First graders walk to school on the first day of classes outside of the Chechen capital of Grozny on Sept. 1. Russian officials searched some schools for bombs.

As anger mounted across the nation and in Congress over the handling of the Firestone tire recall, the products continued to be linked to fatal accidents. Here, a father grieves over the body of his 10-year-old son who was killed when their Ford Explorer flipped on Interstate 35 near Encinal, Texas, on Sept. 3. An investigator at the scene said that a separated tire on the rear of the vehicle was a possible cause for the accident.

A man puts his dirty clothes into one of 104 washing machines that were installed as an art project in Berlin's city center. The event was the work of artists Filomeno Fusco and Victor Kegli. All the machines were fully functional.

An Iraqi woman helps her child, stricken with leukemia, at a hospital in Baghdad on Sept. 6. Iraq's Health Ministry claims more than 1.35 million Iraqis, mainly young children, have died because of international sanctions imposed on the country since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Officials of Miyake village wave to a ferry as they send off the last 400 residents who were ordered to leave the island amid volcanic eruptions and earthquakes Sept. 4. Only officials and relief workers remained on the island, which is 118 miles south of Tokyo.

Australian runner Cathy Freeman holds the Olympic torch after lighting the Olympic cauldron Sept. 15, inaugurating the 27th Olympiad of the modern era. The identity of the person who was to light the Olympic cauldron was a closely guarded secret.

An Indonesian police officer drags an anti-Suharto protester during a scuffle in Jakarta Sept. 14. Hundreds of anti-Suharto demonstrators faced off with pro-Suharto youths and security forces as the former dictator failed to show up in court on corruption charges.

The mother of a woman killed by artillery shelling mourns in the Uri area of Kashmir on Sept. 13. Twelve others were wounded when Pakistani troops shelled the Uri sector.

Police in riot gear push back activists blocking the exit to the World Economic Forum in Melbourne, Australia, Sept. 12. Activists were preventing the delegates from leaving.

The International Space Station is illuminated by an orbital sunset 233 miles above the Earth in this view from television Sept. 12.

The Japanese army's latest Type 90 tanks fire smoke bombs during an annual exercise at the foot of Mount Fuji on Sept. 10.

A costumed performer dances during a dress rehearsal Sept. 9 of the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.

Australia's Nathalie Cook casts a shadow against a backdrop of golden Olympic rings during a Sept. 16 match in the beach volleyball competition at Sydney's Bondi Beach. It marked one of the first volleys of the 2000 Olympics

This picture of a pair of cow elk framed in a wildfire near Sula, Mont., was taken Aug. 6 - but it took until mid-September for journalists to track down who actually snapped the picture. "I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," said fire behavior analyst John McColgan, who took the picture from a bridge over the Bitterroot River.

Asia Begum sits in front of what used to be her home Sept. 20 in the Bangladeshi village of Panishai, while family members salvage what they can in the wake of a severe storm. Thousands of Bangladeshis battled storms and flash floods that left five people dead and hundreds injured.

Suspended from unseen wires, Nikki Webster, 13, floats above jellyfish balloons during the dreamlike opening ceremonies for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney on Sept. 15.

Iraqi Christians seeking political asylum in the United States stand in a gated hotel courtyard in Tijuana, Mexico, as they listen to a representative from a Catholic church in the United States on Sept. 21.

Protesters use a police shield to protect themselves from a water cannon during clashes with police on the opening day of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, on Sept. 26.

Belarussian soldiers collect potatoes as a colleague sleeps on potato sacks at a farm in Rovanichi, about 62 miles (100 km) from Minsk, Sept. 26. The soldiers act as farm laborers, essential for Belarussian agriculture, which is poorly financed and cannot survive without such military and state support

A village girl walks past a submerged car as she looks for drinking water near Mayapur in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal Sept. 23. India's worst flooding in 22 years killed at least 600 people and stranded millions.

Israeli soldiers embrace during the funeral of their colleague David Biri, 19, in the military cemetery of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem Sept. 29. Biri was wounded in a bomb explosion as a convoy of Jewish settlers and their military escort neared the Netzarim settlement in the Gaza Strip Sept. 27, and he died the following day.

Special instruments on board NASA's Transition Region and Coronal Explorer spacecraft capture the sun's coronal loops. Fountains of multimillion-degree, electrified gas in the atmosphere of the sun have revealed the location where the solar atmosphere is heated to temperatures 1,000 times greater than the sun's visible surface.

A video frame from France 2 television coverage shows Jamal Aldura and his 12-year-old son Mohammed hiding behind a barrel during Israeli-Palestinian clashes in Netzarim in the Gaza Strip on Sept. 30. Seconds later, a flying bullet struck Mohammed in the abdomen, killing him. His father was seriously wounded. The video sparked a worldwide outcry.

Rupban Banu weeps as she and other family members wait to register their names at a flood shelter in Bangladesh抯 Satkhira district, bordering India抯 West Bengal state, on Oct. 3. The unexpected floods affected 3 million people in Bangladesh, killing more than 100 people and forcing 600,000 to shelters