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The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write. No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007. Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former...

Note the date of the article. What is dated in that article continues to present and into the future. The past molds the present.

More Than 200,000 Animals Slaughtered at Nepal Sacrifice Festival November 24, 2009 Nov. 24: A butcher prepares to slaughter a buffalo with his knife during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, Nepal. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters. A Nepalese minister said it was the largest sacrificial slaughter of animals in the world. Animal rights groups and activists including the actress Brigitte Bardot have condemned the event, which...

The world's biggest animal sacrifice got under way in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Biriyapur, near the Indian border. * * * In the main event, 250 appointed locals with traditional kukri knives began their task of decapitating more than 10,000 buffalo in a dusty enclosure guarded by high walls and armed police. Frightened calves galloped around in vain as the men, wearing red bandanas and armbands, pursued them and chopped off their heads. Banned from entering the animal pen, hundreds of...

UP to a million Hindu devotees have gathered in a village in Nepal to witness the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals in a mass sacrifice that has drawn widespread criticism. Worshippers travelled long distances, many coming from India, to attend the two-day Gadhimai festival, which honours the Hindu goddess of power and takes place once every five years in southern Nepal. A huge cry of "Long Live Gadhimai!" went up after the village temple's head priest launched the event with the ritual sacrifice of two wild rats, two pigeons, a rooster, a lamb and a pig. The crowd...

Convictions Few in Anti-Christian Violence in Orissa, India Violence devastated Kandhamal district, Orissa state in August-September 2008. BJP legislator, a key suspect in Kandhamal violence, acquitted again and out on bail. NEW DELHI, November 11 (CDN) — Following six acquittals last week in trials for those accused of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in India’s Orissa state and the release on bail of a key suspect, Christians are losing heart to strive for justice, according to a prosecuting attorney. The acquittal of six suspects last week raises the total to 121, with just 27 convicted in the Orissa violence by Hindu...

Pastor in India Lured into Violent Trap [Photo] Pastor Paasu Ninama Hindu extremists entice preacher into house, beat him unconscious. NEW DELHI, October 21 (CDN) — A group of Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month beat a pastor unconscious and chewed off part of his ear, pelting him with stones after he fainted from the pain. Paasu Ninama told Compass that the six attackers first lured him into a house in Malphalia village, Jhabua district with an offer of water on Oct. 4. The 35-year-old resident of Pipal Kutta village said he was on his way back from...

The Dow Jones reached a significant milestone yesterday, and news outlets were abuzz with excitement. Olympia Snowe's vote for the Baucus bill was plenty fodder for the 24-hour news cycles. But, for Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists in the United States, an epochal event transpired at the White House afternoon that should not slip notice. Lead me from Untruth to Truth. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality. (from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad -- I.iii.28) As the ethereal sounds of a Hindu priest's chanting of this Sanskrit prayer from ancient Hindu scripture filled the East Room,...

India: Relief Camp Bombed On Sept. 27, four believers were injured when a Christian relief camp in Nandarigi village, Orissa state, providing temporary housing for Christians who fled anti-Christian, was bombed by suspected Hindu extremists, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. The Hindu man who reportedly set off the bomb was killed in the attack. Five days before the attack the suspected bomber reportedly threatened Christians at the camp with violence, according to VOM contacts. The man reportedly demanded food and shelter. VOM contacts report he returned the night of the bombing heavily intoxicated and assaulted two Christian...

India: Pastor Attacked On Oct. 4, Pastor Prakash was attacked by 25 Bajrang Dal extremists while he was ministering in Kaiwara village, Bangalore Rural District, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. The extremists assaulted the pastor and accused him of cheating people. After the attack, the pastor was questioned and held on complaints of “illegal activity.” Fortunately, other believers provided evidence that the pastor had not broken any laws but had visited their homes for prayer. At last report he was still in custody. Pastor Prakash has been in ministry for more than 10 years and pastors a...

Rapper to take a break after storming the stage at the VMA'sKanye West is taking a break by heading to a Hindu retreat. The rapper who recently received a lot of bad press after he stormed the stage at the VMA‘s, is apparently about to spend a month at a Hindu ashram in Pondicherry, India. "He feels terrible about hurting Taylor Swift," an insider told Star Magazine. "[He] sees it as another sign that his life is going in the wrong direction since his mother died." They added. West whose mother died in 2007 after complications during surgery, has recently...

In the current conflict in Afghanistan, India does not have a single soldier operating under NATO command. India is not part of the coalition the United States and its allies have put together to aid the Afghan government’s efforts to defeat the Taliban. In fact, India has turned down proposals within India and in the U.S. that it should participate in peacekeeping efforts in Iraq or Afghanistan. And yet, suicide bombers have struck the Indian Embassy in Kabul once again. In 2008, nearly 58 people died, including three Indians. On Friday, the toll was smaller, though the device used was...

India: Church Damaged in Attack On Sept. 9, St. Francis De Sales Church in Bangalore, India was attacked by more than 15 Hindu extremists, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. Extremists armed with weapons broke into the church, damaged window panes and statues inside the church. A house behind the church was damaged. The church has about 3,000 members who attend services performed in different languages such as Tamil, Malayalam and English. Following the attack, the church priests, Father Aloysius and Father Selvaraj filed a complaint with the police. The Voice of the Martyrs supports and assists persecuted...

The Calgary Zoo said it has no plans to remove a dancing elephant statue after a complaint from a Christian group that it's an inappropriate religious icon. A private donor gave the statue, modeled after the Hindu god Ganesh, to the zoo in 2006 to stand in front of the Asian elephant exhibit. As CBC News first reported, Concerned Christians Canada sent a letter raising its concerns that the statue was "selective religious partiality" to the zoo on Thursday. "A lot of people are saying we're being intolerant. I don't consider asking that the zoo look at this from a...

A right-wing Hindu group has claimed responsibility for the attack on a Church in Bangalore city on 10 September that had destroyed 10 windows, breaking the statues of Jesus and Mary. The officials of St. Francis De Sales Church, a Catholic church in Hebbagodi, the outskirt of Karnataka state capital said they received a letter allegedly from the Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army).

» 09/22/2009 17:44INDIACatholic priest donates kidney to save Hindu manby Nirmala CarvalhoIn Kerala, Father Chiramel offers one of his kidneys to an unknown recipient. The priest said he was inspired by the ‘Year for Priest’. “For me donating an organ is a unique and privileged opportunity to share in Christ’s suffering.” New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Fr Davis Chiramel, a 49-year-old Catholic priest from Kerala, donated one of his kidneys to a complete stranger. The clergyman is parish priest at St Francis Xavier Church in Vadanapally (Kerala). Earlier this year he decided to help a Hindu father of two, a...

Christians Arrested for Operating Boys’ Hostel in India (Photo caption) Hindu nationalist extremists are a small but active fraction of India’s population. Police accompanied by Hindu extremists charge pastor, evangelist with “promoting enmity.” MUMBAI, India, September 2 (CDN) — Karnataka police accompanied by 10 Hindu extremists on Friday (Aug. 28) arrested a Christian operator of a boys’ hostel after the extremists accused him and another Christian of offering food, shelter, education and future job prospects as an “allurement” to convert to Christianity. Hanuma Naik is also pastor of Indian Gypsy Works Fellowship (IGWF). After his release on bail the next...

A day ahead of Malaysia's 52nd independence day, authorities were busy Sunday tackling tension over the display of a severed cow head at the head of a procession to protest the relocation of a Hindu shrine. The incident occurred Saturday in Shah Alam, capital of Selangor state, prompting Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to direct Police Inspector General Musa Hasan to investigate the matter. The Selangor government Sunday condemned and expressed regret over the 'provocative, offensive and deliberate use' of the severed head of a cow by a group of people to stage a protest against the proposed relocation of...

Those who argue that all religions are essentially the same reveal the fact that they know little about these very different belief systems. The worldview of Christianity is, for example, radically different from the belief structure of Buddhism (some forms of which may actually claim to resist the very idea of beliefs). These differences in belief systems are apparent in Lisa Miller's recent article for Newsweek. As she explains, "A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more...

INDIAN yogis and Hindu leaders are in a huff over fears that Julia Roberts' upcoming movie, "Eat, Pray, Love," will bastardize their religion and portray yoga as a crock of New Age mumbo jumbo. SNIP Zed added, "The people of India will be anxious to see how perfectly Roberts does her job of cleaning ashram floors as a part of her devotional duty, trying to recite 182- verse Sanskrit chant, and going through grueling hours of meditation, while being feasted on by mosquitoes."