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.
St. Louis - Former St. Louis Blues player Mike Danton was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison on Monday for a murder-for-hire plot that stunned the hockey world over the summer. The native of Brampton, Ont., was silent in the East St. Louis, Ill. courtroom as U.S. District Judge William Stiehl read the sentence. Stiehl offered Danton an opportunity to speak but he declined. "I do not believe in over 18 years on the bench I have been faced with a case as bizarre as this one," Stiehl said, noting that Danton picked a 19-year-old acquaintance and a police dispatcher as his potential helpers in the murder scheme. Kabul - Two of three UN workers kidnapped in Afghanistan telephoned home to say they are safe and one expressed hope she soon would be free, officials and relatives said Tuesday. An Afghan government spokesman said "progress has been made" toward ending the hostage-taking by a Taliban splinter group, which kidnapped the United Nations staff in Kabul 12 days ago. Paris - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's vital organs are still functioning and there's no possibility he will be removed from life support, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said. "His brain, his heart and his lungs are still functioning and he is alive," Shaath told a news conference. "I want to rule out any question of euthanasia." Arafat is in a coma and under sedation, he is not in pain.
