Over 1 million deaths have been attributed to malnutrition. A Russian missionary has not been heard from since he was kidnapped on July 24. The mission agency Christian Aid says a missionary known as Dema was going to his home with a friend when six masked gunmen stopped their car and kidnapped the two men. Dema is the director of a successful drug rehabilitation ministry in the town of Ishvesk in the Ural Mountains. So far, no ransom or terms for the release of the missionary have been received.
Observers fear that the kidnapping was ordered by an underground criminal organization.
Over 90 people acquitted of charges related to the massacre of 21 Christians last year could face retrials. On July 30, the Cassation Court of Egypt overruled a lower court s Feb. 5 ruling that acquitted 92 of the 96 people accused of taking part in the riots that led to the murders of 21 Christians in the Egyptian town of El-Kosheh. Religious tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians in the town erupted into violence in January 2000. More and more Christian Palestinians are leaving Israel to escape fighting between Israelis and Muslim Palestinians. According to a report released by the World Council of Churches, the small population of Palestinian Christians in Israeli is getting smaller because three families are emigrating out of the area every week.