INDIA, June 23, 2016 (The Diplomat): On June 21, 2016, the world welcomed the second celebration of the International Day of Yoga - constituted last year by the United Nations through a resolution that won the support of 177 member states. In his message on Yoga Day, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared the importance of promoting healthier lifestyles as part of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, which all member states adopted last year.

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Four Hindu priests sat cross-legged on the floor in front of silver trays of rice, flowers and vermillion powder, chanting in low baritones that reverberated off the bare walls of the old brick temple.An iPhone propped on a chair captured the service — known as a puja — and beamed it via Skype to a home in San Francisco, where a middle-aged woman wearing a red bindi and a head scarf watched intently.Every so often, the priests peered into the screen and instructed her to mimic a gesture or repeat an invocation.

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(RNS) Hinduism certainly has numerous memorable manifestations of God, from Brahma the Creator to Shiva the Destroyer.But despite the remarkable success of retail giant Amazon, its founder Jeff Bezos is not one of them.That’s why the editor of Fortune magazine is now apologizing for a colorful cover that depicts Bezos as the Hindu deity Vishnu — known as the Preserver — in a story on Amazon’s plans to “conquer” the enormous marketplace in India.“Neither the artist nor the editors of Fortune had any intention of parodying a particular deity or of offending members of the Hindu...

The victim, Mohammad Ikhlaq, was beaten to death after residents stormed his house after a public announcement that he had killed and eaten parts of a cow, villagers said.

Source: Goat Meat, Not Beef, Found in Home of Indian Killed Over Cow-Slaughter Rumors - The New York Times