Washington, D.C.: Bush makes first campaign fund-raising appeal

President Bush is asking more than a million potential donors to give money now for his 2004 re-election bid so he can focus on fighting terrorism and running the country.

“My responsibilities as president will require me to focus primarily on our nation’s business for most of the next year,” Bush wrote in a letter dated May 16, the day he began his re-election campaign.

“I’ll depend on friends and supporters like you to get my campaign organized and operating across our country,” the president said.

The letter was mailed to more than 1 million people, and was sent to others by e-mail. It is part of a far-reaching effort aimed at collecting as much cash as early in the race as possible.

Virginia: Sailor falls overboard 900 miles off coast

A sailor whose ship was returning home from deployment in the Persian Gulf died after he fell overboard in the Atlantic Ocean about 900 miles off the Virginia coast, military officials said Saturday.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Dwayne Williams, 23, of Philadelphia, was killed Friday after falling from the USS Nassau, an amphibious assault ship based in Norfolk.

Commander Ernest Duplessis, a spokesman for the Navy’s Second Fleet, said Williams’ fall appeared to be accidental, but would not offer details.

The ship’s captain said Williams was chasing a football when he tripped and fell overboard.

India: Heat wave kills nearly 200

A heat wave in southern Indian has killed at least 198 people in the past eight days, a relief official said Friday.

Three districts of Andhra Pradesh state, where high temperatures and shortages of drinking water caused dehydration and sunstroke, accounted for more than half the deaths, said D.C. Roshaiah, chief of the state’s relief operations.

The highest number of fatalities, 44, was reported in Karimnagar district, followed by 42 deaths in East Godavari district and 31 in Krishna district, Roshaiah said.

Temperatures have soared as high as 117 degrees.