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• The Palestinian Bible Society's bookshop in Gaza reopened on April 3 after being closed for five weeks. In February, unknown masked gunmen distributed pamphlets threatening to blow up the bookshop's building if it did not close before February 28. The Bible Society's bookshop is the first and only place in Gaza where people can freely buy Bibles and Christian books.

• Biola University awarded Antony Flew, 83, formerly an outspoken debater for atheism, with the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth. Flew, a British philosopher, drew much criticism for deciding in 2004 that natural sciences supply evidence for an intelligent designer (CT, Apr. 2005, p. 80). Biola granted the award for Flew's "lifelong commitment to free and open inquiry and to standing fast against intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression."

• Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) founder Bishop M. A. Thomas was granted anticipatory bail by the Indian Supreme Court on April 21. Thomas went into hiding for more than two months after an arrest warrant was issued and a Hindu militant offered a $26,000 bounty for his "head on a plate" (CT, May 2006 p. 21). Samuel Thomas, M. A. Thomas's son and the president of emi, also received bail. He was released from prison on May 2 after 47 days in jail. emi is the largest Christian charity in the north Indian state of Rajasthan.

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Open Doors has a report on the Palestinian Bible Society's Gaza bookshop reopening.

Biola has an interview with Flew about becoming a theist as well as a press release about the award. Christianity Today wrote an article about Flew's rejection of atheism.

More about the release of India's Bishop M. A. Thomas is available from Compass Direct.

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June 2006, Vol. 50, No. 6