• US study: Smoking scenes on the decline in top movies
• Afghanistan: Archaeologists find Buddhist site
• South Africa film receives Unicef Child Rights Award

• New Zealand: Programmes for Maori women a highlight of Global Mother Divine Organization initiatives
• Orthodox Rabbi speaks about his nine-year practice of Transcendental Meditation
• Iowa community offers abundance of unique experiences, Greenbay Press-Gazette reports

• Facebook hurting Thai language
• Pakistan: 'The river has been stolen from us'
• Japan's children population at new record low

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

US study: Smoking scenes on the decline in top movies
19 August 2010 - There's a lot less smoking in the movies these days, a new report shows. Tobacco use in US movies peaked in 2005 and has been on the decline since, according to research that looked at the most popular films from 1991 to 2009. Last year more than half of the 145 top movies released didn't show any smoking at all. That's a record for the past two decades. For films aimed at children or teens, the percentage was even higher -- 61 per cent. The report 'shows that Hollywood is perfectly capable of making movies without as much smoking and people still come see them,' said the US study's lead author. (more)

Afghanistan: Archaeologists find Buddhist site
17 August 2010 - Archaeologists in Afghanistan have uncovered Buddhist-era remains in an area south of Kabul. 'There is a temple, stupas, beautiful rooms, big and small statues, two with the length of seven and nine meters, colourful frescos ornamented with gold, and some coins,' said Mohammad Nader Rasouli, head of the Afghan Archaeological Department. (more)

South Africa film receives Unicef Child Rights Award
17 August 2010 - South African film Themba: A Boy Called Hope has given the Unicef Child Rights Award at the 2010 Zanzibar International Film Festival (Ziff). The film's director, Pretoria-born Stefanie Sycholt, received the prize at the film's Cologne premiere in Germany at the beginning of this month. 'Themba's story is universal,' Sycholt said. 'It's not a football movie that builds up to one match at the end. It's about the element of hope in a boy's life.' The film is also garnering rave reviews from all over the world. (more)

US: Metropolitan Opera breaks box office record, topping $2.6 million
16 August 2010 - The Metropolitan Opera has set a record for its box office opening day, selling more than $2.6 million worth of single tickets for the new season. News of the record-setting ticket sales is especially welcome at the Metropolitan Opera after several years of financial struggles exacerbated by the recession. (more)

US: Sacred artifacts returned to Northern California tribe
14 August 2010 - More than 200 sacred artifacts are once again in the possession of a Northern California Indian tribe. The Yurok Tribe celebrated the items' return this past week -- among the largest repatriation of Native American sacred objects ever -- from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. The tribe's leaders say the artifacts date back hundreds and maybe even thousands of years. They will continue to be used in ceremonies intended to heal the world. (more)

40 American billionaires pledge to donate half their wealth
4 August 2010 - Forty wealthy families and individuals in the United States have joined Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a pledge to give at least half their wealth to charity. Six weeks after launching a campaign to get other billionaires to donate half their wealth, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett) released the first list Wednesday of people who have signed what he and Gates call the 'giving pledge'. Buffett said he and Bill Gates also will meet with groups of wealthy people in China and India within the next six months to talk about philanthropy. (more)

American billionaires pledge fortunes to charity
4 August 2010 - More than 30 US billionaires pledged on Wednesday to give away at least 50 per cent of their wealth to charity as part of a campaign by investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Based on Forbes magazine's estimates of the billionaires' wealth, at least $150 billion could be given away. (more)

Good News leads South Africa
4 August 2010 - Today (4 August) marks the launch of the Primedia Broadcasting and Independent Newspaper's LeadSA initiative. Initially, Lead SA will celebrate South Africa and its leaders from Nelson Mandela, to the ordinary people who make a difference to the country through their everyday actions. The introduction on the new website says, 'Lead SA is an initiative that aims to remind us that it is in our power to change ourselves and our country, that we all have the ability to lead.' (more)

List of US billionaires making charity pledge
4 August 2010 - A group of United States billionaires pledged on Wednesday to give away at least half of their wealth to charity as part of a campaign led by investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Wednesday's commitments bring to 40 the number of billionaires giving away half their wealth. Many of those listed have already been engaged in significant philanthropic efforts. Following are details on how much they are worth, based on data from Forbes magazine, and how they made their fortune. (more)

New literary series views Africa through African eyes
4 August 2010 - Tired of reading accounts of Africa through the eyes of outsiders, 14 African writers have set out to document the diversity of their content in a series of books and blogs partly inspired by the soccer World Cup. The Pilgrimages Project, sponsored by the US-based Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artistes, involves the 14 writers exploring an African city not previously well known to them and documenting their experiences in 14 30,000-word books. (more)

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

New Zealand: Programmes for Maori women a highlight of Global Mother Divine Organization initiatives
2 September 2010 - The Global Mother Divine Organization has been very active in New Zealand in the second year since its incorporation--offering one-day courses and monthly full moon celebrations, as well as Maharishi Ayur-Veda treatments at a ladies' spa in Auckland. A major initiative this year is a project for indigenous Maori people. Many influential Maori women have been learning about the value of the Transcendental Meditation Programme in creating an ideal society, and many are also inspired to participate in the Global Alliance of the Revered Indigenous Mothers, a programme of the GMDO Foundation of Total Knowledge Based Culture. (more)

Orthodox Rabbi speaks about his nine-year practice of Transcendental Meditation
2 September 2010 - Rabbi Abraham Shainberg first heard about Transcendental Meditation ten years ago. He learned the technique a year later, and has been meditating twice daily ever since. 'Transcendental Meditation is not a religion,' he says. 'It is a technique for you to go inwards and find your soul, find your silence, find your bliss as a human being . . . . Looking back over all these years, I can say TM has led me to better prayer, better service, and to be a better Jew. I'm more on my path to God than ever.' (more)

Iowa community offers abundance of unique experiences, Greenbay Press-Gazette reports
30 August 2010 - The small rural communities of Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, USA feature many unique attractions, including international cuisine restaurants, sustainability initiatives that could make it a leader in this field, a spa offering Ayurvedic health care, and twice-daily practice of the Transcendental Meditation Programme by a large group of experts. (more)

Netherlands: World renowned Gandharva Veda vocalist performs in MERU
28 August 2010 - On 20 August at MERU in Holland, Srimati Anita Roy, a world-renowned Gandharva Veda vocalist, performed a special concert that was broadcast live on the Maharishi Channel. Prior to her concert Ms Roy gave an explanation of the three styles of Gandharva Veda singing she would perform. (more)

Offering protection to the world: Global Mother Divine Organization full moon celebration
27 August 2010 - The role of the Global Mother Divine Organization is 'to give protection to the whole world', explained a leader of the organization during the Full Moon celebration of the day of protection. We protect ourselves through the practice of the Transcendental Meditation Programme, she said; and expressed the intention of the organization to establish large groups of Yogic Flyers in many cities of India and in every country, to create coherence and orderliness for the protection of the world. (more)

Rabbi discusses how Transcendental Meditation 'makes you a better you, whoever you are'
26 August 2010 - A Rabbi discusses how his nine-year practice of the Transcendental Meditation Programme has helped make him 'a better practising Jew. It's a technique to make you a better you, whoever you are,' he says. 'Now my religion is more meaningful to me than ever before, because I have this technique to get even more in touch with my soul each and every day.' (more)

Unity in diversity: Celebrating the message of Maharishi's first historic visit to Austria
18 August 2010 - The theme of unity in diversity, brought to light by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during his first visit to Austria nearly 50 years ago, was celebrated in a recent presentation in that country. In 1962 Maharishi explained that, while differences remain on the surface level of different countries and different religions, there is an underlying level of unity that can be experienced by anyone: Unity will blossom in society based on each individual's growing experience of bliss through the practice of Transcendental Meditation. (more)

A 'jewel among worldwide pilgrimage sites': Maharishi Samadhi Smarak rising in India
11 August 2010 - The Maharishi Samadhi Smarak, a beautiful memorial of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's gift of Total Knowledge and invincibility to the world, is rising as a 'shining jewel' among pilgrimage sites worldwide, said Dr Eike Hartmann, Minister of Architecture and City Planning of the Global Country of World Peace. (more)

Nepal: Global Mother Divine Organization supporting culture, holistic health care
26 July 2010 - The Global Mother Divine Organization of Nepal recently hosted one of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers of the world, Aama Bombo, at the organization's new Maharishi Invincibility Centre, where she enjoyed learning the Transcendental Meditation Technique. Another lady, an expert in Ayurveda in Nepal, is working to create Maharishi Ayur-Veda health centres in that nation. (more)

Canada: First Nations leaders present Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's health programmes at conferences
1 July 2010 - First Nations leaders are presenting the programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a series of First Nations conferences this year, joined by leaders of the Global Country of World Peace. Participants are especially interested in beneficial effects of the Transcendental Meditation Programme for health, including decreased stress and reduction of diabetes symptoms. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Facebook hurting Thai language
23 July 2010 - Facebook and Twitter are causing deteriorating language skills among Thai students and authorities want them to return to the bygone tradition of letter-writing, the Culture Ministry said Friday. A national survey conducted by the ministry found that four out of 10 Thai youths think 'proper Thai' should only be used on formal occasions. Roughly a third of Thai youths are not concerned about misspellings, abbreviations, and grammatical mistakes that are common in text messaging and social media conversations. 'Excessive use of Facebook, Twitter and mobile phone messages distorts the language. But we can't stop people from communicating,' Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombut told The Associated Press on Friday, a day after releasing results of the survey. (more)

Pakistan: 'The river has been stolen from us'
4 July 2010 - Once scattered all along the River Indus, the nomadic Kihals can now be found between the Chashma Barrage near Dera Ismail Khan and the Taunsa Barrage some 300km further south along the river in the Punjab, but are mostly concentrated in an area stretching 30km south of Dera Ismail Khan. Little data exists on this indigenous population but the Kihals, who say they are Muslim, face discrimination similar to that of other religious minorities -- such as the Ahmadis whose situation has been more extensively documented. The community has limited access to schooling, health care and adequate shelter -- living for the most part in huts that they move from place to place. As a people who have for centuries lived off the Indus river, the livelihoods of the Kihals are increasingly under threat because of commercial logging, the construction of big dams and corporate agricultural farming, according to a 2003 study by international NGO Minority Rights Group International. The system of contract fishing awarded by the government on the Indus means they cannot fish any longer, while increased pollution of the river has also reduced the fish population. The expanded cultivation of land by farmers along the banks of the Indus means the reed-like plants used by the Kihal to weave baskets have vanished. (more)

Japan's children population at new record low
5 May 2010 - Japan had fewer youngsters celebrating Children's Day for the 29th straight year Wednesday, highlighting concerns that the country may face difficulty finding enough workers and taxpayers to support a rapidly aging population. The proportion of children in Japan has kept declining for 36 straight years to about 13 per cent of the country's population of 127 million. The elderly population is rapidly swelling. Japan has the lowest percentage of children among 27 countries with populations of more than 40 million. (more)

India IT hub Hyderabad hit by new religious clashes
30 March 2010 - Riot police fired rubber bullets and used teargas to disperse clashes between Hindus and Muslims that injured dozens in the Indian IT hub of Hyderabad on Tuesday, police said. Two people have been killed and 110 people arrested in connection with the violence, which started on Saturday when a Hindu group replaced Muslim flags with Hindu ones on the streets during a festival. The city has already been hit by months of sporadic unrest over the proposed creation of a separate Indian state, carved out of Andhra Pradesh. (more)

At least 27 arrested in Egypt Christian-Muslim clash
13 March 2010 - At least 27 people were arrested in northern Egypt on Friday after fighting erupted between Muslims and Christians over land, security sources said on Saturday. At least 24 people were hurt in the fighting in Marsa Matrouh governorate, including women and children, security sources said. The dispute broke out after Coptic Christian villagers built a fence around land next to a church-run building, the state news agency MENA reported. Relations between Egypt's Muslims and Christians, mainly Copts, are usually calm but can become strained and sometimes erupt into violence over issues such as inter-faith relationships and land. (more)

Seven killed in south Sudan tribal clashes
21 February 2010 - At least seven civilians were killed in crossfire as cattle-herding tribesmen attacked a weapons store to try to get arms to retaliate against a rival clan who had attacked them, officials said on Sunday. Sudan's south has been hit by a wave of ethnic violence that has killed at least 2,500 people since the beginning of last year, aid groups say, threatening stability in the oil-producing region ahead of Presidential and legislative elections due in April. Violent cattle rustling raids are common in the underdeveloped territory, but the scale of the recent carnage has sparked accusations of political meddling. (more)

Iraq Shi'ite leaders vow Baath purge as furore grows
7 February 2010 - Iraq's Shi'ite parties held emotional demonstrations on Sunday and vowed to purge loyalists of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party as tensions over a list of candidates banned from a March election soared. The orchestrated protests by hundreds of people came ahead of a debate in parliament over an appeal panel's decision to suspend a ban of almost 500 candidates accused of Baathist ties until after the 7 March election. The Shi'ite-led government's heated reaction and calls for a campaign against Baathists could lead to a dangerously explosive witchhunt that might reopen sectarian wounds between once dominant Sunnis and the Shi'ite majority just as violence fades. (more)

Attacks on Indians in Australia straining relations
5 February 2010 - A spate of violent attacks on Indians in Australia is straining bilateral relations and costing Australian universities lucrative foreign student revenue. There is sharp debate, however, about whether racism is at the root of the problem. Some Indian officials and media have been quick to blame racism for the highly publicized beatings, robberies, and attacks, mostly in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city and one proud of its cultural diversity. India has demanded swift action to protect its citizens. Discerning the truth, amid the back and forth, has proven difficult. The Australian government and police have played down the racism angle, saying there is no hard evidence that Indians are being disproportionately targeted. India has denied media speculation in both countries that Ambassador Sujata Singh's scheduled return to New Delhi next Wednesday is a further sign of a diplomatic rift. (more)

Pakistan: Twin blasts in Karachi
5 February 2010 - A suspected suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 12 Shi'ites in Pakistan's commercial capital Friday, followed hours later by a blast at a hospital where the wounded were being treated which killed 13 people. The violence is bound to raise further questions about the effectiveness of security crackdowns on resilient al Qaeda-backed Taliban militants at a time when Washington is pushing Pakistan to help stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan. Pakistani Taliban have carried out waves of bombings at crowded markets and army and police facilities, killing hundreds of people since October in a bid to topple the pro-American government of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari. Bombings in the home of Pakistan's stock exchange and main port could further discourage investors, who have watched the Taliban spread their violent campaign from strongholds in lawless areas near the Afghan border to major cities, including an attack on a mosque near the headquarters of the powerful military. (more)

Muslim-Christian clashes kill 460 in Nigerian city
20 January 2010 - The death toll after four days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in the Nigerian city of Jos and nearby communities has topped 460, according to a mosque official and human rights activists. Six military units and hundreds of police were stationed throughout Plateau state's capital city in central Nigeria to enforce a 24-hour curfew Wednesday. While the violence had subsided, streets were deserted and many businesses remained closed in Jos, which has been the scene of similar sectarian clashes in recent years. This week's violence erupted after an argument between Muslim and Christian neighbours over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the 2008 clashes. Jos has been the centre of several major religious clashes in Africa's most populous nation. (more)