World Meditation Day marked in New York with global call for calm

IANS | December 22, 2025 6:21 AM

New York, Dec 22 (IANS) A prolonged hush settled over a packed Lower Manhattan hall as hundreds of people closed their eyes, relaxed their shoulders and followed their breath, joining millions across continents in a synchronized meditation led by Art of Living founder Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to mark the second World Meditation Day.

New Zealand's Suzie Bates ruled out for three months

IANS | December 22, 2025 12:03 AM

Mumbai, Dec 21 (IANS) New Zealand women's team batter Suzie Bates has sustained a quadricep tear, which has ruled her out of the home summer until March. Bates suffered the injury last month while fielding during a Hallyburton Johnstone Shield match.

Meditation key to tackling global mental health crisis: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

IANS | December 21, 2025 11:48 PM

New York, Dec 21 (IANS) Meditation offers a proven response to mounting mental health challenges facing societies worldwide, Art of Living founder and spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said on Sunday, stressing that inner calm and improved communication are essential to resolving both personal distress and global conflicts.

Football: AFC to introduce new league for national teams

IANS | December 21, 2025 11:48 PM

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Dec 21 (IANS) The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed on Sunday that it will introduce an AFC League in the coming period, aiming to enhance its international football competition for AFC member association teams across the continent.

Chains of Commerce: How Britain’s need for gold forced ‘circuitous route’ that crushed India’s trade (From the Archives)

Santosh Kumar Verma | December 21, 2025 10:59 PM

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) The early 19th century in India was not an era of equitable administration, but a period defined by the unrelenting political despotism of the British East India Company (EIC). Despite the Company’s self-serving claims that the "welfare and happiness of the inhabitants" was its "chief object" and that it had replaced a chaotic system with "courts of justice", the reality for the seventy to eighty millions of souls under its command was subjugation. They were ruled, as critics in Britain conceded, as those whom the British were "despots over".