after midnight June 12, 1963. Evers was 37.

The Republican governor stood by Evers’ widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, before going on stage to speak.

Government makes offer to protesters

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s government on Wednesday offered a first concrete gesture aimed at ending nearly two weeks of street protests, proposing a referendum on a development project in Istanbul that triggered demonstrations that have become the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10-year tenure.

Protesters expressed doubts about the offer, however, and continued to converge in Taksim Square’s Gezi Park, epicenter of the anti-government protests that began in Istanbul 13 days ago and spread across the country.

Pool water heater cited in motel deaths

RALEIGH, N.C.

A faulty pool water heater was the source of carbon monoxide that killed an 11-year-old boy at a North Carolina motel last weekend and a couple who slept in the same room about two months earlier, police said Wednesday.

Plumbing and other investigators who looked through the Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza pointed to the water heater located beneath room 225 as the source of the killer gas, Boone police said in a statement.

Southern Baptists oppose Scout rule

HOUSTON

The Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution Wednesday expressing its opposition to the Boy Scouts of America’s new policy allowing gay Scouts, though it doesn’t explicitly call for churches to drop all ties with the organization.

Though some action against the Scouts was widely anticipated, given the denomination’s very public opposition to the change, the resolution takes a softer tone than many had expected.

Obama aides split over arming rebels

WASHINGTON

Despite growing alarm over the Syrian government’s military advances, Obama administration officials are split over whether to arm the country’s rebel forces or make other military moves that would deepen U.S. involvement in the conflict.

President Barack Obama’s top national-security advisers met at the White House on Wednesday to air their differences. The administration’s caution persists despite its nearly 2-year-old demand that President Bashar Assad step down, its vows to help the besieged Syrian rebels on the ground and its threats to respond to any chemical- weapons use.

Associated Press