She is on record as having told journalists: "Amuse yourselves, you'll get nothing from me." She has described her time at the Stadtroda in glowing terms "Those were wonderful years. I could work , work and work," she said in a German medical journal.Stasi files unearthed during the investigation showthe communist regime decided to conceal her Nazi past to ward off international condemnation. The files, dating back to 1964, were codenamed Ausmerzer (the wiper-out). But by that time the professor had already won the approval of the communist regime.

She was honoured for successfully treating the former East German leader Walter Ulbricht and went on to become a deacon at Jena University.Her Stasi file reveals that secret police were reluctant to investigate her from the outset. "As the accused holds a high position, an investigation could produce a result that would contradict the conditions of our society," a senior Stasi officer said in her dossier. The Stasi subsequently called off plans to investigate her, claiming that there was "insufficient evidence" to bring charges."We are all shocked by these revelations," said Andreas Blei, head of the German government's Stasi investigation unit in Gera. "Most East Germans thought that they were morally superior to capitalist West Germany because they believed in the official line which held the communist state had rooted out Nazism.". Six months before the torch is lit, preparations for the Athens Olympics have been thrown into chaos with the city's two main showpiece projects grinding to a halt.

Previously one of the ugliest and most congested roads into the city, it was due to be widened and repaved. Nassos Alevras, the Deputy Culture Minister, said: "The public works ministry has started the process to take the company off the project and replace it." The new deadline for completion has been pushed back from May to within weeks of the torch being lit at the Games, which run from 13 to 29 August .The marathon runners will take an almost identical route to Pheidippides, a messenger who ran to Athens in 490BC to declare victory over the Persians, before dropping dead.The construction company, European Technical, was in trouble last week when unpaid workers demanding back pay blocked traffic along the road. Officials from the firm said that employees and subcontractors were owed about €1m (£700,000) and that they were in discussion with banks to solve the issue.The marathon will be a major feature of the Games because it is one of two events to feature the old Olympic stadium where the Greek shepherd Spyros Louis won Greece's only athletics gold medal at the first modern Games in 1896.Organisers in Athens have said that they could afford no further delays. A disastrous start on planning led the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider switching hosts in 2000 for the first time.Across town in the suburb of Maroussi, where Louis grazed his sheep before the last Athens Games, work on the main Olympic Stadium has also stopped. Plans to erect an enormous steel and glass dome roof over the concrete bowl have run into difficulties.

The giant metal sunscreen, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, will cost €150m.There were signs of progress late last year when two giant arches were erected but officials said that high winds delayed the next phase. The delays follow mounting concerns over security at the first summer Games since the 11 September attacks.A number of US athletes have expressed concern because the Games will be held close to the Middle East in a country with a strong undercurrent of anti-American sentiment. Among the most nervous are the NBA stars on the US basketball team who might be the biggest targets for terrorists. Jermaine O'Neal of the Indiana Pacers said: "The players are definitely concerned. If you wanted to send a message to the world, what better place is there to do it?". Ivan Rybkin, the Russian presidential candidate whose mysterious disappearance evoked all the worst memories of Soviet-era KGB excesses, resurfaced in dramatic, if shambolic fashion, yesterday in London, claiming he had been kidnapped, drugged and kept incommunicado for four days in Ukraine.