News Briefs

A class action lawsuit was filed on Oct. 9 in a New York State court against the United Nations on behalf of victims of a cholera epidemic in Haiti that has infected 650,000 and killed more than 8,300 people since October 2010. • Paolo Dall’Oglio, a Jesuit priest and peace activist kidnapped by Syrian rebels on July 28, is “alive and being treated well” by members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, sources told a Syrian journalist in mid-October. • The death toll from the sinking of a boat overloaded with North African migrants off the Italian island of Lampedusa reached 296 on Oct. 9, and it was expected that the bodies of more victims will be found inside the sunken vessel. • With the adoption of a new law on financial transparency, vigilance and information, the Vatican has almost completely revamped its finance laws, said Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Vatican spokesperson, on Oct. 9.