ISKCON NewsThe News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Pope Benedict XVI's launch of a Vatican channel on global video-sharing website YouTube fell on slightly deaf ears Friday, according to early viewing figures.

By 1630 GMT, http://it.youtube.com/vatican had drawn a total of 14,606 views and signed up just 528 subscribers to what the Holy See describes as "the Catholic Church's position regarding the principal issues of the world today."

Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister, Prachanda, has banned the dowry system and criminalised caste-based discrimination to win public support for his faltering government.

In a 30-minute national televised address, Mr Prachanda expressed dissatisfaction over his Government's performance and called on all parties to forge a new political understanding.

A variety of religions hold that our food choices impact our spiritual well-being. Some base their dietary prescriptions on sacred texts. Others pay special attention to social concerns like world hunger. All encourage followers to honor food and to consume it with reverence and moderation.

Denise Backstrom, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tupelo, also a chef and practitioner of Yoga, said mindful eating can be understood in a number of ways.

Despite tight economic times, guests and dignitaries at the prestigious 8th Annual Asian Achievers awards reached into their hearts and wallets to pledge help Food for Life Vrindavan (FFLV) build its third school for desperately poor children and their families in Vrindavan, India.

The Ganga Sagar Mela is an annual festival that takes place in the area known as Ganga Sagar where Lord Kapiladeva instructed his mother Devahuti under a tree about the Absolute Truth. His temple still standing, far away from the original site, but nonetheless a sacred place. Almost a million people during Makara Sankranti, a very auspicious time of the year, come to worship mother Ganga by offering puja and taking bath in her salty waves.

I was a convinced believer of evolution from childhood and never doubted it. I was trained in science in college and was absolutely, even militantly, atheistic. But instead of continuing my science studies at home in Denmark, I travelled around the world for a few years. My experiences with nature and other people finally convinced me that God does exist, and from then on I was completely into spiritual life.

Munching contentedly on a carrot and surrounded by besotted admirers, two-year-old Aditi may be one of Britain's luckiest cows. A fortnight ago, she was just another ordinary member of the bovine family, facing a life of servitude on a dairy farm, or worse, heading towards the abattoir.

Devotees in the sacred town of Vrindavana, India, will be celebrating the sixth anniversary of the new temple at Vrinda Kunda this February 9th to 22nd.

The sacred lake’s history goes back a long way – Lord Krishna’s own grandson Vajranabha first installed a Krishna deity beside it five thousand years ago, while the site was excavated by Lord Chaitanya’s disciples in the 1500s.

A popular Hare Krishna Sunday School curriculum, used successfully over the years by ISKCON temples, gurukula schools, and homeschools, has just been made available online.

The idea first came to teacher and homeschooler Tapasvini Dasi many years ago while running a small gurukula in Houston, Texas.

The entrance to Kapaleeshwarar temple in Mylapore turned into a sea of humanity, as the devout Hindus turned up to pay obeisance to Lord Jagannath on the occasion of the annual Ratha-yatra organised by ISKCON on Tuesday.

When I first joined the Hare Krishnas, the phrase “plain living high thinking” would inevitably make me think of yogis in the Himalaya Mountains who meditate on the Absolute Truth while staying in caves, surviving freezing temperatures without central heating and living on nothing but water and air.

Along with millions of others, I watched Barack Hussein Obama swear the oath while laying his left hand on the Bible. Not just any Bible in this case, but the self same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used back in 1861.

US President Barack Obama will lift restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, reversing a policy of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush, an administration official said.

The Church of England is to be asked to ban clergy from joining the British National Party (BNP).

The general synod - the Church's parliament - will be urged to adopt a similar policy to other bodies which forbid BNP membership, like the police.

Kathmandu: Close on the heels of a power tussle over Nepal's Pashupatinath shrine revered by Hindus worldwide, the Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita has come under attack in the former Hindu kingdom.