• Factbox: New wind power projects in Europe
• Japan: Electric company to build solar power plant to reduce CO2 emissions
• Japan: Mitsubishi Electic to invest $550 million to lift solar output

• US: Tower and Lerner office building gets top 'green' certification
• US: Maharishi University of Management Trustee inaugurates the world's largest Fortune-Creating building
• US: Maryland building constructed in harmony with universe

• Pakistan: Stocks fall over 4 per cent on uncertainty
• Germany: Consumer, business confidence ebbs, slides to five-year low
• US: Eli Lilly and Co to buy Monsanto artificial dairy hormone

---

Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Factbox: New wind power projects in Europe
27 August 2008 - Czech utility CEZ's plan to invest 1.1 billion euros ($1.62 billion) in a 600 megawatt wind park in Romania is good news for a renewable energy industry seeking new markets. The five biggest countries by wind power capacity account for nearly three-quarters of global capacity, underlining the significance of planned CEZ wind farm which would dwarf current east European projects. Following are details of installed wind power capacity by country and major proposed European wind power projects. (more)

Japan: Electric company to build solar power plant to reduce CO2 emissions
27 August 2008 - Japanese utility Kyushu Electric Power Company said on Monday it would build a 3-megawatt solar power generation plant to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through renewable energy. The company plans to begin construction at the site of its former coal-fired plant in the city of Omuta in Fukuoka in the year starting April 2009. Operations are scheduled to begin in the year from April 2010. (more)

Japan: Mitsubishi Electic to invest $550 million to lift solar output
27 August 2008 - Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp plans to invest 60 billion yen ($549 million) to quadruple its solar battery production in four years t meet growing demand for renewable energy. The electronics conglomerate said the company is conducting research on thin-film solar cells, and may shift production to the new technology. Thin-film uses a fraction of the pricey silicon used in conventional solar cells, but is less efficient in converting sunlight into electricity. (more)

New Wal-Mart Canada stores go greener
27 August 2008 - Wal-Mart stores in Canada will look to go greener next year, with new outlets opened in 2009 designed to save 30 percent in energy use, the head of the retail giant's Canadian unit said on Tuesday. The company will achieve the energy savings, compared with traditional outlets in 2005, by using waste energy from refrigerators to help heat stores, cutting lighting costs, covering roofs with white membranes to reflect sunlight and lower summer cooling costs, and reducing the size of the buildings. (more)

Romania to have largest onshore wind park in Europe
27 August 2008 - Czech power group CEZ plans to build a 1.1 billion euro ($1.62 billion) wind park in Romania, the largest of its kind in Europe, in a move to offset emissions from dirtier coal-fired power plants. CEZ said the two-stage, 600 megawatt project would be built 17 km (10 miles) from the Black Sea shore, north of the port of Constanta, and would be around twice the size of the next biggest onshore wind farm in Europe. (more)

Tanzania sees 300 cars on hybrid fuel by March 2009
27 August 2008 - Tanzania plans to have about 300 cars running on a hybrid of petrol and compressed natural gas in Dar es Salaam by March 2009, a senior government petroleum official said on Tuesday. It also plans to build three gas filling stations in the same period. The east African economy has proven natural gas deposits of about 3.3 trillion cubic feet and is trying to use it to blunt the effects of high international fuel prices. (more)

US: Consumer confidence bounces
27 August 2008 - US consumer confidence recovered more than expected in August as fears over inflation eased, while financial markets combed through housing data on Tuesday for reasons to hope the worst may be over. The Conference Board said its index measuring consumers' mood jumped to 56.9 this month from July's 51.9 for the highest reading since May, while a decline in inflation expectations should please Federal Reserve officials worried about an unwelcome rise in price pressures this year. (more)

Egypt: Visitors increase more than 25 per cent
26 August 2008 - The number of people visiting Egypt increased more than 25 per cent in the financial year 2007/8, compared with the previous year, Tourism Minister Zoheir Garrana said. Tourism accounted for 6.5 per cent of Egypt's gross domestic product in 2007, World Bank figures show. The tourism industry employs directly or indirectly about 13 per cent of the workforce. The government estimates that every extra million tourists create 200,000 new jobs. One of the biggest growth areas has been tourism from Russia. (more)

Japan firms to work on solar-powered ship
26 August 2008 - The race to go green has taken to the high seas with two Japanese companies saying they would begin work on the world's first ship to have propulsion engines partially powered by solar energy. The ship is scheduled to be completed in December. (more)

Submerged Ghana forest may point to timber bonanza and slow deforestation on land
26 August 2008 - Logging of a Ghanaian forest submerged 40 years ago by a hydroelectric dam could point to an underwater timber bonanza worth billions of dollars in tropical countries, a senior Ghanaian official said on Monday. Using submerged rot-resistant hardwoods such as ebony, wawa, or odum trees in Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in Africa, can also slow deforestation on land and curb emissions of greenhouse gases linked to burning of forests. (more)

---

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

US: Tower and Lerner office building gets top 'green' certification
26 August 2008 - The state of Maryland has a new 'green' building which houses the Rockville headquarters of The Tower Companies and Lerner Enterprises. The nine-storey glass tower is a showcase of Vedic design, and has been recognized by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, which has honoured it with a US Green Building Council's platinum certification. (more)

US: Maharishi University of Management Trustee inaugurates the world's largest Fortune-Creating building
23 August 2008 - Delegations from around the world are visiting 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard, the Washington, DC area's newest green office building. The building's health-promoting features go far beyond green, ushering in a higher standard in workplace design, incorporating the principles of Vedic Architecture. (more)

US: Maryland building constructed in harmony with universe
5 August 2008 - The Tower Companies' new building in Rockville, Maryland is designed using Vedic architectural principles, which are in harmony with the flow of the universe. (more)

USA: Washington, DC home to world's largest Maharishi Vedic Architecture building
20 July 2008 - Speaking on the Maharishi Global Family Chat, Dr Bevan Morris, Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace, reported highlights of his recent trip to the United States, which included a visit to the largest building in the world constructed according to the principles of Maharishi Vedic Architecture. (more)

Grenada: New products to help support education and world peace
15 July 2008 - Speaking 9 July 2008 on Maharishi's Global Family Chat, Raja Graham de Freitas, Raja of Invincible Grenada for the Global Country of World Peace, reported progress in developing a line of agricultural products in Grenada, the proceeds of which will help support educational and peace-creating initiatives on the island. (more)

'World's Healthiest Building' inaugurated in Washington DC, USA
29 June 2008 - Real estate developer Jeffrey Abramson presented news about the opening of his Maharishi Sthapatya Veda Architecture office building in Washington, DC, USA christened 'Tower II'. The building was inaugurated on 20 June 2008 in the presence of members of the Washington brokerage community who had come for the unveiling of the 'Healthiest Building in Washington'. Attending members of the press renamed Tower II 'The World's Healthiest Building'. (more)

Announcing a new programme for businesses, organizations, and clubs to learn Transcendental Meditation
6 June 2008 - In a recent Global Family Chat, Raja Steven Rubin, Raja of Invincible China for the Global Country of World Peace, spoke about special new group programmes for learning Transcendental Meditation in clubs, businesses, and organizations. (more)

All-green Maharishi Sthapatya Veda office tower to open in Washington DC
2 June 2008 - Real estate developer Dr Jeffrey Abramson presented details of his newly constructed all-green, non-toxic office building in Washington, DC, USA, called 'Tower II', which is built according to principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda architecture in accord with Natural Law. Dr Abramson, a major partner in The Tower Companies, noted that in the real estate industry, builders of commercial buildings are responsible for 40% of the energy used in the United States. (more)

Estonia: Rising coherence promotes invincible economy
1 June 2008 - Dr Jaan Suurkula, National Director of Estonia for the Global Country of World Peace, reports that a well-known source for credit ratings of businesses and countries has in its latest evaluation shown confidence in Estonia, in spite of decreases in the Estonian economy during the spring. Dr Suurkula attributes the continuing stability of the economy to the large number of Yogic Flyers and practitioners of Transcendental Meditation creating invincibility for the nation. (more)

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)

---

Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Pakistan: Stocks fall over 4 per cent on uncertainty
27 August 2008 - Pakistani stocks fell over 4 per cent in early trade on Wednesday to their lowest level in more than two years, as investors sold blue chips such as OGDC amid persistent political uncertainty in the country. The coalition government broke up on Monday after the alliance's second biggest party, headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, pulled out. Inflation in Pakistan is soaring, the trade and fiscal deficits are falling, high oil prices have depleted foreign exchange reserves. Investors are worried political tension will slow foreign investments, making it hard for Pakistan to pay for imports. (more)

Germany: Consumer, business confidence ebbs, slides to five-year low
26 August 2008 - Consumer confidence in Europe's biggest economy declined for a fourth month in a row, sliding to another five-year low as lower energy prices failed to bolster Germans' likelihood of buying new goods, a report released Tuesday found. A separate report, meanwhile, found that business executives' confidence in the German economy had also dropped to a three-year low in August, the third consecutive monthly decline. 'The German economy is encountering an increasingly more difficult situation,' the report said. Germany's government also confirmed that the economy shrank for the first time in nearly four years in the second quarter as consumer spending and capital investment declined. (more)

US: Eli Lilly and Co to buy Monsanto artificial dairy hormone
23 August 2008 - Eli Lilly and Co on Wednesday said it would pay $300 million for global rights to Posilac, the widely used Monsanto Co artificial hormone to boost milk production, whose safety has been questioned by some consumer advocates. Indianapolis-based Lilly, like many rival drug makers, has an animal health business. Monsanto has battled with consumer activists for more than a decade over whether Posilac, also known as rbST or rBGH, is harmful to human and animal health. The debate has heated up over the past two years. For more than a decade the European Union also has rejected imports of meat derived from hormone-treated cattle, sparking a long-running World Trade Organization dispute. In addition to a $300 million upfront payment, Lilly said it would pay Monsanto additional contingent consideration for Posilac, the brand's US sales force, and its manufacturing plant in Augusta, Georgia. (more)

US: Wholesale prices rising at fastest pace since 1981
20 August 2008 - US Wholesale inflation soared in July, leaving prices rising at the fastest pace in nearly three decades. While recent declines in oil and other commodity prices raise hopes inflation may have peaked, some economists worry about the widespread nature of the July price surge and caution it will take more time for that pressure to ease on Wall Street and Main Street. The increase was more than twice the 0.5 per cent gain that economists expected and left prices rising over the past 12 months by 9.8 per cent. That marked the biggest annual increase since the 12 months ending in June 1981, a period when the Federal Reserve was driving interest rates to the highest levels since the Civil War in an effort to combat a decade-long bout of inflation. (more)

Large US bank collapse ahead, says ex-IMF economist
19 August 2008 - The worst of the global financial crisis is yet to come and a large US bank will fail in the next few months as the world's biggest economy hits further troubles, former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said on Tuesday. Rogoff's comments come as investors dumped shares of the largest US home funding companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Monday after a newspaper report said government officials may have no choice but to effectively nationalise the US housing finance titans. Mr. Rogoff also said the US Federal Reserve was wrong to cut interest rates as 'dramatically' as it did. 'Cutting interest rates is going to lead to a lot of inflation in the next few years in the United States.' (more)

US: Home foreclosure filings up 55 per cent in July
14 August 2008 - US foreclosure activity in July rose 55 per cent from a year earlier as a slump in once-sizzling housing markets forced yet more borrowers to default on their mortgages, according to a monthly report. Foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions -- rose 8 per cent from June and 55 per cent from July 2007, according to RealtyTrac, which records property in various stages of foreclosure. (more)

Africa: Children working in gold mines
12 August 2008 - A report prepare by The Associated Press shows that thousand of children work long hours at often dangerous jobs in hundreds of primitive gold bush mines scattered through West Africa. Some are as young as 4 years old. The Associated Press conducted a year-long investigation of these mines, interviewing the children, their employers, the merchants who buy their gold, and numerous experts, over 11 months in Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Switzerland. The conclusion of the report is that wherever there are bush mines, there is child labour. Anyone who wears a gold ring, writes with a gold-tipped fountain pen, or has gold in an investment portfolio, has most likely connected his or her life to these children. (more)

Mexico's annual inflation hits 3-year high
11 August 2008 - Mexico's central bank says rising food and gasoline prices have pushed inflation to its highest level in three years. The bank says annual inflation rose to 5.39 per cent in July, the highest since November 2004. The soaring cost of foods such as eggs and apples, and of gasoline, electricity, and public transportation contributed to the spike. (more)

US: Jobless claims rise to highest since March 2002
7 August 2008 - The number of newly laid off people signing up for jobless benefits in the US last week climbed to its highest point in more than six years, as the faltering economy forced companies to cut back. The data disappointed Wall Street and the White House. The four-week moving average of unemployment benefits claims, rose to 419,500 last week, the highest since mid-July 2003. Economists expect another half million jobs to be eliminated this year alone. The jobless rate could hit 6.5 per cent by the middle of next year. 'The country is getting pounded by many negative forces,' the Federal Reserve said. A programme to locate people eligible for jobless benefits played a role in the increase, a Labor Department analyst said. However, the analyst couldn't say how much of a role. The outreach programme notifies people that they could qualify for additional benefits under a new law. (more)

Spain: Corporate defaults soar 172 per cent as boom collapses
1 August 2008 - Spanish corporate debt defaults soared 172 per cent between April and June from a year earlier to hit a record high as dozens of building and property firms collapsed at the end of a decade-long housing boom, the government reported on Friday. Some 206 firms and individuals suspended debt payments during the second quarter amid a severe slowdown in what was previously one of Europe's hottest real estate markets, National Statistics Institute (INE) data showed. (more)