Lutheran Priest Faces Expulsion for Praying with Other Faiths

GO TO SOURCE ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, December 8, 2001: To the Rev. David Benke, the ceremony at Yankee Stadium a month ago was a blessing, an opportunity to join other religious and civic leaders in offering comfort to a nation raw from the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. He joined the celebrities and politicians on stage to…

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Scientists to Study Near-Death Experiences

GO TO SOURCE SOUTHAMPTON, UNITED KINGDOM, November 30, 2001: Dr. Sam Parnia, a physician at Southampton General Hospital, has been given approval to conduct a large scale study on this experience. A pilot project on 63 patients who were revitalized after cardiac arrests revealed that four of these patients reported encounters with pre-deceased relatives or tunnel journeys. Patrick Tenney, a…

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Stony Brook University Celebrates Center’s Fourth Year

Source: Press Release STONY BROOK, NEW YORK, December, 3, 2001: Leaders of the Indian community, scholars, and artists gathered last Saturday to celebrate Stony Brook University’s Center for India Studies’ fourth year of bringing Indian culture and scholarship to the New York area. The evening’s program included the honoring of distinguished contributors to Indian art, education and community fellowship. The…

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Taiwan Buddhist Open World’s First Museum of World Religions

Source: Central News Agency TAIPEI, TAIWAN, November 9, 2001: Taiwan’s president, Chen Shui-bian, and 12 local and foreign dignitaries, including Swami Dayananda Saraswati, opened the Museum of World Religions” in suburban Taipei today. Chen said, “The inauguration of the museum is a pride and glory of the 23 million people of Taiwan, as it is the first of its kind…

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India to Allow Sale of Genetically Modified Cotton

GO TO SOURCE DELHI, INDIA, December 6, 2001: Following the illegal sale of genetically modified cotton seed in India, the government has now said it will soon allow the cotton crops to be sold commercially for the first time. The government has been studying the GM cotton for over a year. It is resistant to the bollworm, which causes considerable…

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Amnesty International Appeals to Bangladesh Government

GO TO SOURCE December 5, 2001: The Bangladeshi government must take urgent action to protect the country’s Hindu minority following weeks of grave human rights abuses, Amnesty International said today in a new report. Before the general election in October, the Hindu community was targeted, reportedly by supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for their perceived support for the…

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Virtual Journey into Varanasi

GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 5,2001: A multi-media exhibition that applies some of the latest interactive technology to one of India’s most sacred cities, Varanasi (Banaras), has just ended in the Indian capital of Delhi. It took viewers on a virtual journey — including a ride on an electronic rickshaw — to explore what is widely believed to…

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Vietnam’s Siva Lingams

GO TO SOURCE VIETNAM, June 23, 2001, A Siva Lingam monument, a relic from the lost Champa Kingdom, stands proudly at the My Son site in Vietnam. Statues depicting Lingam and Yoni can be found in Hindu-influenced cultures across the entire Asian region. But the Cham religion in Vietnam has taken these images and fashioned them into a distinctive and…

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Call for Papers on South Asian Studies

GO TO SOURCE MADISON, WISCONSIN, December 5, 2001: Frank Morales of the University of Wisconsin at Madison writes, “This proposed anthology will include papers by leading scholars and professors who specialize in many fields of South Asian Studies. These fields include: Religious Studies, Philosophy, History, Literature, Political Science, Languages, Indigenous Sciences, Anthropology, Geology, Psychology, Medical Sciences, Sociology, etc. The focus…

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