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possibility of release Friday. It was the most severe sentence possible. The villagers expressed gratitude for that, but they were nevertheless deeply unsatisfied that Bales lived at all.
• "We wanted this murderer to be executed," said Hajji Mohammad Wazir, who lost 11 family members in the attack by Bales. "We were brought all the way from Afghanistan to see if justice would be served. Not our way -- justice was served the American way."
• Bales pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty for his March 11, 2012, raids near his remote outpost in Kandahar province, when he stalked through mud-walled compounds and shot 22 people -- 17 of them women and children. Some screamed for mercy, while others didn't even have a chance to get out of bed.
• The only possible sentences were life in prison without parole, or life with the possibility of release after 20 years. The soldier showed no emotion as the six jurors chose the former after deliberating for less than two hours.
• ___
Huge California wildfire creeps into Yosemite National Park, reverberates across 2 states
• FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- After burning for nearly a week on the edges of California's Yosemite National Park, a massive wildfire of nearly 200 square miles has now crossed into it, and firefighters have barely begun to contain it.
• The Yosemite Valley, the part of the park frequented by tourists and known around the world for such iconic sights as the Half Dome and El Capitan rock formations and Yosemite falls, remained open, clear of smoke and free from other signs of the fire that remained about 20 miles away.
• But the blaze was reverberating around the region. It brought a governor's declaration of emergency late Friday for San Francisco 150 miles away because of the threat the fire posed to utility transmission to the city, and caused smoke warnings and event cancellations in Nevada as smoke blew over the Sierra Nevada and across state lines.
• And the fire had established at least a foothold in Yosemite, with at least 17 of its 196 square miles burning inside the park's broad borders, in a remote area near Lake Eleanor where backpackers seek summer solace.
• Park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said that the park had stopped issuing backcountry permits to backpackers and had warned those who already had them to stay out (Continued on page 22)
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