WORLD NEWS

WORLD NEWS: LAST WEEK OF MAY 2004

Greece's anti-terrorist units took over the investigation yesterday afternoon. Police said foot patrols and other surveillance will be increased. Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis called the bombing "an isolated incident which does not affect whatsoever the safety of the Olympic preparation." "I don't think panic is created by this kind of small incident," Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni said in Paris, where she was promoting the city. She is particularly sensitive to the terrorist situation. Her first husband died as the result of a terrorist bomb. Thomas Bach, a vice-president of the IOC, expressed the reality that exists at any large event: "We can only repeat openly that 100 per cent security doesn't exist." The COC's Lowry said: "We want to bring the level of concern down for the athletes so they can focus on their performance, not security issue." He said the COC and its security advisers will continually review plans up to the Games. "We'll know the places where we are staying and advise athletes where it's safe to walk and where to avoid." "We're spending a lot of time on security," Rudge said. "We're monitoring the situation in Athens . With more information, we're making more educated decisions. We have to remember when the Olympic Games are on, all the attention will be on the athletes, the Games, the venues. ..... and there is less likelihood of something happening to an athlete than in the general population." In September, similar timed blasts damaged a judicial complex in Athens and injured one police officer. The twin bombings, spaced 20 minutes apart, were claimed by a group calling itself Revolutionary Struggle and believed to be a protest against crackdowns that toppled the November 17 terrorist cell.-James Christie.

Harvard to Offer Medical-Business Master's Degree

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 6) - Harvard's medical and business schools say they plan to begin a joint master's degree program next year to help doctors wield more clout within health maintenance organizations and other business entities. "To prepare our medical students for the realities of modern medicine, and to emphasize the great contributions they can make, it's appropriate we offer physicians in training an opportunity to study management," said medical school dean Joseph B. Martin. The program will admit about a dozen or so graduate students annually who will earn MD and MBA degrees after five years. It usually takes four years to earn an MD, and another two years for a business degree. Students seeking to enter the joint-degree program will have to be admitted through the regular admissions process of both schools. Joint-degree students will take the regular courses of the first three years of the medical school curriculum, though with some electives such as an introduction to healthcare policy and a healthcare management seminar. Then they will take the regular first-year courseload of the business school.

The newest material will come in the summer before their fifth year. Speaking at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Wednesday, Martin said growing private-sector considerations are helping prompt a major rethinking of the school's medical curriculum. In addition to the joint MD-MBA program, Martin spoke about reviews of the school's core medical curriculum, efforts to make practitioners more aware of patients" cultures and ways to reduce the average $90,000 debt that follows each doctor after graduation. The Association of American Medical Colleges lists joint MD-MBA programs at 41 universities, including Dartmouth, Tufts and Yale.


Jeudi 3 juin / St Kévin