• Canadian factory sales rebound in March
• Switzerland, the land that time begot
• UK: Joblessness falls unexpectedly, pointing to economic resilience

• Oprah extols the benefits of Transcendental Meditation at her Harpo Studios company
• MUM student team named finalist in 10-state clean tech competition
• 'An invisible shield against stress': Company employees enjoy Transcendental Meditation

• Zimbabwe probes worker abuse by Chinese firms
• EU delays vote on labelling oil sands oil dirty
• Analysis - No simple answer to EU growth versus austerity conundrum

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Canadian factory sales rebound in March
16 May 2012 - Canada's manufacturing sales blew past expectations to grow 1.9 per cent in March from February. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast, on average, a 0.3 per cent increase in sales at the factory gate in the month. New orders for manufactured goods rose for the second straight month in March, up 2 per cent. (more)

Switzerland, the land that time begot
16 May 2012 - A growing number of people are attracted to a career in horology as Swiss watch firms vie for staff to meet buoyant Asian demand for high-end timepieces. Exports of Swiss timepieces soared 19 per cent to a record 19.3 billion Swiss francs ($20.8 billion) last year, rebounding from the 13.2 billion low hit in 2009 in the depths of the financial crisis. (more)

UK: Joblessness falls unexpectedly, pointing to economic resilience
16 May 2012 - The number of Britons out of work fell at the fastest pace in nearly a year in the three months to March, official data showed on Wednesday, pointing to some underlying resilience in the economy. The number of people claiming jobless benefit unexpectedly fell last month by 13,700 -- the largest drop since July 2010. Analysts had forecast an increase of 5,000 on the month. Chiming with the better data, a senior executive at John Lewis, Britain's biggest department store, told Reuters a slow, steady recovery of the British economy was on course, and the group was optimistic about its own business. (more)

UK: Small business fund looks to fill bank gap
16 May 2012 - A fund set up to support small and medium-sized businesses aims to make around 25 investments this year, its chief executive said, as it looks to fill a gap left by banks cutting funding for thousands of growth companies. The Business Growth Fund made its first investments in October last year, and has already put money into six companies since the start of 2012. Any returns made from the investments, which have no set exit timetables, will be put back into the fund, with the expectation it could become self-financing. (more)

US factory output rose in April on stronger autos
16 May 2012 - US factory output increased in April, helped by a gain in auto production. Busier factories have driven stronger hiring this year and helped the economy grow. Factory output has risen 18.3 per cent since it hit a low in June 2009, the month the recession ended. Through the first three months of the year, it was growing at an annual rate of nearly 10 per cent. (more)

US: Business tycoon Buffett's firm buys 10 million share stake in General Motors
16 May 2012 - Warren Buffett's company is apparently bullish on the US auto industry. His company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc took a new 10 million-share stake in General Motors Co in the first quarter. The investment comes as the Detroit automaker continues to rebound from bankruptcy three years ago. It posted a first-quarter net income of $1 billion, fueled by US vehicle sales. (more)

US: Housing starts, industrial output rise
16 May 2012 - Groundbreaking for US homes rebounded in April and factory activity gained steam, suggesting the economy remains on a steady, if unspectacular recovery course. Sentiment among home builders touched a five-year high in May, a survey showed on Tuesday, amid growing optimism about current sales and buyer traffic over the next six months. (more)

Germany economy grows strong 0.5 per cent in Q1
15 May 2012 - Germany's economy grew by a greater than expected 0.5 per cent in the first three months of the year as strong exports helped offset the impact of Europe's debt crisis. Compared to the same quarter a year ago, Germany grew 1.7 per cent. (more)

Ghana aims to almost double oil revenues in 2012 - interview
15 May 2012 - Ghana expects to almost double its oil revenues to $650 million in 2012 as it ramps up production, a senior energy ministry official said on Wednesday. (more)

Kenya's Housing Finance to develop houses
15 May 2012 - Kenya's sole specialist mortgage lender Housing Finance will develop a housing project in the next two years to create additional income from properties aimed at low and middle income earners, it said on 9 May. The east African nation of 40 million people has a massive housing deficit with annual demand at 250,000 units against supply of around 60,000 units. It plans to sell the houses at 15 per cent below market value to attract low and middle income earners faced with high credit costs. (more)

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

Oprah extols the benefits of Transcendental Meditation at her Harpo Studios company
16 May 2012 - Since most of her team in Chicago, LA, and New York started to practise Transcendental Meditation twice a day as part of the office routine, Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios has undergone big changes. Ms Winfrey told Dr Oz, 'You can't imagine what's happened in the company. Some people who used to have migraines don't. People are sleeping better, people have better relationships, people interact with others better. It's been fantastic.' (more)

MUM student team named finalist in 10-state clean tech competition
27 April 2012 - Competing for the chance to win $100,000 in startup funding, a team of four Maharishi University of Management students was selected as one of six finalists in a 10-state clean technology business plan competition. The CU Cleantech New Venture Challenge is part of the US Department of Energy's National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, which is focused on increasing clean energy businesses coming out of universities and creating a new generation of entrepreneurs to serve the nation's energy needs. (more)

'An invisible shield against stress': Company employees enjoy Transcendental Meditation
26 April 2012 - During a stressful period in her company, President and CEO Nancy Slomowitz made the Transcendental Meditation Technique a paid company benefit. She describes specific improvements that began to be felt as more people learned the technique, both in the meditating employees and throughout the company. 'Those who took advantage of this program began to feel for themselves this invisible shield against stress. Many remarked how they began to see things more clearly . . . . The biggest payoff was seeing a real team spirit take over. All this for the price of just closing your eyes twice a day for twenty minutes.' (more)

CEO: 'The entire team became more cohesive' when 3 members practised Transcendental Meditation
23 April 2012 - Nancy Slomowitz, President and CEO of Executive Management Associates, goes on to describe how, during a challenging period, the dynamics within her company began to improve after she hired another employee who practised Transcendental Meditation, and then made the TM course a company paid benefit. (more)

Meditation makeover: CEO uses Transcendental Meditation for company rehab
22 April 2012 - Nancy Slomowitz, President and CEO of Executive Management Associates, talks about introducing the TM Programme to her company. This highly successful company breaks the stereotype of meditation and the kinds of people who do it. Nancy felt that this message needed to get out, so she financed and produced a film, formed a non-profit, and wrote a book about the topic. The film Meditation Makeover provides a portrait of a highly driven and ambitious entrepreneur and three of her Type A employees--far from the New Age poster children that one might associate with this practice. (more)

Ethiopia: Government, business leaders learn about Maharishi's programmes
14 April 2012 - In Ethiopia recently, Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management, spoke to a large group of business leaders. One audience member, a prominent businesswoman, asked Transcendental Meditation teacher Ms Kibre Dawit to give an introduction on the programme to an organization of women management professionals. About 100 came to the lecture, of whom 50-60 signed up to learn the technique. (more)

Life in balance: Transcending the complexities of career planning and decision-making
2 April 2012 - Making career choices can be a young woman's most daunting challenge. Women entering college or preparing for a career often encounter perplexing issues--further complicated by familial and societal expectations. When decision-making becomes overwhelming, women need a way to transcend the sphere of complexities and outer influences and hear their own inner voice. (more)

Student research on Transcendental Meditation and trust could help boost business profits
20 March 2012 - Sabita Sawhney, a Management PhD student at Maharishi University of Management, recently completed her research relating the practice of Transcendental Meditation to reduced anxiety and increased trust. Dr Dennis Heaton, co-director of the doctoral programme, explained the link between trust and the practice of Transcendental Meditation: 'The practical implication of the research she has completed is that the practice of the TM technique is associated with increased disposition to trust; and the practical implication of that is that it can be useful to businesses to gain these benefits of increasing trust and profitability.' (more)

Professionals in UK: Transcendental Meditation makes us more creative
29 December 2011 - People interviewed for a recent video on Transcendental Meditation included many successful professionals who have noticed improvements in their lives since beginning the practice, especially in their creative abilities. Nigel Barlow, a leading authority on innovation, creativity, and leadership, says, 'There's a myth that people need stress in order to perform or to create. It is a myth. What people need is a challenge, but they also need the clarity of mind and the energy levels to rise to that challenge.' (more)

UK professionals: Transcendental Meditation improves work ability
29 December 2011 - 'Doing Transcendental Meditation is probably the most value additive in terms of the work that I do,' says James Scott, a professional in corporate finance. Mr Scott, and other professionals like him, were interviewed for a new introductory video produced in the UK about Transcendental Meditation. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Zimbabwe probes worker abuse by Chinese firms
1 May 2012 - Zimbabwe's government is investigating persistent reports of rampant abuse of workers by Chinese employers, the labour minister said Tuesday. Labour officials say workers have complained of physical abuse by Chinese managers, earnings below the legal minimum, extended working hours, and negligence over health and safety conditions. Lovemore Matombo, a veteran labour union official, said the government has turned a blind eye to workers' abuse by the Chinese and have let them 'run the economy,' without regard to labor laws. Labor leaders have also reported Chinese managers using pejorative language against black Zimbabweans and locking them up in storerooms for alleged indiscipline. Workers who recently protested working conditions at a military college being built by China outside Harare said their peaceful demonstration was violently broken up by Zimbabwean soldiers. (more)

EU delays vote on labelling oil sands oil dirty
20 April 2012 - The European Commission will delay asking members to approve a measure that would label oil from oil sands as worse for climate change than crude oil -- a temporary victory for Canada, where such oil is produced. Oil sands, also known as tar sands, are sand and rock that contain crude bitumen, a heavy, viscous form of crude oil. Canada's western province of Alberta has the world's third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, with more than 170 billion barrels. Under the European Commission proposal, oil extracted from oil sands would be deemed to emit 22 per cent more greenhouse gas by weight than the average for crude oil. It would apply to such oil produced in Canada and Venezuela. Canada has threatened to take the EU to the World Trade Organization if it singled out that type of oil as worse for the environment than others. But the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, contends that science justifies its proposal. The measure is also supported by environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace. (more)

Analysis - No simple answer to EU growth versus austerity conundrum
16 April 2012 - Fierce debate is growing in Europe over whether austerity or growth offers the best strategy to overcome the continent's sovereign debt crisis. As if it were that simple. As the euro zone hovers on the brink of its second recession in three years, the battle launched in academic journals, blogs, and the financial press has spread to the hustings in France, Greece and soon in EU economic powerhouse Germany too. 'Europe can't cut and grow,' Sony Kapoor, head of the Re-Define think-tank, and Peter Bofinger, a member of the German Council of Economic Advisers, said in an article before European Union leaders adopted a budget discipline pact last month. 'The EU needs a growth compact, not a fiscal one. Swift action on tax and jobs is the way out of the crisis.' (more)

EU solar industry needs detox, not duties
11 April 2012 - Duties to fend off competition from cheaper Chinese solar panels risk feeding the European sector's addiction to artificial subsidies, destroying more jobs than they save and stoking tension with one of the EU's biggest trading partners. Policy decisions by EU governments, among them Germany's deep cuts in solar power incentives, show politicians have little appetite in the current climate to support an industry if it cannot stand alone. Simultaneously, momentum for an EU trade complaint against Chinese solar panels is building. But they still will not bring costs to a level where government incentives are not needed and the technology competes with conventional energy. 'Even if they have a slam dunk victory, it could turn out to be pyrrhic,' John Kuzmik, a partner at energy law firm Baker Botts Hong Kong and Beijing offices, said. The clearest risk is losing more jobs than duties could salvage. (more)

French court may overturn Total oil spill ruling
6 April 2012 - France's highest court could annul a verdict against national oil giant Total over a devastating 1999 oil spill off the Brittany coast, a legal source told Reuters on Friday. Total, currently battling to cut off a gas leak at its North Sea Elgin platform off Scotland, was found guilty for damage caused to a vast expanse of coastline and wildlife when the Erika, a 24-year-old tanker it had chartered, broke apart in a 1999 storm, spilling some 20,000 of crude into the Bay of Biscay. Corinne Lepage, a lawyer for the plaintiffs who sought the civil judgment, said it would be unjust for Total to be let off the hook for one of France's worst environmental disasters. 'The oil lobby is sadly very powerful in France and the world,' she told BFM TV, adding that it was inherently wrong that a company making billions of euros in profits could use decrepit ships with impunity. (more)

US: Study ties oil, gas production to Midwest quakes
6 April 2012 - Oil and gas production may explain a sharp increase in small earthquakes in the nation's midsection, a new study from the US Geological Survey suggests. The rate has jumped six-fold from the late 20th century through last year, the team reports, and the changes are 'almost certainly man-made.' The study said a relatively mild increase starting in 2001 comes from increased quake activity in a methane production area along the state line between Colorado and New Mexico. The increase began about the time that methane production began there, so there's a 'clear possibility' of a link, says lead author William Ellsworth of the USGS. The increase over the nation's midsection has gotten steeper since 2009, due to more quakes in a variety of oil and gas production areas, including some in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the researchers say. (more)

Euro unemployment spikes to record 10.8 per cent
2 April 2012 - Unemployment in the 17 countries that use the euro hit its highest level since the currency was introduced back in 1999, official figures showed Monday, adding to fears that the region is in recession. Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, said unemployment in the eurozone rose to 10.8 per cent in February from 10.7 per cent the previous month. The number of unemployed totalled 17.1 million, nearly 1.5 million higher than the same month a year ago. Of the 17 countries in the eurozone, seven countries had unemployment rates of above 10 per cent. With unemployment rising at a time of austerity, consumers have been reluctant to spend and that's been holding back the eurozone economy despite signs of life elsewhere, notably in the US and in emerging markets. 'Soaring unemployment is clearly adding to the pressure on household incomes from aggressive fiscal tightening in the region's periphery,' said Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics. (more)

Oil spill culprit for heavy toll on coral
26 March 2012 - After months of laboratory work, scientists say they can definitively finger oil from BP's blown-out well as the culprit for the slow death of a once brightly colored deep-sea coral community in the Gulf of Mexico that is now brown and dull. In a study published Monday, scientists say meticulous chemical analysis of samples taken in late 2010 proves that oil from BP PLC's out-of-control Macondo well devastated corals living about 7 miles southwest of the well. The coral community is located over an area roughly the size of half a football field nearly a mile below the Gulf's surface. (more)

US: Banks foreclosing on churches in record numbers
11 March 2012 - Banks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data. The surge in church foreclosures represents a new wave of distressed property seizures triggered by the 2008 financial crash, analysts say, with many banks no longer willing to grant struggling religious organizations forbearance. Since 2010, 270 churches have been sold after defaulting on their loans, with 90 percent of those sales coming after a lender-triggered foreclosure, according to the real estate information company CoStar Group. The church foreclosures have hit all denominations across America but with small to medium size houses of worship the worst. (more)

Ferraris fuelled glamour lifestyle in Indonesia corruption case
7 March 2012 - An Indonesian court convicted on Wednesday a former relationship manager with Citibank of money laundering in a case involving Ferraris bought with ill-gotten cash that powered the lifestyles of a glamour-hungry clique. A district court in South Jakarta sentenced Inong Malinda Dee, 49, to eight years in prison and a 10 billion rupiah fine in a measure of the seriousness of a crackdown on endemic corruption in Southeast Asia's largest economy. The case shook up Indonesia's investment banking industry and prompted regulators to ban the bank from adding new clients to its wealth management business for a year from last May. The case has caused a stir in a country that is creating millionaires faster than any other Asian nation. (more)