Satanic Verses

Axl Rose on the lamRock 'n' roll band Guns N' Roses postponed its sold-out show at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago on Friday just 15 minutes before the doors were scheduled to open because lead singer Axl Rose had to skip town ahead of the law, according to the band's record company.Officials had a warrant for Mr. Rose's arrest on four misdemeanor charges stemming from a riot in July at a concert outside St. Louis.The Cook County sheriff's office planned to arrest Mr. Rose and extradite him to St. Louis to enforce a bench warrant obtained by the St. Louis prosecutor's office.

Iran will not be welcome back into the community of nations so long as it places an assassination contract on the head of a British citizen in Britain. This heinous act casts doubt on Iran's readiness to live by international rules, including respect for the sovereignty of other nations.Iran's Chief Justice Morteza Moqtadaei reiterated the 1989 death decree by the late spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on the Indian-born, lapsed-Muslim, British author, Salman Rushdie, as the duty of every Muslim to carry out. An Iranian "charity" has an outstanding offer of $2 million to the murderer.

NEW YORK -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, wrapping up his first visit to the United States, said yesterday that the time wasn't right yet for the two governments to mend old wounds.In a rare meeting with Western reporters, Khatami said he welcomed the United States' offer to begin official talks, but that Washington continued to take actions that contrasted sharply with his receptive attitude."You see just as we see and sense a change in speech. But we see also their acts such as the allocations of funds by the United States that allow the government to hurt Iran," Khatami said.

LONDON -- The 22-month-old Islamic death sentence on author Salman Rushdie still stands despite his repentance this week for offending Moslems with his book "The Satanic Verses," according to spiritual leaders in Iran and Britain.They rejected Mr. Rushdie's renewal of his own Islamic faith and his promise not to allow publication of a paperback version of the book as sufficient grounds for lifting the death threat.The author's shift would not change the "divine ruling" that his blasphemy must be punished by death, said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious ruler of Iran.

SALMAN Rushdie seemed to think that the announcement by Iran's government that it no longer sought his death made him a free man. The Indian-born British author had been living underground since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a decree in 1989 proclaiming the duty of all Muslims to kill him.Now Iran's government dissociates itself from that decree. Its bounty for the murder of a British citizen had violated British sovereignty, put Iran beyond the pale of international law and poisoned relations with London.

WASHINGTON - The former Cat Stevens was slated to be deported to England yesterday because of U.S. government concerns that the pop singer turned Muslim activist has ties to Islamic militants. The "Peace Train" singer was placed on the no-fly list this summer after new intelligence showed Stevens - now known by his Muslim name Yusuf Islam - had "connections to groups involved in terrorist activities," said a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity. A second senior U.S. official said there were concerns that Islam - believed to have provided money to the militant Palestinian group Hamas - also might have visited an Islamic extremist camp in South Asia in the past.

LONDON -- Salman Rushdie, the author condemned to death by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was received unexpectedly yesterday by Prime Minister John Major in his Parliament office.Mr. Rushdie had asked for the meeting with the prime minister as a demonstration of Britain's commitment to protecting him and as a forceful repudiation of the fatwa, or death sentence, issued by the ayatollah in 1989 and still held in force by the current rulers of Iran.Mr. Rushdie, whose novel "The Satanic Verses" was interpreted by the ayatollah as blasphemous to Islam, was smuggled into the prime minister's private office.

Gladys Cofiell had often talked about opening a shop to sell the dolls, clothes and other crafts she's been making for 20 years.Her son, David Wheeler, finally decided he'd heard enough talk.So he found a first-floor space at 34 N. Main St. in Union Bridge for his mother."He said, 'Mom, if I get you one [a shop], will you keep it supplied?' " said Mrs. Cofiell, 65, who now spends nearly all her time working at her Westminster home to turn out merchandise for the Union Bridge Emporium.In addition to Mrs. Cofiell's crafts, the shop sells "nearly new" items and the work of about 12 local artisans.

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."

WASHINGTON -- Iran strengthened its ties last year with extremist groups, particularly Palestinians, that stage acts of terror worldwide, the State Department reported yesterday.The help extended not just to Islamic groups but to Marxist-Leninist Kurds, who used terror attacks in a campaign to set up a Kurdish state in southeast Turkey, the department said in its annual report on international terrorism.In addition, Iranian intelligence services, with approval from the highest levels of the government, continued to assist and conduct terrorist attacks, the report said.