www.expressindia.com DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, September 1, 2005: An Indian-origin teenager in South Africa has moved the court challenging a regulation in her school that barred her from wearing a nose ring. Sunali Pillay, 16, took her case to the Durban Equality Court claiming that she was being unfairly discriminated against by Durban Girls High School which was not allowing her…
www.timesonline.co.uk DELHI, INDIA, October 2, 2005: It is being trumpeted as one of the biggest religious stone structures in the world and has a legion of famous backers. Supporters of the multi-million-pound Akshardham Hindu temple complex in India say they expect to play host to dignitaries including former presidents Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton at the opening next month. The…
uniindia.com KOLKATA, INDIA, October 3, 2005: As the countdown begins for Durga puja, Bengal’s greatest festival, Kolkata unfurls itself as a massive art gallery presenting India in art and decor. With barely a week to go for the three-day festival, activities have gone to a feverish height for community puja organizers to present newer themes combining the festivity with the…
Rajiv Malik, HPI Correspondent NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 2, 2005: Selfless work being done by Udayan Care, an organization working for the welfare of disadvantaged children under the able and dynamic leadership of its managing trustee, Dr. Kiran Modi, was praised by well-known educationists and social workers who had gathered at North West Delhi’s Mahavir Senior Model School on 29th…
Religion News Service USA, September 29, 2005: HPI note: The following is excerpted from a commentary by Rabbi A. James Rudin. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s errors and blunders are by now well known, including those I personally witnessed in an early September visit to hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston’s Astrodome. But Newsweek magazine recently reported another, more hidden, problem,…
nation.ittefaq.com DHAKA, BANGLADESH, September 28, 2005: Elite-force RAB will deploy its total strength alongside other law-enforcers to provide a security blanket for the upcoming Durga Puja, the largest festival of the Hindu community, across the country. Some 8,000 members of the Rapid Action Battalion will be put on guard in some 22,000 Puja Mandaps (prayer podiums) and surrounding areas across…
www.trinidadexpress.com REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, 29 September, 2005: For the first time in the history of Hinduism in Trinidad and Tobago the Shrawani Upakarma, a ceremony for the renewal of brahminical vows, was performed in public. For the past 160 years, this ceremony had been done in private. This year, on the day of the celebration of Raksha Bandhan,…
www.nytimes.com BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, September 28, 2005: In Britain’s schools, chocolate and chips will soon be history. The government announced plans Wednesday to ban school cafeterias from serving poor-quality hamburgers and hot dogs, and to outlaw vending machines selling soft drinks, chocolate bars and potato chips to students. Education Secretary Ruth Kelly told the annual conference of the governing Labor Party…
www.tompaine.com USA, September 28, 2005: The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy is the president of The Interfaith Alliance, the national non-partisan advocacy voice of the interfaith movement. His article raises questions from the Christian community and others in the US regarding accepting government. It reads in part: Compounding the federal government’s stumbling and tragically inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, now…
sify.com SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, September 27, 2005: Increasing numbers of Australia’s famously macho men are showing surprising metrosexual tendencies, ditching competitive exercise for the meditative calm of yoga. “We are getting the rugby players, the body builders, the gym junkie guys,” says yoga teacher Duncan Peak, a former parachute officer and first-grade rugby player. “He now comes in here and gets…