• What is Lunar New Year and how is it celebrated?
• Hundreds of new species discovered in the greater Mekong region in Asia
• Almost 400 species discovered in Greater Mekong region - in pictures

• Maharishi University of Management faculty present in India, Rwanda, South Korea, and Bali
• Southeast Asia: Maharishi Vastu schools, homes, and Peace Palace under development
• India, Nepal: Universities learn about integration of modern science and health care with ancient Vedic Science

• Almost two-thirds of elephant habitat lost across Asia, study finds
• FAO: Virus hits Asian food security, as millions go hungry
• Exposure to dirty air in the world's most polluted region linked to pregnancy loss, study finds

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

What is Lunar New Year and how is it celebrated?
8 February 2024 - In the Chinese zodiac, 2024 is the Year of the Dragon. Different countries across Asia celebrate the new year in many ways and may follow a different zodiac. The Lunar New Year -- known as the Spring Festival in China, Tet in Vietnam, and Seollal in Korea -- is a major festival celebrated in several Asian countries. It is also widely celebrated by diaspora communities around the world. (more)

Hundreds of new species discovered in the greater Mekong region in Asia
24 May 2023 - Researchers have discovered hundreds of new animal and plant species in remote parts of the world previously inaccessible to humans, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Hundreds of scientists from universities, conservation organizations, and research institutes around the world discovered 290 plants, 19 fishes, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles, and one mammal in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, according to WWF. (more)

Almost 400 species discovered in Greater Mekong region - in pictures
23 May 2023 - Two hundred and ninety plants, 20 fishes, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles, and one mammal were among newly discovered in one of Asia's biodiversity hotspots in 2021 and 2022. (more)

AP Photos: Across Asia, celebrations mark Lunar New Year
1 February 2022 - People around Asia ushered in the Year of the Tiger on Tuesday [1 February], celebrating the Lunar New Year with colorful decorations, dances, tributes to their ancestors, and prayers for good fortune in the year to come. Each year is named after one of twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac in a repeating cycle. The Year of the Tiger follows the Year of the Ox. (more)

Lunar New Year 2022: Welcoming the Year of the Tiger
31 January 2022 - Saying goodbye to the Ox, we enter the Year of the Tiger on February 1, 2022. With public festivities once again pared down or canceled in many cities, millions of families around the world will still be celebrating at home. Lunar New Year festivities can often last for up to 15 days, with different tasks and activities taking place over that period. (In China, it's also referred to as the Spring Festival.) (more)

AP Photos: Diwali marked in Asia with celebrations, prayers
4 November 2021 - Millions of people across Asia are celebrating the festival of Diwali, which symbolizes new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. (more)

4 major Asian nations cancel 80 percent of planned coal power projects after fossil fuel market crashes in 2020
16 January 2021 - Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and the Philippines have canceled nearly 45 gigawatts of proposed coal power projects, a figure equal to more than one-quarter of the total installed capacity of Germany. These are four critical emerging markets that were targeted for growth by the struggling coal industry, but a mixture of pandemic and financing-related problems caused them to pivot toward considering more cost-effective and environmentally-sound alternatives. (more)

Mitigating climate change through organic agriculture
21 December 2019 - To help smallholder farmers in the Himalayan Mountains adapt better to climate change, Nand Kishor Agarwal, an official with Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), said that organic agriculture was the best solution. While sustaining the health of soils and ecosystem, organic agriculture also contributes to mitigating climate change and enhancing rural livelihoods by increasing soil's capacity for carbon sequestration. Soil itself is the biggest store of carbon. (more)

Cheaper solar power gains ground in southeast Asia
31 October 2019 - Southeast Asia is accelerating plans to harness energy from the sun in coming years as the cost of generating electricity from some solar power projects has become more affordable than gas-fired plants, officials and analysts said. Vietnam leads the pack with a cumulative solar PV installation of 5.5 GW by this year, or 44 percent of the total capacity in the region, said Rishab Shrestha, Woodmac's power and renewables analyst. (more)

Asian metropolises top list of world's greenest commuter cities
16 October 2019 - Three Asian metropolises - Tokyo, Beijing and Singapore -- are the world's leading environmentally-friendly commuting cities, a report to be released by data insight company Kantar on Thursday [17 October] says. The three rank highly because their huge populations mostly walk to work or use public transport, with relatively few commuters traveling by car. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Maharishi University of Management faculty present in India, Rwanda, South Korea, and Bali
15 May 2018 - Maharishi University of Management (MUM) faculty have been making an impact worldwide in recent months, giving presentations in a number of countries around the world, including India, Rwanda, South Korea, and Bali. (more)

Southeast Asia: Maharishi Vastu schools, homes, and Peace Palace under development
17 July 2013 - In several countries in Southeast Asia--Thailand, Malaysia, and Myanmar--schools, homes, and other buildings including a Maharishi Peace Palace are being developed and built, designed according to Maharishi Vastu architecture. In Thailand alone about 5,000 square metres of Vastu buildings are under construction this year. (more)

India, Nepal: Universities learn about integration of modern science and health care with ancient Vedic Science
28 January 2013 - During the first stage of his Total Health World Tour, Robert Schneider, MD, FACC, was invited to speak in a graduate and faculty seminar at Apeejay Stya University, a large private university dedicated to science, research, and technology in Delhi. India. He went on to address a conference on 'Integrative Medicine for the 21st Century for Nepal' at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. (more)

Buddhist monks in Asia learn Transcendental Meditation with support from Japan
24 December 2011 - Over the last nine years several thousand Buddhist monks in southeast Asia have been learning the Transcendental Meditation Programme. Japan has played an important role in the project's continuing success, through the leadership of Reverend Koji Oshima, a Buddhist monk from Japan, and also through the generous support of many Japanese people. (more)

Thousands of Buddhist monks in Asia learn Transcendental Meditation
31 October 2011 - More than 3,000 Buddhist monks in 100 monasteries throughout Southeast Asia have learned the Transcendental Meditation Technique, as a result of the work by a revered Japanese Buddhist monk, Reverend Koji Oshima, who is a longtime TM practitioner and certified TM teacher. According to Rev Oshima, the Buddhist monks appreciate the simplicity, effortlessness, and profound experience of transcendence, which is gained almost immediately after starting Transcendental Meditation practice. (more)

Asian nations applying Maharishi's technologies of consciousness
3 September 2011 - In Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal, interest is rising in applications of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes and technologies of consciousness in education, health, agriculture, and world peace. (more)

Buddhist monk in Japan brings Transcendental Meditation to monks in Thailand and Sri Lanka
10 July 2011 - For the last eight years, an initiative that originated with a Buddhist monk in Japan has been bringing Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's technologies of consciousness to monks in other Asian countries. Since 2003, 4,000 Buddhist monks have been inspired to learn the Transcendental Meditation Technique--1,500 in Sri Lanka, and 2,500 in Thailand. (more)

Women and girls' Consciousness-Based programmes flourishing in Asia and Pacific
19 January 2011 - Consciousness-Based programmes for women and girls in education and health are proving popular in many countries in Asia and the Pacific region. (more)

Global Mother Divine Organization reports achievements in Asia
23 July 2010 - Reports from many Asian nations--including Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Taiwan, and Vietnam--were featured during the Global Mother Divine Organization's Third International Congress. The organization has been very active in each country, with projects and initiatives in Total Knowledge Based, Consciousness-Based programmes for women and girls. These are often being accomplished with the support of newly qualified Teachers of the Transcendental Meditation Programme--who in some cases are the first such Teachers in their countries. (more)

Global Country of World Peace programmes bringing Transcendental Meditation to Vietnam and Laos
13 June 2010 - Interest in Transcendental Meditation and Consciousness-Based Education is rapidly growing in Vietnam, and new avenues are also developing in the Lao People's Democratic Republic to help make Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes widely available. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Almost two-thirds of elephant habitat lost across Asia, study finds
27 April 2023 - Elephants have lost almost two-thirds of their habitat across Asia, the result of hundreds of years of deforestation and increasing human use of land for agriculture and infrastructure, a new study has found. The Asian elephant, listed as endangered, is found across 13 countries in the continent but their forest and grassland habitats have been eroded by more than 64 percent - equating to 3.3 million square kilometers of land -- since the year 1700, researchers said. (more)

FAO: Virus hits Asian food security, as millions go hungry
15 December 2021 - The prolonged pandemic and surging prices are undermining food security for millions of people in Asia, with 1.8 billion lacking access to healthy diets, a report by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization said Wednesday [15 December]. ... David Dawe, senior economist at the FAO's regional office for Asia and the Pacific, said the organization's food price index rose by nearly a third in the past year. The price of vegetable oils, which are critical for health, soared 74%, he said. (more)

Exposure to dirty air in the world's most polluted region linked to pregnancy loss, study finds
6 January 2021 - Pregnant women in South Asia who have been exposed to air pollution face an increased ris k of pregnancy loss, miscarriage, and stillbirth, according to a new study. ...Published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal on Wednesday [6 January], the study suggests that if these countries met India's air quality standard, it could have prevented 7% of the annual pregnancy losses. Dirty air has previously been linked to increased miscarriages, premature births, and low birth weights among infants, as a result of the effects of pollution on the mother. Other research has found that pollution can breach a mother's placenta and potentially reach fetuses in the womb. (more)

In slums and windowless apartments, Asia's poor bear brunt of coronavirus
17 March 2020 - Millions of homeless people and those living in informal settlements across Asia are at heightened risk of contracting the coronavirus due to their dire living conditions, housing experts said on Tuesday [17 March]. Globally, about 1.8 billion people live in inadequate housing and homelessness, according to the United Nations. (more)

Green algae, blue water add to fears over health of Southeast Asia's Mekong
21 January 2020 - When the normally murky brown Mekong River turned a brilliant blue late last year, villagers in northeastern Thailand were surprised. Then, this week, unusually large patches of green algae appeared ... Both the Mekong's strange colour and the algae have heightened worries about the health of the river that more than 60 million people in Southeast Asia depend on for their livelihoods. (more)

Stay or go? Asian nations mull options as seas rise, cities sink
5 September 2019 - Vulnerable communities at risk from rising seas and other extreme weather are facing tough decisions about whether to relocate or try to hold on. ... Displacement can have devastating impacts on those who have to move, as well as on communities that receive them, said Victor Bernard, Asia-Pacific programme officer at human rights advocacy the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. (more)

Multidrug-resistant malaria spreading in Southeast Asia: study
22 July 2019 - A strain of malaria resistant to two key drugs has spread rapidly from Cambodia and has become dominant in Vietnam, Laos, and northern Thailand, with a 'terrifying prospect' that it could reach Africa, scientists warned on Monday [22 July]. (more)

Himalayan glaciers melting far faster this century: study
19 June 2019 - Himalayan glaciers have been melting twice as fast since the start of this century, underscoring the threat the climate crisis poses to water supplies for hundreds of millions of people across Asia, according to a study published on Wednesday [19 June]. Scientists have long been trying to establish how quickly rising global temperatures caused by the burning of coal, oil, and gas are eating away at the region's icebound landscapes, sometimes referred to as Earth's third pole. (more)

Melting glaciers threaten Asia's drought buffer, scientists warn
29 May 2019 - At least a third of the ice in the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush will thaw by 2100, even if governments take tough action to limit global warming. Countries from India to Kazakhstan are far more dependent on melting glaciers for water than previously thought, particularly in summer droughts, scientists said on Wednesday [29 May], warning that rising temperatures were threatening supply. (more)

Dumping plastic waste in Asia found destroying crops and health
23 April 2019 - Plastic waste imports into Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam jumped from mid-2017 to early 2018, leading to illegal operations dumping and open-burning. The world's recyclable plastic is being shipped to Asia where it is illegally dumped, buried, or burned in the country with the lightest regulations, environmentalists warned on Tuesday [23 April] calling for greater transparency in the global waste trade. (more)