We aren't living in 13th century India, where wandering saints pined for the divine. Yet, can you write Bhakti off? Hardly. It has weathered all 'isms' to enter markets in a commercial avatar that keeps pace with time.

Teachers should not be prosecuted for having affairs with their sixth formers, a union chief has said.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said it was an “anomaly” that a teacher who had sex with a pupil aged over 16 could go on the sex offenders register.

Children have lost touch with the natural world and are unable to identify common animals and plants, according to a survey.

Half of youngsters aged nine to 11 were unable to identify a daddy-long-legs, oak tree, blue tit or bluebell, in the poll by BBC Wildlife Magazine.

The world’s biggest ban on public smoking came into effect in India on 2 October 2008. The Indian central government notification issued on May 30 bans smoking in all public places in India and is the government’s second try in four years to ban smoking.

ON the eve of battle Arjuna surveys the field in despair. The enemy battalions are thick with beloved kinsmen, teachers, comrades. His cause is just. But what is he to do? His charioteer urges him to embrace his duty.

For centuries, religious believers have endured suffering with impressive fortitude.

Now scientists claim to have discovered that faith in God really can relieve pain.

New research at Oxford University has found that the Christian martyrs may well have been able to draw on their religion to reduce the agony of, for example, being burnt at the stake.

A RADICAL push has been staged within the RSPCA to endorse vegan diets as the best way to prevent cruelty to farmed animals.

One of the supporters of the push has been elected to the board of the RSPCA SA branch and will stand for the presidency.

Hindu Mandir (Temple) Executives representing 113 Temples and Hindu Organizations from more than 25 states of US and Canada and Caribbean converged in Romulus, MI to attend the Third Hindu Mandir Executives Conference (HMEC), from September 26, 2008 through September 28, 2008.

Agra, Sep 24 (IANS) Thousands of people have been flocking to see the river Yamuna flowing with full gusto right next to the magnificent Taj Mahal - a rare sight in Agra as the river is mostly dry and is often described as an ‘open drain’ or the ’sewage canal’. The river is in spate and people can be seen spending hours at the banks admiring the natural beauty and the return of aquatic animals to the Yamuna.

People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world's leading authority on global warming has told The Observer.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.

Heather Mills, a champion of vegetarianism, brought her healthy diet to the streets of New York on Saturday when she hosted a meat-free barbeque for some of the city's poorest families.

Now a resident of the city, Heather picked up the tongs and got cooking the soy burgers, sausages, hot dogs and chicken pieces she had donated to create a vegan feast for 1,000 families living in the Bronx.

You may have seen in the movies or even read in books about ‘911’, the number the United States denizens dial for emergency situations. Now a similar service is being introduced in India by the Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), which is about to launch this service in Madhya Pradesh.

In a recent statement, Health minister Ambumani Ramadoss was told by Union Telecom minister A. Raja that 108 is being finalized as the national toll free trauma care number.

How your computer keyboard is five times dirtier than your toilet seat - and could even give you ‘qwerty tummy.’

Many users are at risk of becoming ill with stomach bugs, according to the consumer group 'Which?' It warned that ‘qwerty tummy’, named after the first six letters on a keyboard, could sweep through workplaces after tests on equipment in its own London offices showed alarming results.

A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest.

NEW DELHI -- Anti-Christian violence that started in a remote corner of eastern India last month is breaking out in other states and is expected to spread further ahead of nationwide elections to be held in the next few months.

In the past week in Karnataka, the southern Indian state that is home to India's high-technology capital of Bangalore, at least 17 attacks have been reported on churches and prayer halls, according to local Christian groups, independent monitors and police.

WILL ALLEN already had the makings of an agricultural dream packed into two scruffy acres in one of Milwaukee’s most economically distressed neighborhoods.

His Growing Power organization has six greenhouses and eight hoophouses for greens, herbs and vegetables. There’s an advanced composting operation — a virtual worm farm — and a lab that is working on ways to turn food waste into fertilizer and methane gas for energy.

Pupils are due to start term at the UK's first state-funded Hindu school.

The Krishna-Avanti Voluntary Aided Primary School is in Edgware, north London, an area where almost a third of people are Hindu.

The school offers an education based on Hindu values and beliefs but lessons will follow the national curriculum.

OFF the coast of Peru swim billions of sardines and anchovies: oily, smelly little fish, rich in nutritious omega-3 fatty acids. Their spot on the food chain is low; many will be caught, ground up, and fed as fishmeal to bigger animals.

But a few have a more exalted destiny: to be transported, purified and served at North American breakfast tables in the form of Tropicana Healthy Heart orange juice and Wonder Headstart bread.

When The Beatles became interested in Indian religion it not only had a profound effect on their music, but influenced both the look, sound and outlook of Western culture as a whole. To celebrate the huge impact the country had on the Fab Four, the Beatles Story, Liverpool will be celebrating all things Indian throughout September during our ‘Beatles in India Month’.

Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish feelings are rising in several major European countries, according to a worldwide survey released overnight.

The Washington-based Pew Research Centre's global attitude survey found 46 per cent of Spanish, 36 per cent of Poles and 34 per cent of Russians viewed Jews unfavourably, while the same was true for 25 per cent of Germans, and 20 per cent of French.