April 10, 2004

Pres Bush has held his last planned fund-raising event for his re-election campaign, having collected almost twice as much money as he did in 2000; Sen John Kerry is pushing ahead with what will be one of busiest fund-raising months of his campaign; is still personally calling donors and attending major events in dozens of cities as he seeks to compete with Bush's expansive financial network; Bush raised over $180 million through March, exceeding his goal by $10 million; Kerry, who has raised $79 million, is taking advantage of outpouring of Democratic support after emerging as his party's presumptive nominee; PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm has donated $607,000 to Bush campaign; Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo law firm has donated $243,346 to Kerry campaign; other top donors to Bush and Kerry campaigns noted (M)

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column discusses struggle of Alex Cejka, who is two strokes behind leader at Masters, to leave war-torn Czech Republic for Germany as child and later to learn to master golf; photo (M)

Pentagon asks Congress for authority to award contracts to foreign airlines to move troops and equipment, business that has always been limited to American-based carriers; proposal could have its greatest impact on Civil Reserve Air Fleet, group of 24 passenger and cargo carriers that sign contracts with Pentagon each year; these airlines were instrumental in transporting military personnel and equipment to Middle East in 2003 before and during Iraq war; in all, American passenger and cargo carriers were paid $1.2 billion to fly nearly 500,000 troops to and from war zone during formal Iraq conflict; photo (M)

US cease-fire briefly halts fighting in Falluja that has created worst crisis of US occupation and left hundreds of Iraqis and at least 40 Americans dead; US officials say cease-fire was ordered by occupation authority head L Paul Bremer III; two US soldiers and unknown number of civilian contractors are missing after their convoy is attacked on highway near Falluja; senior Iraqi officials Abdul Karim al-Muhammadawi and Abdul Basit Turki resign from Governing Council in protest over Falluja offensive; cease-fire is broken almost immediately by bursts of gunfire and at least one US air strike; US command warns that full-scale offensive will resume if talks falter; photos (M)

Justin Rose takes second-round lead at Masters tournament; Arnold Palmer finishes second round of his 50th Masters and says goodbye to Augusta National Golf Club; photos (M)