That's Sir Salman Rushdie

Received intelligence about plot at Jaipur literary event

(NEWSER) - Salman Rushdie has dropped out of India's top literary festival after hearing that assassins may have been planning to attend—and kill him. Powerful clerics had protested the author's attendance at the Jaipur festival, which opened today and was to feature Rushdie as a speaker. But "intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan" informed him "that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to 'eliminate' me," he said in a statement, according to the BBC . More»

Operators insisted he use the name 'Ahmed'—his legal first name

(NEWSER) - Writer Salman Rushdie was furious at "moronic" Facebook yesterday after the network took down his profile because operators thought it was fake. To start it up again, he was ordered to send in a copy of his passport—then told to use the name Ahmed because that's what appears on his passport. "They insist I call myself by the first name I have never used," he complained. "What a bunch of morons." Real first names are required by Facebook policy , even if you've used your middle name your entire life. More»

(NEWSER) - Banning a book is a move laden with ironies that can make the banner seem dull-witted in the long run. For National Banned Books Week, 11Points.com lists "the most hypocritical, ignorant, and, based on the content of the books, ironic" bans:

• Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury: The sci-fi classic is about a future government that bans and burns books. 'Nuff said?

Gordon Brown to announce senator's royal honor today

(NEWSER) - Arise, Sir Ted. The ailing Massachusetts senator is to receive an honorary British knighthood for his services to American-British relations and his efforts to forge peace in Northern Ireland, reports the Times of London. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to officially announce Kennedy's honor during his address to both houses of Congress today. More»

Novelist reveals how he protected his friend

(NEWSER) - Twenty years after the Iranian leadership declared a death sentence on Salman Rushdie, fellow novelist Ian McEwan reveals that he sheltered the writer in a house in the English countryside. In a long profile of McEwan in the New Yorker, the novelist describes how the pair listened to news of the Rushdie fatwa on the radio after the publication of The Satanic Verses. But Rushdie didn't linger. "He had to move on," McEwan says. "Terrible time for him." More»