The American University of Beirut Medical Center remained open today, despite worries by officials that the renewed Israeli bombardment of Beirut would keep essential personnel from coming to work (The Chronicle, August 3). Today, though, attendance by workers was down only slightly, according to William L. Hoffman, a Washington representative of the university.
George Tomey, the university’s acting president in Beirut, in part credited the surprising turnout to a rumor going around the city that President Bush had assured Lebanon’s prime minister, Fouad Siniora, that Beirut would not be bombed, according to Mr. Hoffman.
Mr. Tomey “did attribute this rumor to easing people’s nerves in the city, regardless of whether there’s any merit to it or not,” said Mr. Hoffman.
