GO TO SOURCE PUNE, INDIA, July 7, 2002: Jnana Prabodhini, a Pune-based organization, has been training women to become priests since 1990. With very little opposition from the public, JP has found that women priests have filled a demand, that priests graduating from their program perform rituals for all classes of people, and that women should have an equal opportunity…
GO TO SOURCE HAMM, GERMANY, July 8, 2002: Around 3,000 Hindus on Sunday attended the inauguration of the largest Hindu temple in Europe, at Hamm in northwest Germany, police said. The 700-square-meter Sri Kamadchi Ampal temple took two years to build and cost US$990,000, most of it from donations. The building is built in an architectural style typical of southern…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, India, July 3, 2002: Joint research conducted by the Scientists of Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, a Central Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratory, and Go-Vigyan Anusandhan Kendra, Nagpur, has resulted in the granting of a US patent for a unique pharmaceutical composition, announced Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. The research discovered…
GO TO SOURCE AHMEDABAD, INDIA, July 7, 2002: Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani has rejected a forensic report that contradicts the government’s view that a Muslim mob had set a train on fire from outside, killing 58 passengers, in February near here. The contention of Ahmedabad-based Forensic Science Laboratory that the fire, which engulfed two coaches of Sabarmati Express…
GO TO SOURCE NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, JULY 5, 2002: Lutheran pastor, Rev. David Benke, has been suspended from his duties and ordered to apologize to all Christians for participating with New York’s Cardinal Edward M. Egan, other Christian ministers, Sikh and Hindu holy men, imams, rabbis and civic leaders in an interfaith prayer service hosted by Oprah Winfrey…
GO TO SOURCE BIHAR, INDIA, JULY 4, 2002: Last month a group of Hindu activists from Bihar launched a campaign against animal sacrifice at the famous Lord Baidyanath temple at Deogarh in Jharkhand. It is estimated that about 100 animals are slaughtered at the Deogarh temple each month and the temple management spends about US$2,000 procuring goats for the sacrifices.…
GO TO SOURCE LONDON, ENGLAND, JULY 5, 2002: Thousands of officially British, ethnically Indian and technically stateless people are finally to achieve closure on a painful part of their past as the British government announces it will set right a “historical wrong” from 30 years ago. In the 1960s and 70s, thousands of Indians fleeing persecution in East Africa were…
GO TO SOURCE SPAIN, BARCELONA, July 5, 2002: The United Nations warned that at least 68 million people will die by 2020 unless there are “drastically expanded” efforts to prevent and treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Their portrait of human misery on a gigantic scale was released in anticipation of the 14th International AIDS Conference, set to open…
GO TO SOURCE PURI, ORISSA, INDIA, July 6, 2002: Priests of the Jagannath temple in Puri will be taught lessons in etiquette, so that they learn how to deal with visitors to the temple. A Puri-based cultural outfit, Yuva Chetana Sangathana, has decided to launch the orientation program to put an end to the complaints against the priests, known as…
GO TO SOURCE PURI, ORISSA, INDIA, July 7, 2002: The biggest temple kitchen in the world has suffered a huge loss because one cook didn’t observe the proper rituals. Authorities of the Jagannath temple of Puri in Orissa destroyed US$50,000 worth of cooked offerings for the presiding Deity, stating it had not been prepared according to prescribed rituals. The offering,…