Rushdie

The nation invested millions of dollars and all its hopes in Lieutenant Grizzard and Ensigns O'Neill and Smith. The loss is incalculable.Among the few things that are sacred, Fells Point cobblestones stand out.The NFL and NBA are going head-to-head to see which can put franchises in smaller markets.First Bill met and supported Salman Rushdie. And then he apologized for it, and apologized for it and apologized for it.What if the facts on the Information Highway are wrong?

Washington. -- Does President Clinton stand his ground or is he a waffler? Where you stand may depend on what you read.A good example is offered by last week's coverage of his attempts to clarify the significance of his recent visit with Salman Rushdie. Much of the Islamic world was outraged that President Clinton, unlike President Bush, had met with the writer, who has been hiding since 1989 from an Islamic death threat.Three newspapers widely read in Washington gave the story page-one attention, including Mr. Clinton's reaffirmation of his stand for free speech and Mr. Rushdie's rights, while he and his aides also tried to play down the significance of the Rushdie meeting.

Paris. -- President Clinton met Salman Rushdie at the White House at the end of November ''to make the point that . . . freedom of speech includes especially the willingness to respect the rights of people who write things we do not agree with.''He had unfortunately to call in the press soon afterward to explain that he had not meant to endorse Mr. Rushdie's blasphemous treatment of Islam, a religion, the president rather unexpectedly added, whose culture and history he has been studying for more than 20 years.

LONDON -- Britain resumed full diplomatic relations with Iran yesterday, partly to strengthen the Tehran regime's involvement in the U.S.-led international coalition against Iraq.Ending 18 months of diplomatic stalemate, Britain set aside previous preconditions for a resumption of the relationship, giving priority to reinforcing the United Nations-based solidarity against Iraq.Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said that since Britain and Iran were "both important members of this coalition, we should have the best possible relations with each other."

Mrs. Onassis hospitalized for cancer treatmentJacqueline Kennedy Onassis was hospitalized for cancer treatment yesterday, a month after undergoing surgery for a bleeding ulcer."

Using religion for powerIn the Bible we are told that Jesus Christ was condemned to death by the Romans after his own people accused him of claiming to be God.He was hung on a cross for his beliefs. In the 2,000 years since, many of his brave followers also died for their convictions.We would like to think that the days when you could be killed because of your views are long past.It is hard for us who are used to the protection of our Constitution to understand why people like Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin must live in hiding while fearing for their lives.

ON MONDAY Salman Rushdie tried to make peace with those who would have him dead. It was outrageous to begin with that the Ayatollah Khomeini should have declared a holy war on Rushdie's creative imagination. The least the nations of the world can now do is insist that Iran lift the death sentence.Rushdie, in the presence of an Egyptian secretary of state and other moderate Muslims, signed a statement embracing the Muslim faith and disavowing sections of his novel "The Satanic Verses" for which the ayatollah two years ago called on Muslims worldwide to take Rushdie's life.

The irreverent, Indian-born, British author Salman Rushdie now says he repents having written "The Satanic Verses" and has renewed his faith in Islam. This, however, is not enough for fundamentalist Muslim leaders in Iran and Britain; their death sentence against the author still stands. In Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says to do otherwise would change the "divine ruling" of his late predecessor, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, whose mobs seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran 11 years ago. In Britain, the head of the Muslim Youth Movement has imposed conditions he admits Mr. Rushie can never meet.

IN GABRIEL Garcia Marquez's haunting novella "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," a man is killed in full view of his neighbors, who all knew of the impending murder.Some felt the execution was deserved, others refused to believe the warnings, most procrastinated and a few tried to intervene, but their dreamlike actions had no effect.Ask the U.S. government, the British government and the United Nations what they are doing to lift Iran's death sentence against Salman Rushdie.Officials will condemn terrorism and offer comforting words.

Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" is a novel in which the two main characters bounce unpredictably through time and space, past and present.Today, exactly four years after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini imposed a death sentence on Mr. Rushdie for blaspheming Islam in his book, the creator of those fantastic travelers remains an earth-bound prisoner of the late Ayatollah's edict, or fatwa, which comes with a bounty of more than $2 million. Guarded by British police, moved from safe house to safe house, Mr. Rushdie is frozen in the present, his future on hold.