US mourns Reagan as bad news diversion

THE death of actor- turned-president Ronald Reagan has offered distraction to a country exhausted by months of grim news from Iraq and ripe for an outpouring of nostalgia, experts said yesterday.

The continuing fighting in Iraq, now in a second year, and brutal images of US abuse of prisoners and the beheading of a young American left many ready to relive memories of better times, said Robert Thompson, popular culture professor at Syracuse University.

"There is something that seems so quaint and nostalgically pleasant about the Reagan days," Prof Thompson said.