DUBAI: Iran has said it will not implement a death edict against Salman Rushdie but denied reports in the British press that it will issue written guarantees to that effect. "The ruling will not be carried out but a written guarantee cannot be given as Iran's stand on the issue is unambiguous," official news agency Irna quoted the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance as saying. Rushdie was condemned to death by Iran's former spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini in a 1989 fatwa for alleged blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses.Narmada heightGANDHINAGAR: Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers will meet next week to decide on the Narmada dam height. This was decided after a discussion between Gujarat Chief Minister Dilip Parikh and his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Digvijay Singh here on Sunday. The matter relating to the height of the dam had been pending in the Supreme Court.PM's donationBARAMATI: Prime Minister I K Gujral, in a pre-election educational aid to three electorally sensitive communities, announced a donation of Rs 60 lakh to Vidya Pratishthan here on Sunday. The donation would provide scholarships to girl children of minorities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, learning at secondary as well as higher secondary level in the institution, he said.RSP leader deadNEW DELHI: Veteran freedom fighter and Parliamentarian Tridib Choudhury died here on Sunday morning following a cardiac arrest. The 86-year-old Choudhury, who was admitted to the RML Hospital after he passed into a coma on December 12, died at 8.05 am, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) sources said. He was the general secretary of RSP from 1948 to 1995."Jail bharo" stirMUZAFFARNAGAR: More than 100 Bharatiya Kissan Union (BKU) activists courted arrest here as part of their "jail bharo" agitation to protest against the Uttar Pradesh Government decision to make the payment for sugar cane through banks instead of cooperatives. BKU president, Mahendra Singh Tikait, had given a call for "jail bharo" stir from Sunday.
