Hindu Temple

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Dozens of Malaysian Muslims paraded yesterday with the head of a cow, a sacred animal in Hinduism, in a dramatic protest against the proposed construction of a Hindu temple in their neighborhood. The unusual protest by some 50 people in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state, raises new fears of racial tensions in this multiethnic Muslim-majority country where Hindus make up about 7 percent of the 27 million population. The demonstrators who marched from a nearby mosque after Friday prayers dumped the cow head outside the gates of...

Hundreds of Muslims in Sri Lanka have protested a government decision to demolish a mosque located inside a Buddhist sacred area. Sri Lankan officials announced Monday that a mosque and a Hindu temple would be demolished and relocated under pressure from Buddhist monks who demanded the buildings' removal from a Buddhist sacred area in the central town of Dambulla. Thousands of Buddhist monks and lay supporters stormed the mosque last week, saying it was constructed illegally.

A New York City man accused of four New Year's Day arson attacks, including one on an Islamic cultural center, has been indicted on state and federal hate crimes charges. Ray Lazier Lengend was charged with arson as a hate crime and other charges accusing him of throwing Molotov cocktails at four buildings, including the Islamic cultural center and a home used as a Hindu temple. No one was injured in the attacks. Authorities say Lengend had personal grievances with all of the targets and made broad anti-Muslim statements.

A New York City man accused of four New Year's Day arson attacks, including one on an Islamic cultural center, has been indicted on state and federal hate crimes charges. Ray Lazier Lengend was charged with arson as a hate crime and other charges accusing him of throwing Molotov cocktails at four buildings, including the Islamic cultural center and a home used as a Hindu temple. No one was injured in the attacks. Authorities say Lengend had personal grievances with all of the targets and made broad anti-Muslim statements.

Hundreds of Muslims in Sri Lanka have protested a government decision to demolish a mosque located inside a Buddhist sacred area. Sri Lankan officials announced Monday that a mosque and a Hindu temple would be demolished and relocated under pressure from Buddhist monks who demanded the buildings' removal from a Buddhist sacred area in the central town of Dambulla. Thousands of Buddhist monks and lay supporters stormed the mosque last week, saying it was constructed illegally.

India: In volatile Gujarat state, still tense from Hindu-Muslim violence last year that killed more than 1,000 people, the most innocuous incident can spark tragedy. In the town of Viramgam, about 35 miles west of Ahmedabad, three Muslims were killed and at least 37 injured recently when a cricket ball hit by a Muslim youth flew into a Hindu temple and struck a deity. Police quelled the disturbance with live rounds and tear gas. Be prepared to leave the scene at the earliest sign of trouble.

NEW DELHI - India’s top court ordered yesterday that a curator be appointed to protect and preserve the vast treasures newly revealed in a Hindu temple in southern India. The gold coins, jewels, and gem-encrusted statues were found recently in an inventory of underground vaults of the 16th-century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala. Initial estimates put the value at $22 billion, but the inventory is not yet finished. The Supreme Court also directed that the entire trove be photographed and filmed.

KUNDA, India - A stampede among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 people yesterday at a Hindu temple in northern India and injured dozens of others. Nearly all the victims were women and children. The stampede was so intense it knocked down a gate at the compound surrounding the temple in the small town of Kunda, on the northern plains of Uttar Pradesh state. “How could this happen in such a holy place?’’ cried Phool Chand Saroj, a 48-year-old farmer whose wife, daughter, and grandmother were...

NEW DELHI - A government investigation released yesterday reportedly implicated dozens of Hindu nationalist politicians - including a former prime minister - in the 1992 demolition of a mosque that sparked deadly communal riots. The attack by Hindu mobs on the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, 350 miles east of New Delhi, set off nationwide riots that killed 2,000 people in the largest explosion of Hindu-Muslim tension in the country in decades. Hindu nationalist leaders claim the mosque was built by Mogul rulers at the site of a Hindu temple marking the...

GLENVILLE, N.Y. -- Thiyagarajan Subramanian came to America and ended up in a contemporary colonial with a two-car garage. He skipped the sort of city living linked to immigration for over a century. Subramanian is typical of many immigrants across the country. They are more likely to bypass the cozy cocoon of urban enclaves to settle amid the plush lawns and strip malls of suburbia. Demographers tracking immigration trends say it's a signpost in a country simultaneously more diverse and more suburban.

NEW DELHI - India’s top court ordered yesterday that a curator be appointed to protect and preserve the vast treasures newly revealed in a Hindu temple in southern India. The gold coins, jewels, and gem-encrusted statues were found recently in an inventory of underground vaults of the 16th-century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala. Initial estimates put the value at $22 billion, but the inventory is not yet finished. The Supreme Court also directed that the entire trove be photographed and filmed.

KUNDA, India - A stampede among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 people yesterday at a Hindu temple in northern India and injured dozens of others. Nearly all the victims were women and children. The stampede was so intense it knocked down a gate at the compound surrounding the temple in the small town of Kunda, on the northern plains of Uttar Pradesh state. “How could this happen in such a holy place?’’ cried Phool Chand Saroj, a 48-year-old farmer whose wife, daughter, and grandmother were...

NEW DELHI - A government investigation released yesterday reportedly implicated dozens of Hindu nationalist politicians - including a former prime minister - in the 1992 demolition of a mosque that sparked deadly communal riots. The attack by Hindu mobs on the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, 350 miles east of New Delhi, set off nationwide riots that killed 2,000 people in the largest explosion of Hindu-Muslim tension in the country in decades. Hindu nationalist leaders claim the mosque was built by Mogul rulers at the site of a Hindu temple marking the...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Dozens of Malaysian Muslims paraded yesterday with the head of a cow, a sacred animal in Hinduism, in a dramatic protest against the proposed construction of a Hindu temple in their neighborhood. The unusual protest by some 50 people in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state, raises new fears of racial tensions in this multiethnic Muslim-majority country where Hindus make up about 7 percent of the 27 million population. The demonstrators who marched from a nearby mosque after Friday prayers dumped the cow head...

India: In volatile Gujarat state, still tense from Hindu-Muslim violence last year that killed more than 1,000 people, the most innocuous incident can spark tragedy. In the town of Viramgam, about 35 miles west of Ahmedabad, three Muslims were killed and at least 37 injured recently when a cricket ball hit by a Muslim youth flew into a Hindu temple and struck a deity. Police quelled the disturbance with live rounds and tear gas. Be prepared to leave the scene at the earliest sign of trouble.

The father of the Boston University graduate student from India who was killed last week in Allston said he thought his son would be safe in the United States while pursuing a master's degree in a highly selective finance program. "I am very shocked," Kanagala Sudhakar Rao, 56, the father of Kanagala Seshadri Rao, 24, said Sunday in an e-mail. "I am sure I will not get back the life of Seshadri. " Seshadri Rao, a student in the BU School of Management who also went by the nickname "Sesh," was found on Allston Street with gunshot wounds to his head and leg at about 2:45 a.m. Thursday,...

PHNOM PENH - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party said it had sealed a landslide victory in parliamentary elections yesterday that were expected to usher in a new term for the former Khmer Rouge soldier who has ruled for 23 years. Hun Sen's popularity at the polls was buoyed by a surge of nationalism amid a tense border dispute with neighboring Thailand. The 57-year-old Hun Sen's reputation as a strongman served him well in the campaign, with voters rallying around the leader as Cambodian troops faced off with Thai soldiers for a second week at a disputed...