KEEPIN' ON KEEPIN' ON

It started as a somber, formal ceremony with security uppermost in everyone's mind. It ended with an American serviceman clasping hands with an Iraqi police academy graduate as they kicked up their heels, dancing to drums and bagpipes.

Apache helicopters circled above the Iraqi Public Service Academy Thursday as 145 Iraqi police officers graduated from a three-week training program for officers who served on the force when Saddam Hussein was in power...

Despite the 12,000 police already on the street in the capital, Baghdad citizens say they still feel unsafe going to work or going out to restaurants or the shops.

But Mohammed Naama, 38, one of the graduates, said that while the situation in Baghdad was still unsettled, it was improving.

``The people, they respect the police, and when they see us out in the street, it helps restore their confidence in the law,'' he said, after asking permission from his U.S. military supervisor to step away from the group of graduates to speak to a reporter.

For Abdel Aziz Khisro, Thursday was a double celebration. Only hours after his graduation, he was to be married. A Kurd, he said critics of the new system belonged to the old era. ``They're used to being oppressed and oppressing,'' he said, while watching Iraqi police link fingers with U.S. soldiers and dance in a circle.