NEW DEHLI (UCAN): Father Vineet Vincent Pereira of Varanasi in India’s Uttar Pradesh state, was been arrested on false charges after being beaten up by a hardline youth group, Hindu Yuva Vahini (youth force), on November 15.
 
Father Pereira said that members of the group came to his ashram (retreat venue) in Gohana town in Mau district, and attacked some of the elderly people living there with him.
 

NEW DEHLI (UCAN): “I want to make it clear that mob lynching is a crime, no matter the motive. No person can, under any circumstances, take the law into his or her own hands and commit violence,” said India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, In an August 11 interview with Times of India, just four days ahead of the country’s Independence Day.
 

ROME (SE): A bishop in Spain issued a public apology after a parish priest allowed the local Hindu community to carry an image of the Hindu god with an elephant head, Ganesh, in a procession at the church.
 
The priest who allowed the procession to take place subsequently offered his resignation as the vicar general of the diocese. It was accepted.
 
On August 20, the Hindu community of Ceuta and Melilla, two autonomous Spanish communities located on the coast of North Africa, visited the church of Our Lady of Africa.

HONG KONG (SE): Over 60 leaders and organisations from the Hindu faith signed the Hindu Declaration on Climate Change, which was released on November 23.

The declaration is an initiative of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies—Bhumi Project, the Hindu American Foundation and an interfaith organisation, GreenFaith, together with an interfaith campaign for climate action, OurVoices.