GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A senior PLO official proposed a 24-hour humanitarian cease-fire Tuesday in the Gaza war, saying he spoke in the name of Hamas, but was contradicted a short while later by a spokesman of the Islamic militant group.

CHICAGO (AP) — The NCAA agreed Tuesday to settle a class-action head injury lawsuit by creating a $70 million fund to diagnose thousands of current and former college athletes to determine if they suffered brain trauma playing football, hockey, soccer and other contact sports.

DETROIT (AP) — Suzuki is recalling nearly 26,000 midsize cars in the U.S. because the daytime running light modules can overheat and could cause a fire.

By Joe Brock JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) would like a local company to buy mines being sold by Anglo American Platinum but it will not try and influence the deal, the party said on Tuesday. The world's biggest platinum producer, a unit of Anglo American, said last week it would sell a swathe of its most labour-intensive South African mines after a five-month strike hit its revenues and as it follows a long-term pivot to mechanised operations. "Our dream is to have a South African mining champion," ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe, who formerly headed the National Union of Mineworkers, told reporters. "It would be quite important to have a South African company buying those assets but it is not a choice of the ANC.

By Timothy Heritage MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin risks becoming an international pariah over the Ukraine crisis but the Russian president is battening down the hatches for the gathering economic and political storm. The United States and the European Union saw the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 as a chance for Putin to distance himself from pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine and seal the border across which they say arms are reaching the rebels. Instead Putin has stood firm, blamed the crash on his pro-Western protagonists in Kiev and signaled no change in his stance, leaving Russia facing the threat of much tougher international sanctions and economic and political isolation. With an about-turn all but impossible for Putin after a fierce media campaign that has demonized the West, painted Ukraine's leaders as fascists and backed the rebels to the hilt, he appears to have passed the point of no-return.

LOME, Togo (AP) — The West African airline that transported a passenger sick with Ebola last week says it's now suspending flights to the two cities hardest hit by the disease.

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Tuesday reported a smaller drop in sales than expected as second-quarter earnings fell sharply due to a one-time gain last year. The 2013 period was boosted by a $10.6 billion gain resulting from Pfizer's spinoff of its animal care assets into Zoetis, which is now publicly traded. "Overall, I am pleased with our second-quarter 2014 financial results despite the continued negative impact from product losses of exclusivity and the termination of certain co-promotion collaborations," said Pfizer chief financial officer Frank D'Amelio. Revenues for Pfizer's business unit covering more established treatments declined five percent due to expiration of a number of major patents, including its sexual-dysfunction pill Viagra in several European markets in June 2013.

By Aleksandar Vasovic DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Intense fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine killed dozens of civilians, soldiers and rebels, as Kiev pressed on with an offensive on Tuesday including near the wreckage of Malaysian flight MH17. Shells hit the centre of Donetsk, a city with a pre-war population of nearly a million people where residents fear they will be trapped on a battlefield between advancing Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels who have vowed to make a stand. In Brussels, European officials met to discuss imposing the first broad-based sanctions aimed at sectors of the Russian economy, a step that would start a new phase in the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Ukrainian forces have been pushing rebel units back towards their two main urban strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk and have sought to encircle them in several places.

HOUSTON (AP) — Waste Management is selling a subsidiary to Energy Capital Partners for $1.94 billion as part of its effort to focus on its core business.

CHICAGO (AP) — The NCAA has agreed to settle a class-action head injury lawsuit by creating a $70 million fund to diagnose thousands of current and former college athletes to determine if they suffered brain trauma playing football, hockey, soccer and other contact sports, The Associated Press has learned.