How does your experience reporting in the Vietnam War compare to what the news media is facing in Iraq?

You just can’t compare these two in terms of how you covered it and the perils of coverage. In Vietnam, journalists were generally killed in battle, and there are no battles in this war. They are all street crimes.

In Vietnam, with rare exceptions, the cities were safe places. You could go anywhere in Saigon or Danang or Ben Wah or any of the towns feeling quite secure. There were some dodgy moments, but nothing like Iraq.

Did you feel secure because you were a journalist? Was the media not considered a target there?

It wasn’t because we were journalists; it was the nature of Vietnam. As a civilian walking around in back streets of Cho Long, you obviously stood out like a sore thumb, but I never felt in particular danger. There were dodgy parts of town, but certainly not this kind of random violence.

I don’t think the journalists are being targeted in Iraq; I think they are just victims of random violence that targets everyone from American troops to journalists to civilians having lunch in a cafe. It is that random violence that makes it uncoverable.

In Vietnam, were you able to move freely and report the stories you wanted?

That is the major difference. In Vietnam, there was no place we couldn’t go and get there with the assistance of the U.S. military. You’d go out to the airport and find a helicopter going where you were going and jump on it.

The military ran a regular airline. There were scheduled flights that went to all the major cities in Vietnam and even some quite small towns. It was like taking a shuttle to Washington. All you had to produce was your Defense Department documentation.

"We shall send a UNESCO expert team to Visoko to determine exactly what it is all about," UNESCO Secretary General Koichiro Matsuura said in an interview published on Monday in Dnevni Avaz newspaper.

Amateur archaeologist Semir Osmanagic has caused a stir with his find, although local and European archaeologists denounce it as nonsense.

Geologist Aly Abd Barakat, an Egyptian researcher sent by Cairo to assist Osmanagic's team last month, has said that the Visocica hill did appear to be a primitive man-made pyramid of uncertain age.

It was only the second time that a human body is known to have been placed in a decorated cave from the Upper Paleolithic Period, the ministry said.

A single face drawn in the cave could be among the world's oldest known graphic representations of a human face, said Jean-Yves Baratin, archeology curator for the Poitou-Charentes region.

The landmarks that define this legendary city are in serious disrepair, the victims of monumental neglect, shrinking budgets and the wear and tear of Mother Nature and heavy-heeled visitors.

Rome's troubles exceed those found in many other archeologically rich locations because its historic center is not a roped-off museum but a vibrant, congested urban nucleus. People live and work among the ruins. The Circus Maximus, where charioteers once rumbled, is a park for dog-walkers and picnickers. Motor scooters zip under 2,000-year-old arches and cars jostle for space on imperial promenades. It's not unusual for Romans to have archeological digs in their backyards.

"Rome is still a living place," Bonnie Burnham, president of the nonprofit World Monuments Fund, said during a recent mission to the Italian capital. Preserving its heritage "presents a special set of contemporary needs and pressures" because of the coexistence of the modern and the ancient.

The Italian government is halfway through a vast, year-long engineering assessment of hundreds of archeological sites in the Eternal City, studying their condition and determining where the most urgent repair work should be done. Visitors to some of the sites could be in danger, officials say.

It was believed Mary Todd Lincoln's son had burned the letters to hide details of mother's mental health.

But historian Jason Emerson came across photographed and handwritten copies of the letters in an attic last summer in Maryland. Eleven letters were from what have been called Mary Todd Lincoln's "insanity years."

Emerson writes in the current issue of American Heritage magazine that the documents contain no major revelations. He says they show Mary Todd Lincoln questioning her religious faith, and they reveal a mania she had about money and clothing.

Emerson is writing a book for Southern Illinois University Press about the letters.

Tom Schwartz, Illinois' state historian and interim director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, said the find "completely changes" the picture of the Great Emancipator in his younger years.

"It immediately roots him, makes him a gentleman of property. He's not this living this Bohemian life where it's kind of carefree, no property, no worries, where he can sit under the trees and read," Schwartz said.

That image of the 16th president as a young man -- a sort of loafer who gradually became one of the world's greatest statesmen -- could give way to an image of someone who was mature and sensible from the first, Schwartz said.

For example, historians have long believed from firsthand accounts that at times Lincoln had to rely completely on the townsfolk for lodging and meals. But Schwartz said new research shows that Lincoln probably had his own place and dined with his neighbors because he wasn't a very good cook.

"Just when you think you know everything about Abraham Lincoln you're proven wrong," said David Blanchette, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Historic Preservation.

Schwartz says that New Salem itself, which has more than a dozen log cabin-type buildings built in the 1930s to recreate Lincoln's era, also may need to be rethought. Archaeologists found glass, plaster and fine china on the site of one of the original buildings, which suggests that they were finished and furnished much better than the austere dirt-floor cabins now on the site.

This month's dig also turned up an American Indian burial mound that could predate the New Salem settlement, showing that Europeans weren't the first people to value the town's location along the Sangamon River in Menard County.

"You don't have to explain it, there's no hurdle," said museum President and Chief Executive Officer Nick Mueller.

While New Orleans' role as the home of the landing craft used on D-Day provided logic for developing the museum in the city, the need for a broader appeal has been discussed for years, said Bill Detweiler, the museum's special events manager and a former board member. "This is a Navy town and a Marine town," he said. "You're going to talk about (just) an Army invasion? You've got to do better than that."

The museum used a booming anti-tank gun and the unveiling of new lettering on a wall overlooking Camp Street to dramatize the name change.

Former California Gov. Pete Wilson, incoming chairman of the museum's board, said in a prepared statement that "just as D-Day was only the beginning of the Allies' road to victory in World War II, D-Day is only the beginning of this great museum's exploration of the entire American experience of the war years."

Already endorsed by Congress, the change will help raise money as the museum plans a $282 million expansion, allowing it to explore all facets of the war, Mueller said.

Average attendance, which reached 700 a day before Katrina and fell to less than 100 after a Dec. 3 reopening, has rebounded to nearly 400 daily, officials said.

Officials have scheduled an early 2007 groundbreaking for a theater that will feature a film about the war produced and narrated by actor Tom Hanks. The museum, which was founded in 2000 under the direction of historian Stephen Ambrose, will quadruple in size and occupy several blocks when its expansion is complete in several years.

"The theft of the weapon remains a pending investigation and we're pursuing all leads," FBI spokeswoman Christine Monaco said Friday. "But we certainly want to see it returned to its rightful owner."

After the park service turned the lead over to the FBI, investigators said, agents met with the caller and retrieved the gun. The caller is not believed to have been the thief.

The pistol, valued at $1 million by police in 1990 but considered priceless by historians, was salvaged from the battleship Maine after it exploded and sank in Havana Harbor in 1898. It was given to Roosevelt by his brother-in-law, Navy Capt. William Sheffield Cowles. When the war broke out later that year, Roosevelt helped formed a volunteer regiment, the Rough Riders, which he ultimately led. He used the pistol in the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba, which propelled him to the governor's office and ultimately the White House. Historians consider TR's Rough Rider uniform and weapons the most iconic objects at Sagamore Hill.

"It was a very special gun to him and therefore to the family and we're delighted to have it back," said Tweed Roosevelt of Boston, a great-grandson of Roosevelt. "I always thought it would come back. These things eventually do."

Sagamore Hill personnel have not seen the gun. But Amy Verone, the chief of cultural resources, said that based on FBI photographs "it looks very much like our gun, but we are going to have two experts look at it. It seems to be in good shape."

The recovered gun has the same inscription above the grips: "From the sunken battle ship Maine" and "July 1st, 1898. San Juan. Carried and used by Col. Theodore Roosevelt."

Sagamore Hill Superintendent Greg Marshall said "the National Park Service would like to celebrate the fact that this cherished artifact is going to be returned because it helps tell the story that we're trying to tell."

Verone said the tipster called the park on a Sunday and she returned the call. Verone said he told her that after being shown the pistol by an acquaintance, he had said, "Gee, that's Teddy Roosevelt's pistol. That should be at his home."

The park service then contacted the FBI.

The gun was taken from a display case that was slated to get an alarm, but it had not yet been installed.

Immediately after the theft, alarms were installed in all display cases that did not have them.

This is the second time the Rough Rider pistol has been recovered after being stolen. In 1963, a thief grabbed it from the mansion, panicked and threw it into the woods.

Department for Environment and Heritage maritime archeologist Terry Arnott said former owners of the island told him about stone ruins in the area in 1998 and later that year he established there were habitable caves underneath them. He and historian Sarah Laurence, however, did not have the funding for another expedition until this year.

Mr Arnott said the caves became home to half the Vulcan's crew for up to four months, while nine crew members sailed in a canvas boat to Port Adelaide for a new vessel. ''The survivors were left behind for months before they were rescued and we can see by the structures that they had no idea how long they'd be here,'' he said.

So far 13 dwellings have been found, as well as a previously unrecorded spring which the survivors used for fresh water.

The caves are knee-deep in silt from exposure, so Mr Arnott has been unable to find any artefacts.

"The exhibition concept doesn't force a strict view of history. It encourages reflection," said Dr Merkel, who was born in Hamburg but grew up in East Germany.

She praised the new exhibition for giving equal space to East German history - displaying a Trabant beside a Volkswagen Beetle - without the baggage of socialist ideology.

The exhibition opens as World Cup crowds begin to arrive this week in a Germany gripped by an increasingly optimistic mood - an Aufbruchstimmung - after years of gloom. Important indicators this week showed evidence of a clear upswing in Europe's largest economy as the excitement grows over the month-long festival of football.

Spoiling the party is Berlin publicist Lea Rosh, the initiator of Berlin's Holocaust Memorial, dubbed Germany's "Holocaust Cassandra".

She has called on city authorities to cover up huge, Aryan statues created by sculptor Arno Breker on commission from Adolf Hitler that are still on display at Berlin's Nazi-era Olympic Stadium.

"Breker was a top Nazi. It's bad enough that the sculptures are on any kind of public display," she said.

Her cover-up call has been trumped by Ralph Giordana, a leading German-Jewish novelist, who says broad-shouldered statues by another artist at the stadium should "disappear quickly, without a trace" and be pulverised.

Arno Breker was an established sculptor in Germany when he accepted the Nazi commission for the statues The Decathlete and The Female Victor for the Olympic Stadium.

He created monumental works for the dictator's New Chancellery and the Nuremberg parade grounds also, earning him the title "Hitler's Michelangelo".

Though he never joined the Nazi party, Allied authorities charged with "denazification" of post-war Germany classified him as a "nominal" member.

Unlike Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, however, Breker was rehabilitated in the post-war years and even had the first West German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, pose for him.

In 1973, it emerged that the sculptor had used his contacts with Hitler to save the life of Pablo Picasso, hours before the artist was arrested by the Gestapo in occupied Paris.

Breker died in 1991.

Berlin politicians, historians and Jewish leaders have dismissed the claims Breker's statues are unacceptably and irredeemably fascist and should be removed.

"The style was in step with the zeitgeist," said Christoph Stölzl, a Berlin historian and politician.

"The Neoclassical sculptures made in the United States at the time of the New Deal look just like the sculptures produced in Germany in the 1930s, in the Soviet Union, Italy or at the Palais Chaillot in Paris."

For four months, until earlier this year, a team of marine architects, historians and structural engineers pored over the find: preliminary indications suggest these bottom sections will change our understanding of how the massive ship broke apart, and possibly rewrite the story of the Titanic's final moments. Gee, no one had better tell James Cameron then.

The most controversial passage states: “American history shall be viewed as factual, not constructed, shall be viewed as knowable, teachable, and testable, and shall be defined as the creation of a new nation based largely on the universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” To that end teachers are charged not only to focus on the history and content of the Declaration but are also instructed to teach the “history, meaning, significance and effect of the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and the amendments thereto...” Other bill provisions place new emphasis on “flag education, including proper flag display and flag salute” and on the need to teach “the nature and importance of free enterprise to the United States economy.”

Unlike U.S. Senate version of the proposed new federal “Higher Education Act” (S. 1614) that seeks to define “traditional” American history, the Florida statute does not specifically define American history at all, rather, it describes what it is to include: “the period of discovery, early colonies, the War for Independence, the Civil War, the expansion of the United States to its present boundaries, the world wars, and the civil rights movement to the present.” Special provisions mandate the teaching of the history of the Holocaust, the history of African Americans, and Hispanic “contributions” to the United States. The role that Native Americans played in American history escapes mention. In highly prescriptive language students are to be taught “the arguments in support of adopting our republican form of government” as embodied in the Federalist Papers. The proscriptive language causes thoughtful teachers to wonder whether they are permitted to teach the line of reasoning advanced by the anti-federalists.

While the goal of the bill’s designers is “to raise historical literacy” concerning the documents, people, and events that shaped the nation, some history educators question the emphasis on teaching only “facts.” State Representative Shelley Vana, who also serves as the West Palm Beach teachers union president wonders “whose facts would they be, Christopher Columbus’s or the Indians?”

Theron Trimble, executive director of the Florida Council for the Social Studies, also questions the bill’s provisions that declares that teachers are not to “construct” history. Trimble asserts that “American history tends to get reinterpreted and re-reviewed in cycles...It’s a natural evolution, history is as changeable as the law.” Perhaps Jennifer Morely, an American history and government teacher, best summarized the concerns of her colleagues: “If you just require students to memorize information, that’s not the best way to create active citizens...we’re just creating little robots.”

The new law takes effect 1 July. Shortly thereafter, the state department of education will begin reviewing their standards and textbooks in 2007.

Dr Lamia Al-Gailani-Werr, an Iraqi archaeologist and member of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and former adviser to the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, says the destruction of Iraq's heritage is leaving a bitter legacy for future generations.

Currently living in England, al-Gailani-Werr returned to Iraq as a consultant immediately after the museum was looted.

Aljazeera.net: How would you describe the current state of Iraq's antiquities?

Al-Gailani-Werr: Dismal. There isn't one pressing issue, but many. The museum is sealed off because of the security situation and it is very difficult to get to the objects inside.

It is necessary to have an inventory of the antiquities in the museum, to know exactly what has been stolen. Without such an inventory, anyone can steal more and attribute it to the day when the museum was looted in April 2003.

The archaeological sites particularly in the south are still systematically being looted.

I cannot picture the enormity of the loss to the heritage of Iraq.

What must be done to recover the country's historical wealth?

If you mean the looted antiquities from the Iraqi Museum, it will take years and maybe never. For instance, 5000 objects were looted from the museums in the south after the 1991 uprising [after Iraq's defeat and ousting from Kuwait]. Only a handful has been recovered.

How many pieces were looted after 2003?

Until there is precise inventory we cannot say how many objects have been looted. But it is estimated at around 15,000 pieces.

In Canada, the Ontario union's actions sent shockwaves through the leadership of the Jewish community. "Now they're looking at divestment, and undoubtedly they'll link up with the academics," said Frank Dimant, executive vice president of B'nai Brith Canada. "We're going to have this coalition of anti-Israel, which we thought had gone into the recesses and is coming back to the fore," he said.

Among young voters, 42 percent list Bush as worst. Clinton tops the "worst" list among white Protestants - 24 percent, and white evangelical Christians - 29 percent.


American voters disapprove 58 - 35 percent of the job Bush is doing, compared to 58 - 36 percent in a March 2 survey. Even voters in red states, where Bush's margin was more than 5 percent in 2004, disapprove 52 - 39 percent.


"Democrats just plain don't like President Bush. His father, the 41st President, was voted out of the White House after one term. Nixon quit under fire. But most Democrats think Bush 43 wins the worst-president race," said Maurice Carroll, Director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.


"Kennedy and Truman get big Democratic votes, especially among Baby Boomers (45 - 64 years old) and seniors (over 65), but recent memory counts," Carroll said. "Democrats say Clinton's the best and Republicans say he's the worst. Republicans don't think much of Jimmy Carter either. There's no contest for the GOP favorite: It's the Gipper."


"Bush's job-approval numbers remain in the cellar. But he might finally have hit bottom."


The main reasons cited by American voters who approve of Bush are that he is a strong leader who does what he thinks is right - 18 percent; and that he is doing a good job handling terrorism - 15 percent.


The main reason cited by voters who disapprove of Bush is the war in Iraq, listed by 43 percent.


A total of 38 percent of voters are "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the way things are going in the nation today, while 62 percent are "somewhat dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied," matching the previous satisfaction low point from March 2.


In an open-ended question, where respondents can give any answer, 16 percent of voters say the war in Iraq is the most important problem facing the U.S. today, down from 23 percent in March. Another 12 percent list economic issues and 11 percent list immigration, the first time this issued has hit double digits in a national poll.


American voters say 56 - 39 percent that going to war in Iraq was the wrong thing to do.


The U.S. should remove all troops from Iraq, 29 percent of voters say, with 28 percent who want the U.S. to decrease the number of troops; 26 percent who want to maintain current troop levels and 11 percent who want to increase troop levels.


From May 23 - 30, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,534 registered voters nationwide. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.


The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Florida and nationwide as a public service and for research.