Police: Mom helped son in ‘fire challenge’

Police: Mom helped son in ‘fire challenge’

A North Carolina woman has been arrested and accused of helping her son with a video in which he set himself on fire as part of the “fire challenge” trend on social media.

Several media outlets reported that 41-year-old Janie Lachelle Talley, of Charlotte, has been charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police detectives say Talley’s 16-year-old son poured fingernail polish on himself July 29 and set himself on fire. The police statement says Talley was present at the time and helped with the video recording. Other people put out the fire. The teen suffered minor burns to his chest and neck.

Egypt presents plan to end war in Gaza

CAIRO

Egypt presented a proposed cease-fire to Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the monthlong war, Palestinian officials said early today after negotiators huddled for a second day of Egyptian-mediated talks meant to resolve the crisis and bring relief to the embattled Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials told The Associated Press early this morning that Egypt’s proposal calls for easing parts of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, bringing some relief to the territory. But it leaves the key areas of disagreement, including the Islamic militant group Hamas’ demand for a full lifting of the blockade and Israeli calls for Hamas to disarm, to later negotiations.

If the sides accept the proposal it would have a significant impact on Palestinians in Gaza as it would improve the movement of individuals and merchandise to the West Bank, the officials said.

Ukraine: Russia can enter with Red Cross

MOSCOW

With a theatrical flourish, Russia on Tuesday dispatched hundreds of trucks covered in white tarps and sprinkled with holy water on a mission to deliver aid to a desperate rebel-held zone in eastern Ukraine.

The televised sight of the miles-long convoy sparked a show of indignation from the government in Kiev, which insisted any aid must be delivered by the international Red Cross. Ukraine and the West have openly expressed its concern that Moscow intends to use the cover of a humanitarian operation to embark on a military incursion in support of pro-Russian separatists.

HRW: Likely crimes against humanity

cairo

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Egypt’s security forces likely committed crimes against humanity when it crushed Islamist protests last year, comparing the bloodshed to China’s Tiananmen Square massacre and calling for a U.N. investigation into the role of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and his security chiefs.

In a 188-page report, the rights group accused security forces of deliberately using excessive force against supporters of Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist president ousted by el-Sissi last summer.

It called the crushing of the main protester sit-in at Cairo’s Rabaah el-Adawiya Square on Aug. 14, 2013, the “world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”

Clinton calls Obama

EDGARTOWN, Mass.

After distancing herself from some of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called her ex-boss Tuesday to try to smooth things over and planned on “hugging it out” in person at an upcoming get-together.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said Clinton told Obama by phone that nothing she said in a magazine interview was an attempt to attack him or his leadership.

Associated Press