News updates

          Washington, Nov 7 — While all five Indian-American candidates hoping to enter the US Congress lost out, Tulsi Gabbard today created history by becoming the first Hindu-American to enter the US House of Representatives. An Iraq war veteran, 31-year-old Gabbard defeated K. Crowley of the Republican Party with a handsome [...]

A yoga studio in Washington said Tuesday it will give free classes to anyone who casts his or her ballot in next week’s US elections. Flow Yoga Center said it was throwing open the doors to its Astanga Mysore, Pilates, Prana Flow and Vinyasa Flow classes next Tuesday “to help our United States re-unite again.” [...]

Buddhist petitioners have successfully filed a case at the Indian Supreme Court seeking to overturn the Bodh Gaya Temple Act of 1949. That legislation had enabled a shared Hindu and Buddhist management of Bodh Gaya. Nehru sponsored this consensus arrangement in order to roll back the Saivite Mahant’s, until then, exclusive control over temple administration. [...]

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government’s decision to reserve posts in Devasom Boards only for Hindu legislators who believe in god has come under attack. The decision was announced by chief minister Oommen Chandy on Monday evening after the weekly cabinet meeting. It specifies that Hindu legislators who believe in god will be eligible to be elected [...]

Bangkok: Archaeologists believe they have discovered the largest ancient Hindu temple ever found in the Indonesian island of Bali. Construction workers were digging a new drainage basinnear a Hindu learning center on Jalan Trengguli, in East Denpasar, when their tools struck a large stone structure one metre underground, the Jakarta Globe reported.The crew then excavated [...]

DON’T LET THEM BE DEPORTED TO AN UNSAFE COUNTRY! The British Government is continuing to maintain the fiction that Sri Lanka is a ‘safe’ country. They say that Tamils deported from the UK do not suffer abuse from Sri Lankan authorities. The evidence contradicts this. Human Rights Watch have recently produced a report highlighting the rising number [...]

Cao Yan, a 36- year- old teacher from China, came to India last year on a mission to decode ancient Buddhist literature. When asked why, he replied: “Aham tatra gatvaa chhatraan pathayishyaami (I will go back and teach students).” For those wondering which language Cao Yan was talking in, it’s Sanskrit, which he has picked [...]

GUWAHATI: The All Assam Sanskrit Students’ Union (AASSU) on Saturday slammed the state government for its “apathy” towards over 400 Sanskrit tolls (institutes) across the state. Addressing a news conference here, secretary of the union, Jugal Kumar Mahanta, demanded a separate directorate for Sanskrit tolls in Assam. “If the state government can constitute a separate [...]

Bangladesh— Hours after rampaging through a Buddhist village in Cox’s Bazaar’s Ramu Upazila in the early hours, religious fanatics on Sunday launched attacks on Hindu temples and Buddhist monasteries in Patia at noon. “The attacks took place between noon and 1:30pm,” Acting Officer-in-Charge of the Patia Police Station Aminur Rashid told bdnews24.com. The police officer [...]

Pakistan : In an extraordinary turn of events, Section 295-A was used to register a blasphemy case against Muslim men for damaging a Hindu temple during riots on Ishq-e-Rasool Day. Section 295-A is the lesser known, non Islam-specific clause of the country’s notorious blasphemy law. The Shri Krishna Bhagwan Mandir, located in the Gulshan-e-Maymar area [...]