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 - Thousands of French rail workers checked tracks for bombs Wednesday as the government released details of a multimillion dollar extortion plot. The inspections were ordered after the government acknowledged that it had received written threats to blow up train tracks as far back as December. The threats come from a previously unknown group that calls itself AZF. That name is thought to refer to a chemical plant in southern France where 30 people died in an industrial explosion. Paris - France's Senate overwhelmingly adopted a bill Wednesday banning students from wearing conspicuous religious attire on school property. President Jacques Chirac, who supports the bill, must now formally sign it into law within 15 days. The bill bans students from wearing conspicuous religious symbols on public school property, including Islamic headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crucifixes. Religious groups oppose the controversial bill, claiming it is discriminatory. Tokyo - Japanese authorities isolated a cow on Thursday on suspicion that it's infected with mad cow disease. If confirmed, the case would be Japan's 11th incident of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and its second in two weeks. The first cases of mad cow disease to appear outside of Europe were found in Japan in 2001.
