| 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.
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AP
Teunom, where survivors in tattered
clothing grabbed at bottles of water
dropped from helicopters.
Officials said 8,000 of Keude Te
unom’s 18,000 residents were killed
in the disaster.
Reporters were given a look at the
wiped-out village of Malacca, on the
Indian island of Car Nicobar, where
the only structure still standing was
a statue of independence leader Ma
hatma Gandhi. About 4,000 people
are missing on the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands, Indian territory off
the coast of Malaysia.
In New York, U.N. humanitarian
chief Jan Egeland said more aid
was getting to survivors, but there
were still problems helping those
in Indonesia.
“We are seeing that the assis
tance is becoming increasingly ef
fective in all of the countries,” he
told reporters. "Overall I am more
optimistic today than I was yester
day that we, the global communi
ty, will be able to face up to this
enormous challenge.”
Egeland said 1.8 million people in
tsunami-hit countries would need
food aid and that the figure could
rise. It would take about three days
to get food to 700,000 people in Sri
Lanka but much longer to reach the
one million hungry people in In
donesia, he said.
He warned there were still diffi
culties in reaching survivors in
Sumatra’s Aceh province. “That is
where we are behind, really. ... 90
percent of our problems are in
those areas because they are more
remote, because the damage was
much bigger, because the roads are
more damaged, because the air
strips are fewer and they are
more damaged.”
IN BRIEF
Suicide bombing kills
18 National Guardsmen
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents ex
posed the vulnerability of Iraq’s se
curity forces again Sunday, killing
18 National Guardsmen, five police
officers and several civilians in sepa
rate attacks with elections just
weeks away. Prominent Shiite lead
ers called for unity with Sunni Arabs
wanting to delay the vote but insist
ed it be held despite the violence.
Also, the U.S. military sent new
forces to counter the threat in Mo
sul, center of a woriying rise in car
bombings and raids in recent weeks.
The worst attack Sunday oc
curred north of Baghdad when a
suicide bomber detonated his ex
plosives-laden vehicle next to a
bus carrying Iraqi National Guard
troops. It was the deadliest assault
on Iraqi security forces since Octo
ber, when insurgents gunned
down about 50 new National
Guardsmen at a fake checkpoint.
Guerrillas also launched a spate
of other assaults across the country
Sunday, killing an Iraqi soldier, sev
en police officers, a local govern
ment leader and a Muslim cleric,
bringing Sunday’s toll to 29.
The car bomb detonated as the
bus passed a U.S. base in Balad, 50
miles north of Baghdad, U.S. mili
tary spokesman Maj. Neal E.
O’Brien said. Balad is in the so
called Sunni TYiangle, the scene of
frequent assaults on U.S. and Iraqi
security forces.
“Those responsible for suicide at
tacks are seeking to halt Iraq’s
progress on the path to democracy,”
O’Brien said.
Six guardsmen also were wound
ed, he said.
The Shiite leaders who spoke
Sunday belong to the Unified Iraqi
Alliance, a mainstream Shiite coali
tion running in the election. The
group is expected to do extremely
well in the election, and its leaders
likely will have top government
posts if the vote goes through.
— The Associated Press
Summer Semester 2005
he University of
Montana
REATE
Blend academics with recreation — attend
Summer Semester 2005 at
The University of Montana-Missoula
You may register today and enjoy UM’s relaxed
campus atmosphere, innovative course offerings
and exciting outdoor activities
To request your free Summer Semester Catalog
or to obtain more information, visit
montanasummer.com or call 406.243.4470
MONTANASUMMER.COM
us@f|ii/ cam dus
ACTIVATE YOUR CAMPUS CASH ACCOUNT TODAY
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