IN BRIEF

NICOSIA, Cyprus Ä Iran, eager to undo damage caused when the leader of its Islamic revolution demanded British novelist Salman Rushdie's death, marked the religious edict's sixth anniversary Tuesday with atypical restraint.

For the first year since Iran's late revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared Rushdie an apostate and blasphemer for purportedly insulting Islam in his novel ''The Satanic Verses,'' Iran's state-run radio and television networks did not publicize the anniversary.

Officials in Tehran avoided any reference to the ''fatwa,'' or religious edict, which has strained Iran's relations with the West since it was issued Feb. 14, 1989.

Iran's state-controlled newspapers generally abstained from the provocative statements of previous years. But the hard-line Jomhuri Islami declared that Rushdie ''is condemned to death'' because he ''insulted the honored prophet of Islam and Muslim values.''

CHICAGO Ä Programs that train doctors in obstetrics will be required to teach abortion skills under a policy adopted Tuesday by the group that governs graduate medical education.

Programs that refuse to do so risk losing accreditation, which teaching hospitals need to qualify for federal reimbursement for services that medical residents provide to patients. Most doctors must graduate from accredited programs to get certified as competent in their specialties.

The unanimous decision by the 23-member Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education was prompted by reports that teaching hospitals have neglected to ensure that residents have adequate training in the procedure.

The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which certifies obstetricians, and by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the professional society for the specialty, both supported the revision.

''Ob-gyns should be trained in all facets of obstetrics and gynecology, and this is one facet,'' said Dr. William C. Andrews, president of the professional society.

Currently, residents are only ''required to learn clinical skills in family planning,'' said Dr. John Gienapp, executive director of the accreditation council. That implies abortion but never spelled it out, he said.

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