| Global update | Today Tuesday, Wednesday High: 43 High: 43 High: 42 Low: 28 Low: 27 Low: 30 Precip: 0% Precip: 0% Precip: 20% IN BRIEF U.S. gave $1 billion in faith-based funds in 2003 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The gov ernment gave more than $1 billion in 2003 to organizations it considers “faith-based,” with some going to programs where prayer and spiritual guidance are central and some to or ganizations that do not consider themselves religious at all. Many of these groups have entirely secular missions, and some organiza tions were surprised to find their names on a list of faith-based groups provided to The Associated Press by the White House. “Someone has obviously designat ed us a faith-based organization, but we don’t recognize ourselves as that,” said Stacey Denaux, executive director of Crisis Ministries, a home less shelter and soup kitchen in Charleston, S.C. Faith-based grants Most faith-based organizations were getting funding before the Bush initiative began in 2003. Grants awarded to faith based organizations, by department New grants Received grants in previous years HEALTH AND HOUSING AND HUMAN HUMAN SERVICES DEVELOPMENT 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 2002 '03 2002 '03 SOURCE: White House Office of Faith- AP Based and Community Initiatives Israel sends tanks into Gaza in response to rocket fire DEIR EL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Mahmoud Abbas, the leading candi date for Palestinian president, Called EMU BOARD MEETINGS Winter 2005 1/5.Full Board Meeting 1/12...Committee Meetings 1/19...Full Board Meeting 1/26...Committee Meetings 2/2.Full Board Meeting 2/9.Committee Meetings 2/16...Full Board Meeting 2/23 Committee Meetings 3/2.Full Board Meeting All meetings are at 4:00 pm. Check Schedule of Events for room location and changes. on militants Sunday to stop firing rockets at Israel, as Israeli tanks and troops massed in northern Gaza in response to the latest barrage. A poll released Sunday showed Abbas with the backing of two-thirds of his people, three times the support of his nearest rival before a Jan. 9 election to replace Yasser Arafat. Still, the candidate spent the day courting those who have disparaged him in the past — young militants. With Israeli tanks gathering nearby, Abbas expressed his support for the gunmen — viewed as resistance he roes by Palestinians and as terrorists by Israel — at a campaign rally at a school in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. However, he also criticized the rocket fire. Funerals, protests follow Argentina fire in nightclub BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Mourning families on Sunday buried victims of the nightclub fire that killed at least 188 people and injured more than 700, while Buenos Aires’ public security chief resigned in the furor following revelations that some of the packed club’s emergency exits were locked. The funerals came before a pot banging protest as irate Buenos Aires residents demanded a full govern ment accounting for Thursday’s calamity, the worst fire tragedy in the country in recent memory. At one grave site, a toddler stood dazed as relatives tearfully clutched at a coffin before it was laid into the earth. Elsewhere, anger was palpable on what is traditionally one of the most festive holiday weekends of the year. “Resign! Resign!” several hundred people shouted during a march late Saturday on the offices of Mayor Ani bal Ibarra. Croatian loses outright majority, runoff to follow ZAGREB, Croatia — Croatia’s pro Western president failed to win an outright majority for re-election on Sunday, forcing him to face a runoff vote against the conservative govern ment’s candidate in two weeks. Stipe Mesic had 49.03 percent of the votes — just short of the majority needed to give him a second term, the state-run Electoral Commission said after more than 99 percent of the votes were counted. The 70-year-old incumbent, who was backed by most opposition par ties, declared the results a “brilliant victory” and voiced confidence that he would win the runoff on Jan. 16. “I led Croatia to the doors of the [mainstream) Europe, and I will lead it to it,” Mesic said to cheers from his supporters. — The Associated Press U.S. helps distribute water, food to tsunami survivors THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A Sumatran fisherman was discovered barely alive under his beached boat Sunday — the first survivor found in three days. But with tens of thou sands still missing in crushed sea side settlements and in the flotsam washing the shores of the Indian Ocean, rescuers turned full attention to getting food and water to the liv ing. Aid agencies said the death toll was expected to hit 150,000. The discovery of 24-year-old Tengku Sofyan, who could barely speak and was badly dehydrated, came as relief efforts accelerated across the southern Asian destruc tion zone. He was sent to a hospital in Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, the hardest hit region where an estimated 100,000 died when the most powerful earthquake in four decades ripped a fault line beneath the sea bed 100 miles off shore. The tsunami it spawned turned the world upside down for people living as far away as Soma lia, 3,000 miles away on the east coast of Africa. With rescue teams focused on Sumatra, U.S. military helicopters flew in biscuits, energy drinks and instant noodles to hungry, homeless villagers. The operation was part of a $2 billion global relief effort an nounced as international donors be gan assembling for a conference on rebuilding in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Thursday. As the relief efforts drove deeper into the sprawling disaster zone, American pilots had some of the first glimpses of wrecked Sumatran coastal villages such as Keude Death toll continues to rise At least 123,477 people were killed in 11 countries in southern Asia and East Africa from Sunday’s massive earthquake and tsunamis, according to official figures. Y\ \ ^ \ PAK \\ SAUDI Tj /r-.^..% I % ARABIA v';.:y " N • N§|g A OfytANp' ™ 0 250 mi .INDIA 9,067 k ,0 250 kny/ /_k 7 YEMEN/' /' > '' ■■in J ETH / / JiSOMALIA ) % x' 200 Worst hit X -*# KENYA y, 1 Indian Ocean TANZANIA 10 SOURCE: ESRI niMrEyjN