60,000 dead, to date.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32337-2004Dec28.html?nav=rss_topnewsThe U.S. Role
Aid Grows Amid Remarks About President's AbsenceBy John F. Harris and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 29, 2004; Page A01
The Bush administration more than doubled its financial commitment yesterday to provide relief to nations suffering from the Indian Ocean tsunami, amid complaints that the vacationing President Bush has been insensitive to a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.
As the death toll surpassed 50,000 with no sign of abating, the U.S. Agency for International Development
added $20 million to an earlier pledge of $15 million to provide relief, and the Pentagon dispatched an aircraft carrier and other military assets to the region. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in morning television appearances, chafed at a top U.N. aid official's comment on Monday that wealthy countries were being stingy with aid. "The United States is not stingy," Powell said on CNN.
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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20041228/ts_chicagotrib/bushgalahasbigdonationspouringinBush gala has big donations pouring inTue Dec 28, 9:40 AM ET
By Mark Silva Washington Bureau
Soldiers will dance free of charge at President Bush (news - web sites)'s second inauguration, a record $40 million-plus celebration for "a nation at war" financed by some of the same big donors who bankrolled Bush's re-election campaign.
The president's private inaugural committee, calling on corporate and individual donors to contribute as much as $250,000 apiece, has struck a military-minded theme for a three-day series of events leading to the swearing-in on Jan. 20.
"Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service" is the slogan for a festival that will start with a ceremony at an indoor Washington arena "saluting those who serve," and close with a collection of nine formal balls. The dances will include a Commander-in-Chief Ball open, admission free, to invited members of the military.
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Most of the money for ceremonies, such as the elaborate balls and the parade through Washington after Bush's swearing-in at the west front of the Capitaol, will come from a private committee with a stated
budget of $30 million to $40 million. However, it is likely that Bush, who raised a record $270 million for his re-election, will surpass the $40 million spent on his first inauguration in 2001.
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