Author Salman Rushdie, against whom Iran's revolutionary leader issued a fatwa 18 years ago, was awarded a knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II yesterday.
The nominations -- transforming him into Sir Salman -- topped a long list of awards bestowed on artists, sportsmen, diplomats, journalists and others in the queen's annual Birthday Honors List.
Indian-born Rushdie was forced to go into hiding for a decade after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a death sentence over his book The Satanic Verses, claiming it insulted Islam.
PHOTO: EPA
His second novel, Midnight's Children, won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1981 and was named the best novel in 25 years of the prize in 1993. Rushdie is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
"I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honor and am very grateful that my work has been recognized in this way," he said.
Other awards in the queen's list go to journalist Christiane Amanpour and Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB chief who was Britain's highest-ranking defector from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Amanpour, the half-Iranian, half-British chief international correspondent for CNN, becomes a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Gordievsky was a double agent and head of the Soviet secret service's London office before his 1985 defection. He escaped to Britain after giving the KGB men tailing him the slip while out jogging.
He becomes a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George -- the same honor held by fictional spy James Bond -- for "services to the security of the United Kingdom."
Sir Emyr Jones Parry, Britain's ambassador to the UN, received the same honor.
Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for his alter egos including Dame Edna Everage, became a CBE alongside Michael Eavis, founder of Britain's giant Glastonbury pop music festival, and fashion designer Betty Jackson.
Peter Sallis -- the voice of Wallace in the animated series Wallace and Gromit -- novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, singer Joe Cocker and Carry On films actress Sylvia Syms all received the Order of the British Empire.
Also see story:
Cricketer Ian Botham knighted
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the