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More than 30 Indian youths have disappeared in New Zealand, where they were in transit to go to Sydney for World Youth Day, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Church said Monday. Lyndsay Freear told Radio New Zealand that a party of 220 Indian Catholics who arrived in Auckland a week ago were due to fly to Sydney Tuesday, but 32 of them had disappeared. All were billeted with church members in Auckland under a so-called Days in the Diocese programme before going to Australia, where Pope Benedict arrived Sunday for events associated with World Youth Day. Freear said all the...

Chowdhury Got Angry When Garage Door Didn't Open Quickly. A state legislative candidate from Jefferson County accused of slapping and choking his 16-year-old daughter pleaded guilty Tuesday to third-degree assault. Vince Chowdhury, 48, got angry when his wife and daughter didn't open the garage door quickly enough when he honked his car horn in their driveway on June 17, according to an arrest affidavit. The document said Chowdhury, a Jefferson County school board member, sat in the driveway several minutes honking his horn. His wife and daughter apologized for making him wait but he thought the apology insincere so he...

RIVERSIDE Two recent shootouts between law officers and several members of the Soboba Indian tribe have prompted the Riverside County Sheriff's Deputies Association to warn the public that it considers the tribe's casino to be unsafe, it was reported on Saturday. The 3,700-member union considers the tribal reservation to be "unstable" as a result of "recent violence against Riverside County deputy sheriffs," the Los Angeles Times and Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Tribal leaders shot back that the deputies union has brought the shootouts into the poitical arena, and said in an e-mail that "the recent tragic events were unrelated to the...

<p>SELMA, Ind. — It's just a drop in the global oil bucket, but an eastern Indiana man is operating an oil well in his backyard in an effort to capitalize on soaring crude prices.</p> <p>Greg Losh's rig produces three barrels of crude oil a day, though he told FOX News that he hasn't started selling it yet. For now, he and his partners are keeping it in storage containers.</p>

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - An American Indian who shot a bald eagle for use in a tribal religious ceremony must stand trial, a federal appeals court has ruled. A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Thursday reversed a 2006 lower court ruling that dismissed a criminal charge against Winslow Friday, a Northern Arapaho Indian who has acknowledged shooting a bald eagle in 2005 during the tribe's Sun Dance. In dismissing the charge, U.S. District Judge William Downes of Wyoming said the federal government has shown "callous indifference" to American Indian religious beliefs. Eagle feathers are...

The 6-year-old girl is recuperating at a state-run hospital in Mathura, the north Indian city where the alleged attack occurred, said Dr. Ramesh Kumar. She is considered a dalit _ a member of the lowest caste in India, where a system of rigid social hierarchy still lingers. The alleged attacker, Madan Singh, 22, comes from a higher caste.

Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. A 15-page report congressional report includes intelligence from law enforcement as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance. Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. One of the key issues... is a potential flaw...

Siberian, Native American Languages Linked -- A First John Roach for National Geographic NewsMarch 26, 2008 A fast-dying language in remote central Siberia shares a mother tongue with dozens of Native American languages spoken thousands of miles away, new research confirms. The finding may allow linguists to weigh in on how the Americas were first settled, according to Edward Vajda, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Since at least 1923 researchers have suggested a connection exists between Asian and North American languages—but this is the first time a link has been demonstrated...

citizen of India living legally in South Carolina pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to illegally export weapons to India, authorities said Thursday. It was one of two cases involving illegal arms in India.

Indian DNA links to 6 'founding mothers' By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer NEW YORK - Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests. Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said. The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of the continent, said study co-author...

Bill would let tribal police arrest non-Indians   Richard Roesler Staff writer February 27, 2008OLYMPIA – A bill that would expand some tribal police officers’ power to arrest non-Indian criminals on reservations is moving quickly in the Legislature.Proponents say the bill would speed up police response on reservations, which some say are in danger of becoming “havens” for non-Indian criminals who feel they have little to fear. The House of Representatives has approved House Bill 2476 and it’s expected to be approved by a Senate committee before a key deadline Friday.“Right now we have citizens in the state of...

Doctors successfully removed a 2-inch nail from an Indian man’s genitals after he admitted himself to a hospital due to abdominal pain and the inability to speak, the Bahrain Gulf Daily News reported Wednesday. An X-ray of the man, who was not identified, showed the nail lodged in his urethra. The victim claimed that the nail had been inserted by a gang of thieves who attacked and robbed him three days earlier, the paper reported.

WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Interior Department has "unreasonably delayed" its accounting for billions of dollars owed to Indian landholders. The federal agency "has not, and cannot, remedy the breach" of its responsibilities to account for the Indian money, U.S. District Judge James Robertson said in a 165-page decision in a long-running federal lawsuit alleging mismanagement of Indian trust funds. "Indeed, it is now clear that completion of the required accounting is an impossible task" for the department, Robertson said, adding that he would schedule a hearing next month to discuss ways to solve the...

SANTA MARIA QUIEGOLANI, Mexico - Women in this Indian village high in the pine-clad mountains of Oaxaca rise each morning at 4 a.m. to gather firewood, grind corn, prepare the day's food, care for the children and clean the house. But they aren't allowed to vote in local elections, because — the men say — they don't do enough work. It was here, in a village that has struggled for centuries to preserve its Zapotec traditions, that Eufrosina Cruz, 27, decided to become the first woman to run for mayor — despite the fact that women aren't allowed to attend...

Sixty years after independence, with 40 percent of its population under 18, India is now confronting the perils of its failure to educate its citizens, notably the poor. More Indian children are in school than ever before, but the quality of public schools like this one has sunk to spectacularly low levels, as government schools have become reserves of children at the very bottom of India's social ladder.

Reconstruction: 'Meena' went to India to abort her fourth daughter A study suggests Indian women in the UK are aborting unborn daughters so they can have more boys, the BBC's Asian Network has learned.The Oxford University study suggests 1,500 girls are "missing" from the birth statistics in England and Wales from 1990 to 2005. It shows the proportion of boys compared with girls born to Indian-born mothers has increased since the 1970s. Dr Sylvie Dubuc said this could be due to "sex selective abortion". See sex-ratio of births to Indian born women Dr Dubuc, who studied birth rates of...

Manish Rajpurohit has been hailed the luckiest teenager in India after he survived being skewered by a metal pole in a bus crash. The 18-year-old student was riding a bus in Andhra Pradesh state when it was hit by a lorry. The force of the smash rammed the four foot safety rail into Rajpurohit's forehead and through his skull - only missing his spine by a few millimetres. Rajpurohit said: "It struck my head and embedded me into the seat. I was stuck there crying 'Help me' as loud as I could." Brave Rajpurohit had to slide his head...

Take a look at Google's Thanksgiving cartooned logo. Sitting to the left of the table is a turkey dressed as an Indian and to the right a turkey dressed as a Pilgrim. Can anyone tell me what is actually on the table being served as the main dish? Looks like a cat but if you zoom the picture it becomes too pixelated to tell.

An Indian man who believed he had been cursed for stoning to death two dogs has atoned for his sin by marrying another dog in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony. P. Selvakumar, a 33-year-old farm labourer from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, married the four-year-old stray bitch after it was bathed and processed to his village temple dressed in an orange sari and garlanded with flowers. The marriage took place on the advice of the man's astrologer who said it was the only way to atone for his actions of more than 20 years ago. He was reported to...

Dennis Champlain's grandfather helped win federal recognition for the Narragansett Indian Tribe. Champlain himself has danced in tribal powwows and teaches his children that they are Narragansetts. Yet the Narragansetts say he is no longer a member of the tribe. Champlain and his extended family are among thousands of people removed from American Indian tribes in recent years, often amid tribal squabbles or when a casino comes to town. In Rhode Island, the Narragansetts' removal of about 140 of roughly 2,400 members has become an issue in Saturday's election for the tribe's chief sachem, or leader. Tribal officials say they...

For about an hour last August, Gary Hoffman was a very lucky man. Hoffman was playing the nickel slot machines at the Sandia Resort and Casino on an Indian reservation in New Mexico when he appeared to hit the jackpot: the machine said he won nearly $1.6 million. "I became ecstatic," he said. But the ecstasy was short-lived. Hoffman says in a lawsuit filed earlier this year that Sandia refused to pay, claiming that the machine malfunctioned. Instead, he said, they gave him about $385 and a few free meals at the casino. "I won money, fair and square, and...

A study released in the House of Commons says 80 per cent of the respondents prefer to be called British Indian or British Hindus PTI London: Hindus in Britain do not want to be described as 'Asian' but would rather be called British Indian or British Hindus, a study released in the House of Commons on Tuesday said. The report ‘Connecting British Hindus,’ launched by Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Communities, identified that some Hindus feel 'excluded' in the race dialogue and urged the government and public service providers to ensure they are included in work taken up to...

This a video which was a long and hard work, but there it is: tribute to the 7th cavalry in the Indian Territory, Korea, Vietnam, the Pacific Front, Kuwait, Iraq. Garry Owen to these US heroes then and now!

WICHITA, Kan. --A man who called himself "Chief Thunderbird IV" was charged in federal court here Friday with devising a fraudulent scheme to obtain U.S. citizenship papers for illegal aliens by having them claim to be members of a so-called Indian tribe. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal and local agencies are investigating this case. Malcolm L. Webber, 69, Wichita, Kan., was scheduled to appear in federal district court in Wichita Friday on one count of attempting to defraud the federal government, one count of harboring aliens who were illegally in the United States, and one count...

Three people have been killed in a mine accident in the US state of Indiana, police said. It is not yet known how many people were in the Gibson County Coal mine at the time of the accident. The incident occurred at an air shaft under construction at about 1100 (1700 GMT). A coroner has been called to the scene, local television reports said. Separately, in Utah, six miners are missing 1,500ft (457m) underground after a mine collapsed on Monday. The three died in a basket used to transport people along the 600ft (183m) air shaft, Detective Mike Hurt said....

A Calgary woman waiting for her husband to arrive in Canada is upset by a long-standing immigration policy that forces people with the surname Singh or Kaur to change their last names. Tarvinder Kaur, who is pregnant, said her husband Jaspal Singh's application to become a permanent resident has been delayed for well over a month because of his last name. He has no choice but to legally change his name in India so he can get to Calgary before she gives birth next month, she said. CBC News has obtained a copy of a letter sent from the Canadian...

NEW DELHI - Indian police killed one of the country's most notorious bandits Sunday — a man who ruled the ravines and forests of central India through a mixture of fear and love for three decades, with many hailing him as a modern-day Robin Hood. Shiv Kumar, also known by the alias Dadua, led one of the few remaining bands of outlaws that have roamed central India for centuries, their exploits romanticized in Bollywood movies. Kumar, thought to be in his 60s, was wanted in more than 200 cases of kidnapping, extortion and murder and had a bounty on his...

Human rights group, International Christian Concern has said it has uncovered evidence to show that the recent anti-conversion bill in Himachal Pradesh was the result of an orchestrated campaign of lies and misinformation. The persecution watchdog explains that a local Christian source, who requested anonymity, said that Hindu fundamentalist groups have been running a hate campaign against Christians, using the local newspapers, which normally have their reach limited to towns and cities.

The ugly American is passé; welcome the ugly Indian By Jawed Naqvi IT is legitimate to doubt the credibility of the Pew opinion poll that once showed Indians as supportive of the US, when the rest of the world, including its European allies, seemed to have deserted America over the Iraq fiasco. Let’s, however, take a charitable view of the alleged opinion count. It can be conceded that in a country of a billion people, it’s not impossible to find a million something holding the view, which Pew mistook for endorsement from an entire nation. Of course, much depends on...

Indian farmers braced for rat plague By Peter Foster in New Delhi Last Updated: 3:02am BST 04/05/2007 Nearly 500,000 Indian farmers are facing the prospect of famine as a plague of rats that strikes once every 50 years threatens to destroy their crops, rice paddies and village granaries. The flowering of a rare species of bamboo causes the rat plague Efforts to control the rodent plague in the north east Indian state of Mizoram have led the local government to offer a reward of one rupee (1.2 pence) for every rat tail delivered to the authorities. More than 400,000 rats...

AN elderly Indian husband and wife were burnt to death after villagers accused them of practising black magic, tied them together on a pyre and set them on fire. “The aged couple died screaming for help,” police superintendent P V KuMarch said. Sayanna, 70, and his 61-year-old wife, Pochamma, were set ablaze after being doused with kerosene. Both were farm labourers near the southern city of Hyderabad who also practised traditional medicine. Police have arrested six villagers for the incident.

Richard Gere isn't bothered that a warrant's out for his arrest in India, and he's accusing a "very small right-wing, very conservative" faction in the country for coming after him for his public kissing of an Indian actress. "They do this kind of thing quite often," Gere told Jon Stewart on last night's "Daily Show." "I don't know that anyone has actually gone to jail ... It goes to a reputable court and they throw it out." Yesterday, an Indian judge issued a warrant for Gere's arrest in Jaipur, saying that he had "transgressed all limits of vulgarity" when he...

NEW DELHI (AP) - A court issued arrest warrants for Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on Thursday, saying their kiss at a public function "transgressed all limits of vulgarity," media reports said.

SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- The California Senate on Thursday approved the largest expansion of Indian gambling in the state since tribes were given the authority to operate casinos. The agreements now go to the Assembly. If passed by that house, they would allow tribes to operate an additional 22,500 new slot machines, the equivalent of more than 10 Las Vegas-sized casinos. It would represent a 50 percent increase in the number of slots currently operating in the state's Indian casinos. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who negotiated the agreements with the tribes last year, is counting on the Legislature to approve the compacts...

Bill would prevent state from banning sports teams' use of names and images - NASHVILLE - A Tennessee lawmaker wants to prevent the state from ever banning American Indian mascots at schools. Rep. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, is sponsoring legislation that specifies no state agency would have the authority to prohibit public or private institutions from continuing to use American Indians with symbols, names and mascots. The measure was scheduled for the House floor Monday, but Bell deferred action. The companion version is scheduled to be discussed today in the Senate State and Local Government Committee. Bell said he proposed the...

The operators of a Northern Arizona ski resort cannot use recycled sewage to make snow, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday. In a unanimous decision, the judges said there is no evidence that denying the operators of Arizona Snowbowl the ability to use sewage for artificial snow would force the facility, located on U.S. Forest Service land, to shut down. They said there is no “compelling governmental interest” in having artificial snow on the San Francisco Peaks. The judge said the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act requires government agencies to use the “least restrictive” means of interfering...

An Indian man has eventually solved the puzzle of his missing chickens after catching his sacred cow gobbling up several the birds in the coop at night. When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighbourhood dogs. Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, decided to stand guard at night at the cow shed that also served as a hen coop after 48 chickens went missing in a month. "We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ajit Ghosh told Reuters from Chandpur village, about 240 kilometres north-west of capital...

Balthazar Napolean de Bourbon, a jovial Indian lawyer and part-time farmer settled in Bhopal, has been told that he is the first in line to the lost French throne. According to media reports, "Bourbon may soon make his first trip to Paris, after he was visited by a relative of Prince Philip, who told him that he is the first in line to the lost French throne." This Indian father of three is being feted as the long-lost descendant of the Bourbon kings who ruled France from the 16th century to the French revolution. A distant cousin of Louis XVI...

Descendancy stems from the 19th Century Dawes Commission lists Members of the Cherokee Nation of native Americans have voted to revoke tribal citizenship for descendants of black slaves the Cherokees once owned.A total of 76.6% voted to amend the tribal constitution to limit citizenship to "blood" tribe members. Supporters said only the Cherokees had the right to determine tribal members. Opponents said the amendment was racist and aimed at preventing those with African-American heritage from gaining tribal revenue and government funding. The Cherokee Nation has 250,000 to 270,000 members, second only to the Navajo. 'Right to vote' The list...

Marquette University sports teams used to be called "Warriors," but the forces of political correctness got that changed. But students continue to protest this by wearing insignia of American Indians, and shirts with "Warriors" prominently displayed. A bureaucrat at the school threatened a student with having his headdress confiscated and being ejected from the game if he wears it to a nationally televised game tomorrow. http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2007/03/marquette-student-wearing-warrior.html

Virginia's General Assembly has adopted a resolution, expressing "profound regret" for the role the US state played in slavery. The resolution was passed by a 96-0 vote in the House and also unanimously backed in the 40-member Senate. Although non-binding, the resolution sent an important symbolic message, its sponsors said. Lawmakers also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans" in Virginia. Saturday's resolution was passed as the state was preparing to mark the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. It said that government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of...

"Prez on the Rez"— the first presidential candidate forum to take place on reservation land— will not be coming to Sandia Pueblo. Sandia, which is just north of Albuquerque, was a finalist to host the historic event for Democratic White House hopefuls to gather with tribal leaders to share their views on Indian Country. But the event will instead take place Aug. 23 at the Morongo band of Mission Indians reservation outside Palm Springs, Calif., according to organizer Kalyn Free. Free is founder and president of INDN's List, an Oklahoma-based organization dedicated to getting Native Americans elected to political office....

House Democrats hope to raise between $650,000 and $1 million for each of the party's most endangered Democrats in hopes of keeping the party in control of Congress. The tactics are hardly new. Republicans aggressively used their committee chairmen -- and the promise of access to them -- to raise money from interest groups and lobbyists during the party's 12 years of congressional control. They tracked donations closely and pressed lobbying firms to hire GOP lobbyists through the "K Street Project," promising "intimate" issue briefings with the chairmen in return for big donations. And the GOP is hardly sitting on...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -- The University of Illinois will drop its 81-year-old American Indian mascot, Chief Illiniwek...The move makes the school eligible to host postseason NCAA championship events, but it angered many Illini fans who say the chief honors American Indians. The NCAA in 2005 deemed Illiniwek -- portrayed by buckskin-clad students who dance at home...games and other athletic events -- an offensive use of American Indian imagery and barred the university from hosting postseason events. American Indian groups and others have complained for years that the mascot, used since 1926, is demeaning... ...Eppley told reporters that the decision did...

Police are investigating a shooting in University City involving a University of Pennsylvania student and students from Drexel University. Authorities said the University of Penn student fired 15 shots into an apartment occupied by Drexel students on 44th Street near Pine. Police said the shooting all stemmed from an argument between a Penn student and a Drexel student about their backgrounds. The Penn student, who is Korean, was arguing with the Drexel student, who is Indian, over their backgrounds, police said. "There's some indication that he was accusing him of being from another country, possibly being spies and that’s what...

An American Indian man who shot a bald eagle on a Wyoming Indian reservation has been charged under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Winslow Friday, who says he shot the bird for use in a Northern Arapaho Indian religious ceremony, could face a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison if convicted, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday. Friday, an oil-field worker, argues that the shooting should be protected his religious freedom.

By Mike Collett-White LONDON (Reuters) - British television star Jade Goody, accused at home and abroad of being a racist bully for her treatment of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, was evicted from the "Celebrity Big Brother" show on Friday. The 25-year-old was favorite to be kicked out by public vote after she was cast as the villain of a program that triggered protests and dominated headlines in Britain and India, prompted a sponsor to pull out and now threatens Goody's career. After leaving the Big Brother House, which is cut off from the outside world, Goody appeared embarrassed after watching...

A good friend of mine who is Indian became a U.S. citizen today here in St. Louis. He renounce his citizenship from India and swore the following oath: " I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen: that I will SUFFORT AND DEFEND the CONSITITUTION AND LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA against ALL ENIEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC; that I will bear true faith and ALLEGIANCE to the same; that...

SILOAM SPRINGS — Bryan Austin of Siloam Springs thought he’d found a crime scene when he spotted a human skull under a pile of rocks while he was duck hunting in northeast Oklahoma. Looking for a good place to set up a camouflage hunting screen Nov. 19 on a mud flat in the Spavinaw Creek drainage area, Austin found what turned out to be an ancient skull. He later learned that the site is an ancient Indian burial ground. “ It’s absolutely amazing, ” Austin said. “ I’m incredibly interested in this kind of stuff. It’s in my line of...

Investigators fear Indian businessman killed 38 By Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:29am GMT 07/01/2007 Indian police fear that as many as 38 children and young women may have been killed by a rich businessman and his servant accomplice in a two-year orgy of sexual abuse and murder in a leafy suburb of New Delhi. Moninder Singh Pandher A week after the killings in Noida came to light, the parents of the victims are directing their rage at police who, they claim, were indifferent to reports of missing persons. As children started disappearing with alarming frequency...