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.
Baghdad - The president of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed on Monday when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy in Baghdad. Abdel-Zahraa Othman, better known as Izzedine Salim, was in a car stopped outside the Green Zone, where the U.S. coalition has its Baghdad headquarters, when a car next to it exploded, witnesses said. Seven people were killed in the blast, including Salim. Salim held the presidency of the Iraqi Governing Council, which rotates on a monthly basis. The council announced he would be replaced by Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, a civil engineer from the northern city of Mosul. Cambridge, Mass. - City clerks across Massachusetts are handing out marriage licence applications to gay couples, making it the first state in the U.S. to legalize same-sex unions. The state's Supreme Judicial Court in November ruled 4-3 that gays and lesbians must be allowed to marry. Clerks in the city of Cambridge handed out the first licence at one minute after midnight. About 5,000 people gathered outside the city hall to cheer as about 260 couples filed in to apply. The first couple in line, Marcia Hams, 56, and Susan Shepherd, 52, showed up 24 hours ahead of the deadline to secure the spot. Washington - The Pentagon is strongly denying a media report that says U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized a program encouraging the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
