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.
Paris - More than 1,000 Muslim women shouting "The veil, my choice!" marched through Paris on Sunday to protest presidential proposals to ban Islamic head scarves from public schools and, perhaps, at work. The protest, a cry of anguish from a rarely heard section of French society, was the first in Paris against President Jacques Chirac's announcement Wednesday that head scarves and other conspicuous religious symbols, including Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses, should be banned from schools to protect France's secular foundations. London - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi showed "huge statesmanship" in volunteering to give up nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saturday. Straw said Friday's surprise announcement had been the result of years of "painstaking diplomacy" to bring Libya in from the diplomatic cold, and indicated the United States would likely lift its sanctions against the north African state. San Francisco - Crews were restoring power to thousands of homes and businesses early Sunday following a blackout that left a third of the city without electricity on one of the busiest days of the holiday season. The power outage started just before 6 p.m. Saturday when a fire broke out at a major Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation. About 120,000 customers lost power.12/22/2003
