RELIGION

This most important of Hindu festivals falls on Tuesday 13 through to Wednesday 14 February 2018.

Denmark has proposed banning full-face Islamic veils like the niqab and the burqa in public with the justice minister saying they were "incompatible" with Danish values.

Poland's president says he will sign a bill outlawing suggestions the Polish nation or state was complicit in Nazi crimes.

Head of Ofsted Amanda Spielman says religious extremists use schools to 'indoctrinate' children and narrow their horizons.

The fatwa has been issued by an Islamic cleric in India's north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The imam of one the largest mosques in Manchester married a woman 30 years younger than him last year.

Pope Francis jokes that gossiping nuns are 'terrorists' during visit to the Church of the Nazarenas in Lima, Peru.

In temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (–22F), believers immersed themselves in cross-shaped holes cut into thick ice covering rivers and lakes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin immersed himself in a frozen lake to celebrate Epiphany, a major holiday in Orthodox Christianity marking the baptism of Jesus.

Group calling themselves "Right in Resistance" post pictures of dummy decapitated corpse in anti-Muslim threat.

Every year on the night of 17 January, horses are ridden through huge flames and clouds of smoke on the streets of the village of San Bartolome de los Pinares.

Nine churches have been firebombed in the past week, and scores of demonstrators were arrested during his first open-air mass in Santiago.

Makar Sankranti marks the winter solstice and the transition of the sun from Sagittarius to Capricorn. Devotees also thank Surya the sun god for the coming harvest season.

Lucien Greaves, the Temple's co-founder, had his account permanently suspended after he told members to report a person who called for the organisation's HQ to be burned down.

Nepalese woman Gauri Kumari Bayak dies after being banished to mountain hut for menstruating. She was following ancient Hindu tradition Chhaupadi.

Menstruating girls banned from crossing River Ofin in the Upper Denkyira East district of Ghana by 'powerful river god.'

Devotees squeezed their way into the tightly packed mob and climbed on others in a desperate attempt to reach the carriage carrying the Black Nazarene through Manila.

The Reverend Timothy Davis has become the first priest to be convicted of spiritual abuse for trying to stop a teenage boy from seeing his girlfriend.

Mohammad Azeemuddin, head of India's oldest Sunni Muslim seminary, Jamia Nizamia, announced on New Year's Day that Muslims should not eat prawns.

Orthodox Christians in Russia, Greece, Ethiopia and other countries around the world celebrated Christmas Day yesterday (Sunday 7 January).

Video emerges shows protesters at a Holocaust exhibition in Tunisia tearing down posters and chanting 'Free Palestine'.

It seems that a vicar in Kent is pretty annoyed at brides for turning up fashionably late. Not on his watch- couples now get £100 for turning up on time.

Catholic Church rocked by new sex abuse allegations as Sion bishop Jean-Marie Lovey apologises for clerical abuse by 10 paedophile priests in Switzerland.

The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passed away at 90, from age-related health problems.

The politician lashed out at the police for appeasing the Muslim community after it posted a New Year message in Arabic along with other languages.

The Church of Sweden is urging its clergy to avoid using the masculine words "Lord" and "He" when referring to God in some prayers in a bid to become more gender neutral.

India's parliament took a major step towards banning the "triple talaq" instant divorce practice on 28 December when the lower house passed a bill making it illegal.

The pope took particular aim at areas of global tension where President Donald Trump is playing a critical role.

Families reunite on the festive occasion and decorate the Christmas tree with colourful twinkling lights.