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.
Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday he planned to ask President Bush for long-term security protection for Afghanistan. But in a joint news conference in Kabul, both he and visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sidestepped questions as to whether this would involve permanent U.S. bases. Asked if permanent U.S. bases were planned, Karzai said the Afghan people wanted "a longer-term relationship with the United States" after 30 years of war and upheaval. London - Britain has convicted an al Qaeda-trained Algerian man of a plot to launch chemical and bomb attacks in the biggest UK terrorism case since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, after an investigation that spanned 17 countries. Kamel Bourgass was also found guilty of murdering a policeman in a botched raid when he was captured two years ago, after police discovered a suspected chemical weapons lab in a North London apartment and launched a countrywide sweep. ÊBaghdad - Al-Jazeera showed video Wednesday of an Indiana contractor who was kidnapped in Baghdad earlier this week and reported that he pleaded for Washington to save his life by withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. The U.S. embassy said the man appeared to be the same American contract worker kidnapped from the Baghdad area on Sunday. Vatican City - Thousands of Catholic pilgrims flocked to Pope John Paul II's tomb on Wednesday after the Vatican opened it to the public for the first time.
