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.
Cairo, Egypt - The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired a video of Osama bin Laden on Friday directly admitting for the first time that he carried out the September 11 attacks and promising to outline "the best way to avoid another Manhattan." He said the attack was carried out because "we are a free people ... and we want to regain the freedom of our nation." He also accused President Bush of "misleading" the American people three years since the 2001 suicide airline hijackings that hit the World Trade Center towers and The Pentagon. Tokyo - Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sunday vehemently condemned the beheading of a young Japanese backpacker by Muslim extremists in Iraq while vowing that Japan would remain "resolute" and not withdraw its troops from the U.S.-led coalition. "We cannot lose to terrorism, we must not yield to brute force," he said. Washington - President Bush has opened a six-point lead over John Kerry in the first opinion poll to include sampling taken after the new Osama bin Laden videotape. The Newsweek poll published Saturday put Mr. Bush at 50 per cent and Mr. Kerry at 44 per cent. The election is tomorrow. Jerusalem - Palestinian officials are offering conflicting accounts of Yasser Arafat's health, with some aides reporting that his spirits and physical abilities are improving and others aying that his condition remains critical.
