32 killed in Damascus bombings
Damascus, March 11 (IANS) Over 30 persons were killed on Saturday and scores injured in a double bombing near a cemetery here, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Reports in Efe and Xinhua…
Religion
Telangana to pass Muslim, ST quota bills in March
Hyderabad, March 11 (IANS) Telangana will pass two legislations during the ongoing Budget session to enhance reservation for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Muslims, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said on Saturday. He told the…
Lakhs of women take part in Attukal Pongala festival
Thiruvananthapuram, March 11 (IANS) Lakhs of women in Kerala on Saturday are taking part in the famed Attukal Pongala festival by cooking pongala while sitting on the roads in the capital city. Listed in the…
Prayers held for disabled DJ who committed assisted suicide
Milan, March 11 (IANS/AKI) Milan’s centre-left mayor Giuseppe Sala was due to attend prayers on Friday at a church in the northern Italian city for a severely disabled disc-jockey, DJ Fabo, who died in an…
CNN presenter eats human brain live on camera, sparks backlash
Washington, March 10 (IANS) CNN television presenter Reza Aslan has caused shock and consternation across the board by eating a human brain on camera while filming with an obscure Hindu sect. Members of the religion’s…
4.48 lakh applications received for Haj 2017
New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) Out of the 4,48,268 applications received for Haj 2017 by the Haj Committee of India, 1.29 lakh applications were made online, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas…
Pope may allow married Catholic men as priests
Rome, March 10 (IANS) Pope Francis has said he is open to married men becoming priests to combat the Roman Catholic Church’s shortage of clergy. In an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit, Pope Francis…
Himachal extends food subsidy scheme to Tibetans
Shimla, March 10 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Friday announced to extend the state’s food subsidy scheme to the Tibetans living in exile. In his budget speech, Singh said: “There has been…
Pakistan adopts Hindu marriage law
Islamabad, March 10 (IANS) The Pakistani parliament has adopted the landmark Hindu Marriage Law to regulate the community’s marriages in the country. The Hindu Marriage Bill, unanimously passed on Thursday, will be the first personal…
Italian Riviera to niqab in hospitals, public offices
Rome, March 10 (IANS) A region in the Italian Riviera is going to ban women from wearing the Islamic full-face veil or niqab in hospitals and public offices, a media report said. Officials in the…
Pope admits feeling ‘moments of emptiness’
Vatican City, March 9 (IANS/AKI) Pope Francis says he has experienced times of “emptiness” and “spiritual dark” when he prayed to God for strength. In an interview to German weekly news magazine Die Zeit published…
No say in Dalai Lama’s travel plans within India: MEA
New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) Dismissing China’s objections over Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to Arunachal Pradesh in April, the Indian government on Thursday said it has no say in his travel…
Vrindavan widows add some colour to staid lives, play Holi
by Brij Khandelwal Agra March 9 (IANS) Defying age-old restraints, over a 1,000 widows living in Braj area on Thursday splashed colours and threw flower petals on one another at the Radha Gopinath temple in…
Stop running ‘shop of secularism’, Owaisi to Congress
New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday accused the Congress of running a “shop of secularism” and asked the party to end this. Reacting to Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s comments that…
Hindu woman axed to death in Pakistan
Islamabad, March 9 (IANS) A woman from the Hindu community was axed to death in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, a media report said on Thursday. According to the police, a group of people attacked Zania Kuma–ri…
Pope Francis on cover of Rolling Stone’s Italian edition
Rome, March 8 (IANS/AKI) Rolling Stone’s Italian edition features Pope Francis on the cover of its March issue, which hits newsstands on Thursday. “The Pope says sensible things, such sensible things,” the magazine said in…
PM attends Somnath Temple Trust’s meeting
Gandhinagar, March 8 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday attended the 116th meeting of the Somnath Temple trust at Somnath in Gujarat, official sources said. During the meeting, the Prime Minister suggested that the…
Minorities commission has virtually no members, no new appointments in sight
By Mohd Asim Khan New Delhi, March 8 (IANS) The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) — an organisation established to safeguard the constitutional and legal rights of minorities and which was once headed by Hamid…
Two Maharashtra MLAs demand probe into waqf land ‘scam’
Mumbai, March 7 (IANS) A portion of the land parcel gifted by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to a mosque in Nashik district has been declared ‘non-Wakf’ property allegedly to benefit a Pune-based realtor, two opposition…
Spirituality is India’s strength, says Modi
New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) “India’s spirituality is India’s strength. But unfortunately some people link spirituality with religion,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday. “The two are very different,” he said after releasing a…