New Delhi/Mumbai, Mar 27 : The nine-day ''Navratri'' festival began across India with religious fervour on Friday.

In New Delhi, devotees queued up outside the temples early in the morning to pay their obeisance to Goddess Durga.

"Today is the first Navratri so we have come here to pay obeisance. We have firm faith in goddess. She has always listened to our prayers and fulfilled them," said Vijay Singh, Bhandari, a devotee.

"Navratri", dedicated to Goddess Durga is celebrated twice in a year, during the spring and the autumn season.

Hindus are asking Pope Benedict to issue a public apology for allegedly insulting them.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was very humiliating to one billion strong Hindus of the world when Pope Benedict referred their God as “just any god”.

Srinagar, Mar 18: After this year''s directive of the Saudi Arabia Government allowing only those to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina who have valid international passports, scores of pilgrimage aspirants queue outside the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Srinagar to submit application forms for passports for past few days.

Until now special pilgrimage passes used to be issued for the annual pilgrimage and Haj Committees used to invite applications from Muslim devotees and make the final selection through draw of lots.

Bikaner/ Mumbai/ Allahabad, Mar 11 : It is festival time across India as people from all walks of life are celebrating Holi, the festival of colours, with enthusiastic fervour.

Holi revellers in Rajasthan''s Bikaner are enjoying the famous Dab Dhamaal Holi, a unique manner of celebrating the festival of colours to the beats of the ''Dab''.

The festivities here commence with the men-folk dressed as women and performing to the traditional Rajasthani folk songs. Artistes play various musical instruments and sing folk songs to mark the onset of the festival.

Varanasi, Mar 8 : With the vibrant spring festival of ''Holi'' round the corner, people here offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and usher the colourful event in a gala manner.

People took out a procession singing songs and chanting hymns of Lord Shiva on Saturday. Enroute, people in the procession sprayed colours and exchanged greetings.

"We celebrate the festival offering prayers to the divine family of Lord Shiva with great excitement every year," said Duryodhan Mishra, a devotee.

Kuala Lumpur - Religious groups in Malaysia on Friday expressed outrage over a government ban on the use of the word "Allah", or God in Arabic, in any non-Muslim publication, saying the move was a violation on the freedom of religion.

In a statement released late Thursday, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism said the government had no legal right to ban the use of a word that predated the Koran and Islam.