World Notes TERRORISM

The Satanic Verses kept sparking repercussions around the world last week. The Riverdale Press, a New York City weekly, was fire-bombed, possibly in response to an editorial championing the novel by Salman Rushdie. In California offended Muslims are believed to have tossed Molotov cocktails into two bookstores selling the book.

In Tehran, Iran's parliament voted to cut the Islamic Republic's relations with Britain if Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government did not officially denounce Rushdie's novel. Britain responded with a carrot and a stick. Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe told the BBC World Service that Britain understood why Muslims criticized the book and said it was "offensive" for comparing Britain to Nazi Germany. But he emphasized that nothing justified Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's order to kill Rushdie.

On a visit to Tehran, meanwhile, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sought to capitalize on the affair, saying "conditions are ripe" for improved Soviet-Iranian ties.