Over 150 members of the Iranian Parliament signed an open letter stating that the religious decree sentencing British author Salman Rushdie to death is irrevocable. The declaration states, "The verdict against Rushdie the blasphemer is death, both today and tomorrow, and to burn in hell for eternity. . . nothing commands more respect than the orders of God and the Imam." (Institute for Counter Terrorism www.ict.org.il, 10/4/98)

Burkina Faso has given shelter to radical Algerian FIS leader Ahmed Zaoui, recently expelled from Switzerland. (Reuters, 11/4/98)

According to an investigative report in The New York Times, Iran is recruiting former Soviet scientists who once worked in Moscow's vast germ warfare program. The paper interviewed more than a dozen Russian former germ scientists who reported contacts with Iran including two who said they had been asked specifically to help Teheran make biological weapons. (The New York Times, 12/8/98)