Israeli tank fire injured 20 Palestinian students on October 9, killing Tha’er El Howt, a 13-year-old boy sponsored by the humanitarian organization World Vision. In the past two years, violence has claimed the lives of more than 400 Israeli and Palestinian children. Read more...

President George W. Bush signed the Sudan Peace Act into law on October 21. The House approved the bill with only eight dissenting votes on October 7, and the Senate unanimously approved it October 9. Read more...

Like most things traveling in the Middle East, clothes and shoes sent by World Vision took longer than expected to arrive in Ramallah. More than $60,000 in new clothes and shoes donated by American corporations left the U.S. April 23 and arrived in Israel on May 29. But closures in the West Bank and Israeli delays to authorize the shipment’s transfer delayed progress for months. Even World Vision staff were delayed more than 10 hours at Israeli checkpoints to pick up the shipment. The clothing finally was distributed on October 6.
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The tenuous peace in the Congo began to waver October 17 as new conflict in the eastern region of the country re-ignited panic and sent thousands of Congolese refugees into neighboring Burundi. Fighting broke out between a militia with past links to the government and the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), a Rwandan-supported rebel group. Read more...

To the dismay of U.S. and global economists, Brazil’s left-wing presidential candidate Luis Inacio Lula da Silva seems positioned to be the country’s next leader, extending his lead in opinion polls to 66 percent. Many U.S. economists see Lula as a threat to American economic interests and Brazil’s economic stability within a stagnating global economy. Currently, some 50 million Brazilians live in poverty. Read more...