Mother, 7 children die in house fire in France

A mother and her seven children aged between 2 and 14 died in a house fire in France’s northern department of Aisne, the local prefecture confirmed in a press release.  Just after midnight on Monday, the blaze ripped through a two-story house in the city of Charly-sur-Marne, Xinhua news agency reported.  A firefighter could rescue a severely burnt man, who was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, the prefecture said, adding that his condition was not life-threatening.  However, the rescue teams found eight dead bodies – that of a woman in her 40s and her seven children.  The cause of the fire remains under investigation.  In 2013, five children aged between 2 and 9 were killed in a fire in Saint-Quentin, also in the department of Aisne, local media reported.