In India, there has been much progress in equal rights. The Kumbh Mela festival starts on January 25th and will last until March 4th. This festival is one of the biggest Hindu events and often said to be one of the worlds largest religious gatherings. This event has taken place every couple years for centuries, and four different cities take… Read more »
Indian rescue workers are struggling to save 15 workers who have been trapped for two weeks in an illegal coal mine, their chances of survival growing increasingly slim, and the government has come under fire for failing to provide sophisticated equipment for the operation. The miners, in the northeastern state of Meghalaya, became trapped on Dec. 13 when the mine… Read more »
Two women, accompanied by plainclothes police officers under the cover of darkness early on Wednesday morning, entered a centuries-old Hindu shrine in southern India that has long barred women of childbearing age. Their effort was part of a continuing push for women’s equality in the country. In response, protests broke out around Kerala, the state where the shrine, the Sabarimala… Read more »
The northern Indian city of Allahabad witnessed a historic procession on Sunday led by a Hindu congregation of transgender people. Photojournalist Ankit Srinivas reports. Thousands thronged the streets of Allahabad to seek blessings from transgender sadhus (holy people), ahead of the Kumbh Mela festival, which is set to begin in the city on 15 January and will continue until 4… Read more »
Scientists in India have hit out at speakers at a major conference for making irrational claims, including that ancient Hindus invented stem cell research. Some academics at the annual Indian Science Congress dismissed the findings of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Hindu mythology and religion-based theories have increasingly become part of the Indian Science Congress agenda. But experts said remarks… Read more »
It was an early morning in November when Mir Hasan arrived at a construction site in Noida – a suburb of India’s capital Delhi – to start his daily shift. He drank a bottle of water and began work right away – this was his routine every day. But a few hours later, he fell from the high-rise building and… Read more »
At least 30 people have been killed in the collapse of a gold mine in north-eastern Afghanistan, officials say. The collapse occurred in the Kohistan district of Badakhshan province. Villagers had reportedly dug a 60m (220ft) deep but makeshift shaft in a river bed to hunt for gold and were caught in its collapse. Afghanistan has vast resources of minerals… Read more »
This group of Rohingya that were to be deported were not the first ones to be deported from India, there was another group that was set to be deported in the span of 4 months, but both of these groups were families that were looking for a safe haven and hoping for a better life than what they had in… Read more »
North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy has disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome, according to South Korea’s spy agency. NPR’s Seoul Correspondent Anthony Kuhn reports the South Korean National Intelligence Service briefed lawmakers in a closed-door hearing Thursday. Ambassador Jo Song Gil and his wife disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome in November, before his term was set… Read more »