Robert Maxwell

Newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell has pledged $10.6 million to anyone who can "civilize" Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, one of his newspapers announced Sunday. The People, a London weekly tabloid, said the money would be paid to anyone who can persuade Iran's supreme leader to repent "his wicked ways" by persuading him to publicly recite the sixth and ninth of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shall not bear false witness."

A federal judge in Manhattan denied a request for a temporary restraining order from British press baron Robert Maxwell, who has sought to block the recapitalization plan of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Maxwell's attorneys had argued that the court should allow holders of Harcourt 6 3/8% convertible debentures more time to decide whether to convert them to common shares. But U.S. District Judge John F.

Rupert Murdoch agreed to acquire 90% of the money-losing Today newspaper from Lonrho PLC for the equivalent of $61 million, beating out his rival Robert Maxwell of Mirror Group Newspapers. Britain's first electronically produced national paper and its only full-color daily, Today was launched in March, 1986, but quickly fell on hard times and is still expected to lose $48 million this year.