The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Leoben, Austria - An Austrian man who tried to hold police at bay by swinging deadly cobras at them was in hospital on Monday with a gunshot wound and a snake bite. Police shot the man to end a standoff during which the man wrapped two cobras around himself. A reptile expert was called to the scene, who said the man was a snake dealer and had 60 reptiles in his apartment. The snakes were taken to a local zoo. Canberra - Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill says he's hopeful international troops might be able to withdraw from Iraq sometime next year. Hill described the situation in Iraq as very difficult, with violence being caused by insurgents who want to return to the old way. He says Australian troops should stay until the job is done. That could be until next year, according to the United Nations. "The United Nations is looking at a timetable that takes us through the elections, the setting up of the new constitution, and a full transferring of government to the new Iraq, and that's basically a period of next year," Hill said. Berlin - Voters in two states in what was East Germany are expressing their discontent with the dominant political parties in Germany by endorsing radical right-wing and former communist parties in state elections. But the mainstream parties, the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, are still leading and will remain the state governments.
