ACU freshmen get cool gadgets. Abilene Christian University will be the first university in the nation to provide all incoming freshmen with an Apple iPhone or an iPod touch, according to school officials. ACU, which is affiliated with the Churches of Christ, said 93 percent of students already bring a computer to campus. iPhones or iPods will be distributed beginning this fall and will allow students to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, and check their meal and account balances, along with more than a dozen other web applications, said Kevin Roberts, the school's chief information officer.
Bin Laden targets pope over Muhammad cartoons. A new audio recording by Osama bin Laden accused Pope Benedict XVI of participating in a “new crusade” against Islam, including the publication of cartoons that depict the Prophet Muhammad. “Your publication of these drawings, part of a new crusade in which the pope of the Vatican has a significant role, is a confirmation on your part that the war continues,” bin Laden said in the recording, addressed to “the wise persons of the European Union.” A Vatican spokesman quickly responded, calling bin Laden's accusation “totally unfounded,” and stressing the pope had condemned the offending images. The drawings in question are evidently the 12 cartoon portrayals of Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper in September 2005, and subsequently reprinted in newspapers in other countries — most recently on the second anniversary of February 2006 violent protests by Muslims that left at least 50 people dead.
Former British PM to teach religion at Yale. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has accepted a one-year appointment at Yale University to participate in a course on the connection between religion and globalization. Blair has been appointed as Yale's Howland Distinguished Fellow during the 2008-09 academic year. He served as British prime minister from 1997 to 2007 and converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism last year. He plans to launch a foundation this year dedicated to improving interfaith relations.
Scot to lead Chicago seminary. Alistair Brown, general director of BMS World Mission, the British Baptist mission agency, has been selected to be the 10th president of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago. Brown, a former journalist and pastor, was born near Edinburgh, Scotland. He first worked as a church planter in Livingston, and served more than 10 years as senior pastor at a church in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Polish priest wins Templeton Prize. Michal Heller, a Polish cosmologist and Roman Catholic priest whose commitment to combining the insights of science and religion stretches back to his youth in war-torn Europe, has won the 2008 Templeton Prize. He will receive the $1.6 million award May 7 at Buckingham Palace in London for his work in connecting physics, cosmology, theology and philosophy. Heller, 72, is a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow.
Compiled from Religion News Service