FAMOUS BOSNIAN OTTOMAN-ERA BRIDGE TO RECONSTRUCTED NEXT YEAR, 2002-06-27 (photo)

A combination photo shows Bosnia's famous Ottoman-era Old Bridge (Stari Most) in the southern town of Mostar before the country's 1992-5 war and on June 27, 2002, nine years after a deliberate Bosnian Croat tank fire sent it plunging into the rushing emerald green water of the Neretva river. Italy's President Carlo Azeglio Chiampi symbolically launched on June 27 the final phase in the reconstruction of the bridge. The 20 metre (70 foot) high bridge was built in 1566 by Ottoman Architect Mimar Hajrudin at the order of Suleiman the Magnificent and was famous around the world for the beauty of its single white span linking two banks of the Neretva. REUTERS/Danilo Krstanovic MZ/CLH/