Iran Ups Salman Rushdie Bounty

An Iranian foundation has increased the reward money for the assassination of novelist Salman Rushdie to $3.3 million, according to newspapers within Iran. The bounty was formerly $2.8 million. The reward was created after the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini proclaimed a fatwa against Rushdie in 1989, condemning his novel The Satanic Verses as blasphemous. Rushdie spent years in hiding, out of fear for his life. The increase in the reward was reportedly due to new insults to the Prophet Muhammad, the Iranian papers said, which is seemingly a reference to the 14-minute trailer that has inflamed the Muslim world this past week.