Maha Kumbh Mela also a chance to make quick money

HARIDWAR - The ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela is providing ample opportunities to unemployed youth here to make quick bucks.

Germany mulls burqa ban

BERLIN - As France has moved closer to a ban on burqas, German politicians are debating whether a similar measure was necessary in their own country, media reports said.

Nike Puma Abusing Allah Image on Shoes

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Film on Dalai Lama to be screened in Delhi, Mumbai

DHARAMSALA - “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom”, a film on the life of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his people, will be screened in Mumbai and Delhi next month.

When sadhus came astride elephants, horses at Maha Kumbh

HARIDWAR - Some sat on gold and silver thrones balanced majestically atop elephants, some stood tall on horse-driven chariots, and yet others walked to din of drums, bells and conches. Peshwai, the royal procession of Naga sadhus and other ascetics at the Maha Kumbh Mela here, was a grand affair Saturday.

AP Interview: Sons of Iraq leader says Sunnis may boycott vote over Baathist ballot purge

Iraqi sheik threatens boycott over ballot purge

PM Britain’s first state Hindu school wows with marble temple

LONDON - Adorned with classroom shrines and a grand marble temple, Britain’s first state-funded Hindu school has opened its doors to the British media after fending off allegations it would promote religious segregation.

Hindu devotees, tourists throng to Malaysian cave temple

KUALA LUMPUR - Hundreds of thousands of devotees celebrated the Hindu festival of Thaipusam Saturday, climbing steep steps to seek divine blessings at a cave temple near Kuala Lumpur.

London mugging hero declared Sikh martyr

AMRITSAR - A man who became a hero in London earlier this month for chasing and confronting muggers and being fatally stabbed has been declared a martyr of the Sikh community.

Grant us re-birth as man or woman, eunuchs pray to Ganga

HARIDWAR - They haven’t come to pray for salvation. After the years of ignominy and ridicule they have suffered, these hijras (eunuchs) have come to pray to the holy Ganga river to end their lives and grant them an early re-birth - as a man or woman.

Gamblers escape minutes before caning in Indonesia’s Aceh province

Indonesian gambling convicts escape before caning

Muslim, Sikh, South Asian leaders demand end to racial profiling

WASHINGTON - Muslim, Arab, Sikh and South Asian American community leaders have raised the issue of racial, ethnic and religious profiling at airports and the border with the Obama administration.