Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has sent an annual message to Hindu communities in Britain for Diwali, the 'festival of lights', which is also marked by Sikhs and celebrates the victory of good over evil and hope over despair.

Anabaptists in India say they have been horrified that Christians have had to the jungle with nothing but the clothes on their backs, fearing for their lives because of communal violence in a country once known for religious tolerance.

Indians are mourning the death of a Catholic priest who dedicated his life to developing positive relations between Christians and Muslims at a time when extremists are fostering violence among the communities for political ends.

Christians in Orissa, India, still fear for their lives and security, feeling 'helpless' in the face of persistent attacks from militant Hindu nationalists, says an ecumenical journalist who has investigated the tragedy.

Accord, a new coalition promoting inclusive education and seeking the reform of faith schools policy, has expressed reservations over the opening of the Krishna-Avanti School in Edgware, the first publicly-funded Hindu school in Britain.

Churches in India are today closing around 30,000 of their educational institutions across the country to protest against continuing attacks by mobs of Hindu militants in the country's eastern state of Orissa.

A Hindu woman living in India has produced a 900-page poetic epic on the life and message of Jesus following the style of such Hindu classics as Mahabharat and Ramayan. It has been written in Kannada.

Officials in the Indian state of Orissa have imposed a curfew in the Kandhamal district and appealed for calm after clashes involving Hindu nationalists and the minority Christian community.

Young Christians have been meeting near Katmandu in Nepal, a country emerging towards democracy and pluralism. Many are now attracted to Christianity in the predominantly Hindu kingdom which now has a formally secular state.

According to Indian government documents, Christians account for less than 10 percent of the population of the southern Karnataka state. But the proportion may be much higher because of the impact of caste and categorisation, research shows.