• Russian official calls for night-time alcohol sales ban
• US: Native Hawaiian government may become reality
• India says open to new round of talks with Pakistan

• Mayors at El Salvador congress enjoy presentation on Maharishi's programmes to alleviate violence and rehabilitate criminal offenders
• Maharishi University of Management honoured by visit of former President of Mozambique
• Nepal: Maharishi Vedic Pandits give traditional blessings to government leaders

• Thai protesters vow to spill their own blood
• UN Agency: Tiger on verge of extinction
• Insulted by Israel, US scrambles to save talks

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Russian official calls for night-time alcohol sales ban
15 March 2010 - Russia's top public health official called on Sunday for a ban on retail sales of alcohol after 9 pm as part of a Kremlin-led campaign to crack down on alcohol abuse, state-run news agency RIA reported. President Dmitry Medvedev last year ordered tough measures to curb alcohol abuse. (more)

US: Native Hawaiian government may become reality
15 March 2010 - Native Hawaiians are closer than they've ever been to reclaiming a piece of Hawaii. With a final vote pending in the US Senate and Hawaii-born President Barack Obama on their side, the nation's 400,000 Native Hawaiians could earn federal recognition as soon as this month -- and the land, money, and power that comes with it. (more)

India says open to new round of talks with Pakistan
14 March 2010 - India signalled on Friday it was open to a new round of talks with Pakistan, raising fresh hopes of a thaw in relations after last month's official dialogue between the nuclear-armed rivals produced no breakthrough. (more)

Nigeria approves $1 billion disbursal from oil savings
13 March 2010 - Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday approved the disbursal of a further $1 billion from the country's windfall oil savings, leaving about $4.1 billion in the account, government officials said. Jonathan has said maintaining peace in the Niger Delta, improving Nigeria's power supply, and fighting corruption are among his top priorities. (more)

Canada recovering with growing optimism, Prime Minister says
12 March 2010 - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper adopted a more upbeat tone than usual when discussing the economy on Thursday, saying the nation was recovering with a growing sense of optimism. Prime Minister Harper said Canada would emerge from the recession in the strongest position of any major developed economy. (more)

Meeting on deforestation boosts morale, budget
12 March 2010 - A Paris conference bringing together more than 60 nations Thursday added $1 billion to the fight against deforestation and boosted the morale of those hoping to save the world's forests -- a key defence against global warming. The 64 nations agreed to create a core structure of some 10 countries to work on the mechanics of equitably distributing funds and other issues. (more)

Oil and gas producer Egypt to secure $430 million loan for wind farm: agency
12 March 2010 - Egypt is set to secure a $430 million loan from Japan to fund a 220-megawatt wind farm as it tries to boost its renewable energy output, the state news agency MENA said on Friday. Egypt, an oil and gas producer, has been developing wind power along its eastern Red Sea coast. It aims to generate 12 per cent of its power from wind and 20 per cent from renewables overall by 2020. (more)

EU to exceed 2020 green energy target: forecasts
11 March 2010 - New forecasts suggest the European Union will exceed its target of getting 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources in 2020, the European Commission said Thursday. The latest national projections submitted by governments to the EU executive suggest the 27-nation bloc could reach an overall renewable share of 20.3 per cent by the end of the decade. (more)

Latvia: EU pays loan tranche, lauds policies
11 March 2010 - The European Union's executive agreed on Thursday to pay Latvia another tranche of loans under a bailout programme, saying the Baltic country was on track with austerity measures. Analysts and politicians say the worst is over for Latvia and other Baltic republics, which have faced serious economic contractions after the global crisis ended years of high, credit-fuelled growth. (more)

South Africa, UK plan to double trade after recession
11 March 2010 - South Africa and the United Kingdom aim to double the value of trade between the two countries over the next five years, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on 11 March. This would take trade back to where it was before the global recession, he told a media briefing at Parliament, following Cabinet's fortnightly meeting on Wednesday. (more)

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

Mayors at El Salvador congress enjoy presentation on Maharishi's programmes to alleviate violence and rehabilitate criminal offenders
4 December 2009 - A large congress of mayors in San Salvador, El Salvador, 23-24 November, featured a presentation on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes to improve every area of society. The presentation was given by Dr Pedro Ojeda, representing the Latin American Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy, who had been invited to address the congress. Mayors expressed particular interest in programmes for alleviating violence and rehabilitating criminal offenders, problems that plague the nation. (more)

Maharishi University of Management honoured by visit of former President of Mozambique
10 November 2009 - Joaquim Alberto Chissano, who was President of Mozambique from 1986-2005, recently addressed a celebration honouring him at Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA. President Chissano introduced the Transcendental Meditation Programme and Yogic Flying to the military in his country and ended the long-standing civil war. (more)

Nepal: Maharishi Vedic Pandits give traditional blessings to government leaders
8 November 2009 - A group of Maharishi Vedic Pandits, experts in the ancient Vedic Science brought to light and fully restored by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, presented traditional Vedic blessings recently to leading government officials in Nepal. Accompanying the Pandits was Dr Deepak Baskota, National Director of the Maharishi Vedic Foundation and the Global Country of World Peace for Nepal, who spoke about the goals and methodologies for bringing peace and prosperity to the nation. (more)

Honouring the parental role of Traditional Leaders: Traditional Leaders from the Amazon visit MERU, Holland
1 October 2009 - The Album of Events page of Global Good News is now featuring colourful photos of 'Honouring the parental role of Traditional Leaders: Traditional Leaders from the Amazon visit MERU, Holland'. During their visit, the leaders, in traditional dress, were welcomed in a beautiful celebration by leaders of the Global Country of World Peace. (more)

The beginning of indomitable progress for 'all the city halls and cities of Latin America': Dr Pedro Ojeda on mayors' summit
21 September 2009 - Dramatically increased receptivity to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes for ideal administration--especially apparent at the recent major summit of Latin American mayors in Argentina--is one expression of the 'indomitable growth of consciousness' across the continent, said Dr Pedro Ojeda, National Director of Paraguay for the Global Country of World Peace. Another indicator of rising invincibility, he said, is the founding of the Latin American Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy, to present these programmes. (more)

Now is the time to approach government leaders in all countries: Mayor Robert Wynne
20 September 2009 - In speeches to the major summit of Latin American mayors in Argentina earlier this month, Mayor Ed Malloy of Fairfield, Iowa, USA, and Mayor Robert Wynne of neighbouring Maharishi Vedic City presented Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes for ideal governmental administration. Mayor Wynne emphasized creating invincibility for each country and the whole Latin American continent through groups of Yogic Flyers, the basis for success in every area of individual and social life: 'Do the one thing by which all others are accomplished.' (more)

Maharishi's principles of administration find warm welcome at summit of 2,000 mayors, 6,000 administrators
16 September 2009 - The recent founding of the Latin American Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy was a natural outcome of the Latin American Association of Mayors' summit from 2 to 4 September in Argentina. Association members and guests were deeply inspired by presentations and knowledge provided by leaders of the Global Country of World Peace. (more)

Latin American mayors' summit: 'The path to invincibility and enlightenment has been made clear'
15 September 2009 - The recent summit of several thousand members of the Latin American Association of Mayors, held in Argentina from 2 through 4 September 2009, was unprecedented--not only in opportunities extended to Global Country of World Peace leaders to present Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes for ideal governmental administration. Those presentations also had a profound impact on attendees, generating a high level of enthusiasm. (more)

Latin American mayors' summit sparks unprecedented interest in Maharishi's programmes
13 September 2009 - At a major summit in Argentina from 2 to 4 September 2009, attended by several thousand members of the Latin American Association of Mayors, Global Country of World Peace leaders from North and South America presented the programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for ideal governmental administration, which were enthusiastically received. (more)

Designed to promote government in accord with Natural Law: Vedic Architecture parliament building proposed for Vedic Siam
11 September 2009 - An innovative design proposal for Thailand's new parliament building not only incorporates many up-to-date 'green' and 'smart' features, but is based on principles of Maharishi Vedic Architecture -- to attune individual life with cosmic intelligence and promote governmental administration in accord with Natural Law. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Thai protesters vow to spill their own blood
15 March 2010 - Protest leaders vowed Monday to collect blood from tens of thousands of anti-government activists and splash it onto the Thai government headquarters in a symbolic sacrifice to press their demands for new elections. As many as 100,000 'Red Shirt' protesters converged Sunday on Bangkok to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva agree to dissolve Parliament by midday Monday. Abhisit refused and blanketed the capital in security, but said his government was open to listening to what else the protesters have to say. Thailand has been in constant political turmoil since early 2006, when anti-Thaksin demonstrations began. In 2008, when Thaksin's political allies came back to power for a year, his opponents occupied the prime minister's office compound for three months and seized Bangkok's two airports for a week. (more)

UN Agency: Tiger on verge of extinction
15 March 2010 - The world has 'failed miserably' at protecting tigers in the wild, bringing an animal that is a symbol for many cultures and religions to 'the verge of extinction,' a top official with the United Nations Wildlife Agency said Monday. Just 20 years ago there were 100,000 tigers in Asia, but now only 3,200 remain in the wild, according to UN Willem Wijnstekers, the Secretary General of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES. He called on countries to come up with strategies, and cooperate with international agencies such as Interpol, to end poaching and illegal trade in tiger products. 'We must admit that we have failed miserably,' Wijnstekers said at the two-week conference in the Gulf state of Qatar. 'Although the tiger has been prized throughout history ... it is now literally on the verge of extinction.' (more)

Insulted by Israel, US scrambles to save talks
14 March 2010 - Israel's relationship with the United States, a defining feature of the troubled Middle East, was under severe strain as diplomats scrambled on Saturday to save newborn US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians. A senior US official predicted 'a dicey period here in the next couple days to a couple of weeks' as Palestinians demanded the reversal of a new Israeli settlement plan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, which includes pro-settler parties, reacts to unusually blunt criticism from Washington. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Israel's behaviour 'insulting' after it approved 1,600 new homes last week at a settlement in the Jerusalem area on the very day Vice President Joe Biden was there to set a seal on relaunched negotiations. (more)

Television 'war' hoax sparks panic in Georgia
14 March 2010 - Georgia's opposition accused the government on Sunday of being behind a fake primetime news report that Russian tanks had entered the capital at the call of the opposition, causing widespread panic. For many Saturday night viewers, the 20-minute report on pro-government Imedi TV thrust the country back to its five-day war with Russia in August 2008. The report laid out a scenario in which opposition leaders called on Russian forces now stationed in South Ossetia to intervene in political unrest following mayoral elections in Tbilisi, which are due by the end of May. Imedi, which is run by a close ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili, did not hide the fact the report was in response to two opposition leaders meeting separately with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin late last year and this month. The aim, it said, was to demonstrate how events might unfold. Introduced as a simulation of 'the worst day in Georgian history', the report then ran without a banner making clear it was not real. Mobile phone networks crashed and the emergency services reported a spike in calls. Many Georgians rushed home, and some Russian media interrupted their regular programming. (more)

New border violence erupts with Mexico cartel rift
13 March 2010 - The Mexican border city of Reynosa and others near the eastern end of the US border escaped the worst of Mexico's drug war for years, but now victims are on the increase, several journalists are reportedly missing or killed, and once-busy streets are empty after dark. The crumbling of an alliance between two Mexican drug gangs has plunged the 200-mile stretch of border into violence, raising fears of a new front in the drug war. In Mexican border cities stretching from Matamoros near the Gulf to Nuevo Laredo, gunfire has been heard almost daily. Drug violence has killed almost 18,000 people throughout Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug traffickers in December 2006. (more)

Thai protesters start bid to topple government
12 March 2010 - Anti-government protesters began gathering in Bangkok on Friday for what they promise will be a 'million-man march' in coming days to paralyze Thailand's capital and force the government to call elections. About 40,000 soldiers and police fanned out across the city as several thousand red-shirted supporters of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra began gathering in one of the biggest challenges yet to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. The protests add a new strain to a seemingly intractable political conflict pitting the military, the urban elite, and royalists. Few expect a million protesters, but the prospect of even tens of thousands flooding the streets has rattled nerves in the city of 15 million people. Protesters accuse authorities of trying to fan the fears, but the government insists the threat of violence is real. (more)

ICC prosecutor: Leaders fuelled Kenya violence
11 March 2010 - Kenyan political leaders organized and financed post-election attacks against civilians in 2008, the International Criminal Court's prosecutor told judges on Wednesday, as they consider whether to launch an investigation. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who asked judges last November to approve an investigation into the violence, said senior political and business leaders from Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) were 'guided by political objectives to retain or gain power'. 'They utilized their personal, government, business, and tribal networks to commit the crimes,' Moreno-Ocampo said in a filing with pre-trial judges in The Hague. (more)

Police clash with protesters as Greeks fight cuts
11 March 2010 - Police clashed with stone-throwing youths in Athens on Thursday as tens of thousands of strikers protested against draconian cutbacks aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis shaking the euro zone. In one central square hundreds of protesters hurled sticks and stones at riot police, who responded by baton-charging the crowd and firing several rounds of teargas. The clashes came after more than 20,000 protesters marched through Athens beating drums and chanting slogans such as 'Plutocrats must pay for the crisis'. Groups of anarchists threw petrol bombs, smashed shop windows, damaged cars, set garbage containers on fire, and hurled lumps of marble torn from steps of the Bank of Greece. The 4.8 billion euro (4.3 billion pound) package of cutbacks set by the government is viewed by many as hitting the wrong people in a country with widespread corruption and tax evasion. (more)

US: Pharmaceutical group spent $6.3 million lobbying in Q4
11 March 2010 - The pharmaceutical industry's main trade group spent $6.3 million in the fourth quarter lobbying Congress, the White House, and multiple government agencies on health care provisions and related issues, according to a quarterly disclosure report. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America include drug giants Pfizer Inc, Merck and Co, Johnson and Johnson, and more than two dozen other US and foreign companies. PhRMA lobbied on multiple aspects of the health care overhau. Besides Congress, PhRMA lobbied the Department of Health and Human Services and several of its agencies, including the FDA, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The trade group also lobbied the White House, Congressional Budget Office, Office of Management and Budget, Patent and Trademark Office, Federal Trade Commission, US Trade Representative, and the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, and State. (more)

Greece warns of worse downturn as strikes loom
10 March 2010 - The Greek economy is set to shrink by more than expected this year, the government said on Wednesday, as it braced for nationwide strikes protesting its plans for bringing the country's budget deficit under control. Greece, grappling with a ballooning deficit and a 300 billion euro (272 billion pound) debt pile, told the European Union that 2010 gross domestic product (GDP) would 'most likely' shrink by more than the 0.3 per cent currently forecast. Another key concern among economists is whether the government has the will and the support it needs to deliver on its budget commitments. The ADEDY and GSEE unions have called a nationwide strike for Thursday, leaving flights grounded; boats docked; and ministries, tax offices, schools, and hospitals shut. In Athens, where tourist attractions such as the Acropolis are due to be shut, police said they were bracing for trouble after clashes with demonstrators last week. (more)