• Latin America sees steady economic performance and more credit rating upgrades
• Turkish Airlines Jan-April passengers up 15 per cent
• World computer project One Laptop Per Child expands technology to reach more children

• Washingtonian Magazine and Washington Business Journal present first Green Awards to The Tower Companies
• Stockroyalty.com interviews successful investment manager, long-time practitioner of Transcendental Meditation
• Raja Willem Meijles reports on the strength of the Dutch economy

• US: April foreclosures rise 65 per cent on year
• US: Survey shows honey bee deaths increased over last year
• Asia: Golf courses, developers nibble at rice paddies

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Latin America sees steady economic performance and more credit rating upgrades
17 May 2008 - Emerging markets bonds, stocks, and currencies posted further gains on Friday as expectations of steady economic performance and more credit rating upgrades in Latin America. Investors left inflation concerns on the back burner and focused on the positive growth outlook for the region, which has been supported by high commodities prices. In the equities market, the Morgan Stanley Capital International index for Latin America soared 2.3 per cent, on its way to close at an all-time high for the second straight session. (more)

Turkish Airlines Jan-April passengers up 15 per cent
17 May 2008 - Turkish Airlines (THY), one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe, carried 6.29 million passengers in January to April, up 14.8 per cent year-on-year, it said late on Friday. THY has said it aims to increase passenger traffic to 23.5 million in 2008, up from 19.6 million passengers last year. (more)

World computer project One Laptop Per Child expands technology to reach more children
17 May 2008 - Microsoft and The One Laptop Per Child project, an organization devoted to spreading inexpensive portable computers to schoolchildren, announced Thursday that the nonprofit's green-and-white 'XO' computers now can run Windows in addition to their homegrown interface, which is built on the open Linux operating system. Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the laptop project, is eager to speed XO sales and donations beyond their initial deployments, which include Haiti, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, and Birmingham, Ala. (more)

Standard and Poors sees good Africa growth
16 May 2008 - High commodity prices and greater economic stability will sustain sub-Saharan Africa growth and render it relatively immune to a global slowdown, ratings agency Standard and Poor's said on Thursday. The agency, which rates 13 sub-Saharan African countries, said it expected prices to remain relatively high on Asian demand. (more)

Thailand stocks hit a six-month high as most Southeast Asian stocks rose on Friday
16 May 2008 - Most Southeast Asian stocks rose on Friday with Thailand hitting a six-month peak, and Singapore a one-week high, on gains in property stocks such as Land and Houses and City Developments. Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 1.06, Thailand rose 1.72 per cent, Indonesian stocks gained 0.78 per cent while Philippine shares edged up 0.06 per cent. Malaysian shares were up 0.5 per cent. (more)

United States: Housing posts surprising rebound in April
16 May 2008 - Construction of new homes posted the biggest increase in more than two years in April, a rare spot of good news in housing. The Commerce Department reported Friday that housing construction rose by 8.2 per cent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.03 million units. The growth came from a big jump in apartment construction. Applications for building permits, considered a good sign of future activity, also recorded an increase in April, rising by 4.9 per cent to 978,000 units. It was the first gain in permits in five months. (more)

Germany leads surprise European growth spurt in first quarter
15 May 2008 - Europe's biggest economy, Germany, expanded at a stunning pace in the first three months of 2008 and strong French growth showed the wider region began the year far outperforming a near-stagnating US economy. Many economists believe things have already started to slow and officials have acknowledged this, but official data on Thursday suggested mainland Europe's large economies were in good shape when the global credit crisis hit, due primarily to business investment. (more)

Solar firms team up on recycling
15 May 2008 - Some of the world's top solar power companies have teamed up to launch the first large-scale recycling system for solar panels in Europe, to stay one step ahead of regulators by showing an industry-led scheme can work. (more)

South Africa: US fund invests US$175 million in South Africa housing
15 May 2008 - USA-based International Housing Solutions (IHS) has raised US$175 million (R1.3 billion) for the development of 30,000 affordable housing units in South Africa. South African property developers have found it difficult to raise capital for large-scale affordable housing developments, and IHS has helped developers finance affordable housing projects in the form of equity, which allows developers to obtain larger loans from the banks at a reduced borrowing cost, which in turn allows them to build bigger developments without having to phase them in or conduct large pre-sales. (more)

United Kingdom to have world's largest offshore wind farm
15 May 2008 - Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) will build the world's largest offshore wind farm and has awarded $3 billion (1.5 billion pounds) in contracts to US engineer Fluor and Germany's Siemens. The British government welcomed SSE's announcement saying the UK is one of the most attractive places in the world to invest in offshore technology. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Washingtonian Magazine and Washington Business Journal present first Green Awards to The Tower Companies
15 May 2008 - Washingtonian Magazine has given The Tower Companies (based in North Bethesda, Maryland, near Washington, DC, USA) its first Washingtonian Green Awards for being green-building pioneers in the design and construction of the world's largest Vedic office building. In addition, the Washington Business Journal has given the company a Green Company of the Year Award. Tower Company partner, Jeff Abramson, is a well-known practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation technique. (more)

Stockroyalty.com interviews successful investment manager, long-time practitioner of Transcendental Meditation
5 May 2008 - Successful and knowledgeable investment manager Monty Guild's company has been operating continuously for nearly four decades. He and business partner Tony Danaher are long-time practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. (more)

Raja Willem Meijles reports on the strength of the Dutch economy
1 April 2008 - Raja Willem Meijles, Administrator of Invincible Holland for the Global Country of World Peace, spoke about the nation's achievement of invincibility as reflected in the news reports that Holland's economy is doing very well, especially compared with other European countries. (more)

Denmark: Indications of rising invincibility
6 October 2007 - Dr Bjarne Landsfeldt, Raja (Administrator) of Denmark for the Global Country of World Peace, recently reported on indications of rising invincibility in the nation. (more)

What everyone should know about the 'CEO' of the brain
29 September 2007 - The Center for Leadership Performance offers the Transcendental Meditation Programme to raise leadership performance for individuals and organizations through reducing stress and developing total brain functioning. (more)

US: Meditate your way to wealth
11 September 2007 - A group of 1,800 participants in the Invincible America Assembly have been creating positivity and harmony--as well as a stronger economy--through their collective practice of the Transcendental Meditation Technique. (more)

Wall Street in favour of meditation: Colombian business news
10 September 2007 - Rising collective consciousness is the cause of stock market advances and progress towards world peace, say leaders of the Global Financial Capital of New York, part of the worldwide organization established by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to end war and poverty. (more)

Renowned singer praises Transcendental Meditation
3 September 2007 - Mike Love, lead singer of the renowned American band, The Beach Boys, has been a practitioner of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Programme for almost 40 years. He says Transcendental Meditation is essential to his musical career, which began in the early 1960's and is still going strong with nearly 200 shows per year. (more)

A new perspective on global investing: Managing global risk through coherent collective consciousness - Part II
30 August 2007 - Creating a world free from poverty through Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture and the Maharishi Poverty Removal Program. (more)

The continuing results of the Invincible America Assembly currently taking place in Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, USA - Part II
30 August 2007 - Speaking recently to a Global Press Conference on the rise of positive trends throughout the United States, Dr John Hagelin, Minister of Science and Technology of the Global Country of World Peace, reported on the continuing results of the coherence produced in collective consciousness by a large group of Yogic Flyers practising the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme together in Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, USA. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

US: April foreclosures rise 65 per cent on year
14 May 2008 - US home foreclosure filings in April edged up from March and were a whopping 65 per cent higher than a year earlier, a real estate data firm said. The surge in foreclosures indicates an increasing number of homeowners are struggling to make mortgage payments amid the worst US housing market downturn since the Great Depression. The trend is also causing an erosion of property tax bases, which is putting municipal budgets in peril. One California town has already voted to file for bankruptcy. (more)

US: Survey shows honey bee deaths increased over last year
8 May 2008 - A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 per cent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year. About 29 per cent of the deaths were due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives. Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have major losses than those who didn't. (more)

Asia: Golf courses, developers nibble at rice paddies
1 May 2008 - From Bali to Viet Nam, rice paddies are being replaced by golf courses, hotels, villas, and industrial parks as Asian economies surge ahead, the standard of living rises and locals opt for higher-paying, less labour-intensive work away from farming. This shift has cut into rice production, a staple food throughout much of the region. The recent surge in rice prices to historic highs has sparked fears of political unrest in some parts of Asia and highlighted the dilemma faced by Asian governments about how to balance economic growth with food security in the future. (more)

United Kingdom: Consumer mood worst since 1992
30 April 2008 - Consumer confidence in April plummeted to its lowest level since the economic slump of 1992, a survey showed on Wednesday that will make grim reading for Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the eve of local elections. The GfK/NOP consumer confidence index fell to minus 24 from minus 19 in March as people turned gloomier on the state of the economy and their own personal finances. The index measuring people's assessment of the economic situation over the next 12 months fell to minus 38 from minus 32, the lowest since October 1992. (more)

China: Children sold 'like cabbages' into slavery
29 April 2008 - Thousands of children in southwest China have been sold into slavery like 'cabbages', to work as labourers in more prosperous areas such as the booming southern province of Guangdong, a newspaper said. China announced a nationwide crackdown on slavery and child labour last year after reports that hundreds of poor farmers, children, and mentally disabled were forced to work in kilns and mines in Shan province and neighbouring Henan. The children generally fall between the ages of 13 and 15, but many look under 10. (more)

US: Foreclosures jump for seventh straight quarter
29 April 2008 - US home foreclosure filings jumped 23 per cent in the first quarter from the prior quarter, and more than doubled from a year earlier, as more overextended borrowers failed to make timely payments, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Tuesday. One of every 194 households received a notice of default, auction sale, or bank repossession between January and March. Foreclosure filings were far-reaching, rising on an annual basis in 46 states and in 90 of the 100 largest metropolitan areas. The first quarter filings surged 112 per cent from the same period last year. (more)

Japan: Nihon Shokuhin to import 150,000 tonnes US GMO corn
16 April 2008 - Nihon Shokuhin Kako Co, one of Japan's top three corn processors, will purchase 150,000 tonnes of US genetically modified corn in 2008 for food and non-food use, a company spokesman said on Wednesday. The majority of the imports is for paper and other non-food uses, he said, but in a significant change in the company's policy, part of a cargo from the United States in February was also used to produce syrup for drink makers. The company's announcement came after South Korea, one of only two countries in Asia to stick with non-GMO corn for food use, said in late February that it would import 50,000 tonnes of US genetically altered corn in May for manufacturing starch and sweeteners. (more)

Latin America: Biofuels threaten food access - UN
15 April 2008 - A global increase in biofuel production threatens to make food for Latin America's poor less accessible, a United Nations body said. Growing biofuel output would compete with food crops for water, land and capital and thereby increase food prices and 'put at risk access to food by the poorest sectors,' the FAO explained in a report presented at its conference for Latin America and the Caribbean. (more)

US: Foreclosures jump 57 per cent in last 12 months
15 April 2008 - US Home foreclosure filings surged 57 per cent in the 12 month-period ended in March and bank repossessions soared 129 per cent from a year ago, as homeowners struggled to make mortgage payments, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Tuesday. For the month of March, foreclosure filings, default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions rose 5 per cent, led by Nevada, California and Florida, and the peak has yet to be reached, according to RealtyTrac. (more)

US: Consumer confidence falls to new low
13 April 2008 - Americans' confidence in the economy fell to a new low, dragged down by worries about mounting job losses, record-high home foreclosures, and zooming energy prices. According to the RBC Cash Index, confidence dropped to a mark of 29.5 in April, down from 33.1 in March. The new reading was the worst since the index began in 2002. It marked the fourth month in a row where confidence has fallen to an all-time low. (more)