Pope Benedict XVI's official representative Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor is visiting Vasai, an extended suburb of Mumbai, on Wednesday.

Rajeev Srinivasan on how the uncaring State does not give a damn about the rights of the poor and the middle class.

Innumerable studies have gone into finding out the 'reality of the male sex drive', but now a new study claims that men really are 'hornier' than women.

Five people, suspected to be Arabs, were arrested in London on Friday over an alleged plot to harm Pope Benedict XVI, now on a state visit to the UK. The five men, in the age group of 26-50, were picked up by Scotland Yard on Friday morning in central London and were being questioned by counter-terror detectives.

Dismissed Newman College lecturer T J Joseph, whose hand was hacked allegedly by activists of radical outfit Popular Front of India, has said that the college management's action of sacking him was very unfortunate and unexepcted.

The US Postal Service issued the stamp during a special ceremony held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on Sunday. The 44-cent stamp features a portrait of Mother Teresa, who received a Nobel prize in 1979, painted by award-winning artist Thomas Blackshear II of Colorado Springs.

On the occasion of Teacher's Day, Ministhy S, author and IAS officer, pays tribute to the teachers who have shaped her.

Simplicity, piety and charity headlined the life of Mother Teresa -- the 'Saint of the Gutter'. On her birth centenary, we trace the story of her extraordinary love and dedication for poor, homeless and the needy

A top leader of the Communist Party of China has called for undertaking reforms in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries by appointing monks and nuns who are 'politically reliable' hinting at an apparent purge in the clergy.

On June 20, the Jain temple in Elmhurst, Queens, New York, ceased to be just another temple.

The police arrested two activists of the Islamist organisation Popular Front on Monday, in the case related to the chopping of the palm of a lecturer of the New Man college in Thodupuzha, Kerala. The arrested are Jaffer from Kothamangalam and Ashraf from Kalady.

Check out this top 10!

A growing number of India's seniors are starting to take their future into their own hands, says Sandip Roy.

This is what you call LUCK. In a fortunate-dramatic turn of events, a Nepal-born servant has inherited the multi-crore apartment of a reclusive star in the United States. The actress, Ruth Ford, bequeathed the Rs 38-crore flat and everything in it not to her siblings, but she left the lot to her trusty butler, reports The Independent in a fascinating article.

While praising the Indian government for cracking down on anti-Chinese activities on its soil, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has called on Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama to stop indulging in separatist activities and create conducive conditions for talks with Beijing.

China on Thursday appreciated the stand of the Indian government, recognising the Tibet autonomous region as an integral part of China, and New Delhi's assurance that it will not allow 'Tibetan separatist' activities in the country."The Indian government has said that the Tibet Autonomous Region is an integral part of Chinese territory and that they do not allow Tibetan separatist activities in India. We express our appreciation to the Indian side," said a Chinese spokesperso

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Wednesday accused China of trying to deliberately 'annihilate Buddhism' in Tibet by conducting a campaign of 'patriotic re-education' in monasteries there."Today, the Chinese authorities are conducting various political campaigns, including a campaign of patriotic re-education in many monasteries in Tibet. They are putting the monks and nuns in prison-like conditions, depriving them the opportunity to study and practise in peace."

Stanford University medical professor Abraham Verghese is getting ready for another bout of book tours, this time for his bestselling novel Cutting for Stone's paperback edition.

"It's a nightmare over here," says Eddy Handal. "There's no electricity, no water. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing! Absolutely nothing."Handal is the honourary consul to India in Haiti, and he has been in touch with his superior, Ambassador Mitra Vashist in Havana in Cuba, the 140 Indian personnel making up the Formed Police Unit, and the Missionaries of Charities there."The situation is very critical. food is not being properly distributed," says Handal.

The father of molestation victim Ruchika welcomed the slapping of fresh abetment to suicide charge on former Haryana director general of police S P S Rathore as a "step in the right direction" and thanked Home Minister P Chidambaram for "taking corrective measures" in the case on Tuesday.

The stamp is tentatively planned to go on sale nationwide August 26, 2010, on the birthday of Mother Teresa, who received the Nobel Prize in 1979 for humanitarian work.

Arthur J Pais interviews 18-year-old American student William J Oppenheim III, who, along with a few friends, has established the Omprakash Foundation, which links for-free volunteer teachers with more than 100 grassroots educational projects in 26 countries.

The nun, who is one of the accused in the 1992 Sister Abhaya murder case in a Kerala convent, on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court seeking action against officials of the Central Bureau of Investigations who forced her to undergo virginity test last year.

In this era of numerous invisible fences, globalism is the new villain and patriotism the new virtue.

A United States-trained software engineer is educating poor children at a Dalit school in Uttar Pradesh by giving computer lessons to them. Karan Shishir, a US university graduate, teaches computer fundamentals to children at a Dalit village, Devra, 65 kilometers from Lucknow.

William Dalrymple discusses his latest book, which delves into nine spiritual lives and uncovers multiple Indias, with Vaihayasi P Daniel.

Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. There's all of that and more on the mind of 33-year-old author Palash Mehrotra, whose first collection of short stories, Eunuch Park: Fifteen Stories of Love and Destruction, was released in India earlier this year. Presenting an excerpt.

Sister Sephy, an accused in the Abhaya murder case, today filed a petition in a local court seeking a probe into the alleged leakage of CDs of the narco-tests conducted on her.

Special prayers were held at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity on Wednesday on the occasion of Mother Teresa's 99th birth anniversary.

'What rules are we talking about here? When I sought admission to the college, nowhere in the prospectus or any other paper was it mentioned that it is against the rules to wear a headscarf.'

Ayesha Asmin, a first year degree student from SVS Government College in Bantwal, Karnataka, has claimed that the college authorities warned her against wearing a headscarf to college. Amin, a resident of Buntwal, alleged that college Principal Sitaram Maiyya had warned her against wearing the headscarf and asked her to choose between her studies or her religion.

The Independence Day weekend in America was a memorable one for hundreds of Jain teenagers and young adults from North America. Some of them were inspired to change their diet. Several of them may have met their future spouses. Others learned about the history of their ancestors. Many found a way to relate to their spirituality.

Sister Sephy, the nun accused in the Sister Abhaya murder case, plans to move the Supreme Court against the virginity test done on her and the 'vulgar' language allegedly used by the Central Bureau of Investigation in its chargesheet against her, according to Church sources.

Declaration of a faithful as 'Servant of God' is the first step for canonisation under the Roman Catholic Church. Other steps towards sainthood are declarations of Venerable, Blessed and Canonisation.

Pelosi told the assembled gathering and many lawmakers who year after year have approved unanimous resolutions condemning the Chinese repression of the Tibetans that "the welcoming of India of the Tibetan refugee community is a testament to the close ties between the Indian and Tibetan people."

Observing that the Chinese government has not "won the hearts and minds" of the Tibetan people, United States House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday asked Beijing to come out with a solution that respects the human rights of every Tibetan.

The autobiography of a former nun in Kerala, in which she recounts her 'harrowing' experiences during her time spent in the convents, is selling like hot cakes even as the influential Catholic Church is yet to react to the charges in the book. In her memoirs in Malayalam titled Amen (so be it), 'Sister' Jesme writes of alleged sexual abuse, corruption and power struggles in the 'dark confines' of convents where she had lived for over 30 years.

On Wednesday, Nair and Verghese met at Asia Society in New York in a conversation discussing life and the arts.

Monks fiddling with computers, using cell phones and zipping around on bikes, may appear a bit out of place, but it is a common sight at the ancient Buddhist monastery at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. "There can be no conflict between modernity and spirituality once control is established over desire," senior monks in the 328-year-old monastery told a visiting PTI correspondent.

Five months after a Catholic nun was allegedly gangraped in Kandhamal, the Orissa police filed a chargesheet on Thursday in the case on the eve of the expiry of stipulated time frame of 120 days.