Researchers compared two rituals - one involving only praying and singing, the other requiring participants to pierce their bodies with hooks, skewers and needles

A series of blasts shook India’s holiest Buddhist shrine on Sunday in what the Indian government called a terror attack.

Police officer admits Lawrence bug

One-off gesture designed to make Tories more attractive to ethnic minorities

Paramilitary soldiers have recovered 20 bodies from a steep hillside in northern India where a rescue helicopter crashed while attempting to evacuate people stranded in monsoon floods, the country's air force chief said.

Soldiers recovered more bodies as they cleared debris in villages flattened by landslides and monsoon floods in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, bringing the death toll from torrential rains above 1,000, the home minister said today.

The Egyptian military has warned that it is prepared to step in should the nationwide demonstrations expected this week descend into chaos.

Nearly 600 people have died so far in monsoon floods and landslides

Baigent and Leigh were ordered to pay legal costs of £1.3m and were left pen

Adel Mohammed Al-Khayat is linked to Islamic militant's Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya - the group behind the Luxor massacre

A group of Buddhist monks have become the subject of complaints after videos of them on a private jet, wearing aviators and listening to personal headphones emerged on Youtube.

The controversial property tycoon Sergei Polonsky, key witness in an ongoing trial against fellow Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, is now wanted by Russian authorities over a massive alleged fraud. Mr Polonsky, who earlier this year skipped bail in Cambodia, where he was awaiting trial for assaulting local sailors, is now also on Russia’s wanted list.

Boyfriend denies murder of woman, 55