Burma has revised its forecast for foreign direct investment (FDI) to more than US$5 billion for the fiscal year that began in April, a senior official said on Tuesday, surpassing earlier expectations and led by new ventures in energy and telecoms.

The figure exceeds an earlier estimate of $4 billion, with investments in the first five months of this fiscal year worth $3.32 billion, said Aung Naing Oo, secretary of the government-run Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC)"...

Villagers in Tenasserim Division’s Dawei District announced they will file a legal complaint against a Thai company and a Burmese government firm operating the Heinda tin mine, in order to seek compensation for severe environmental damage to their farmlands caused by the mine’s wastewater.

An update was made to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor Country Profile for Myanmar/Burma.

Updated Content: Mine Action...

The Asian Highway network is a network of 141,000 kilometers of standardized roadways crisscrossing 32 Asian countries with linkages to Europe.

The Asian Highway project was initiated in 1959 with the aim of promoting the development of international road transport in the region. During the first phase of the project (1960-1970) considerable progress was achieved, however, progress slowed down when financial assistance was suspended in 1975.

Unregulated gold mining, agro-industrial farming and hydropower development in Kachin State is affecting thousands of villagers, who are suffering from environmental destruction and a loss of farmland, a Kachin rights group warned.

The People’s Foundation for Development, a NGO based in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, launched a report in Rangoon on Monday that documented ten cases in which local villagers lost their land and livelihoods to large-scale investment projects and rampant gold mining.

Regarding: Use of anti-personnel landmines; Use of child soldiers; Protection of Children from the Effects of Armed Conflict...made between 2003 and 2012...full texts in English.

Despite local opposition, the Karen National Union has deployed its staff to secure the area in Dawei Township, Taninthayi Region, where the Banchaung mining project is located, according to locals.

On November 15, ethnic Kayin locals from Thabyuchaung, Kyaukhtoo, Kahtaungni and Kunchaungyi attempted to block the roads – Kunchaungyi Amara Road and Dawei-Myeik Union Road – which are used as transportation routes for the project.

While the major non-American Western oil companies adopt and wait-and-see policy and US firms remain barred by Washington’s sanctions, shadowy oil enterprises are gaining footholds in Burma.

Among firms which have recently won licenses to explore for oil and gas are little-known businesses based in Panama, Nigeria and Azerbaijan—countries where corporate accountability can be murky.

Not only does the bidding process remain opaque, the pedigree of some of the participants is too...

Stephen Goose, co-founder of Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, is one of the world's foremost authorities on the use of anti-personnel landmines. In this exclusive interview with The Irrawaddy, he describes the situation inside Burma, where, he says, there are an estimated 1,500 landmine casualties each year.

New Delhi's eagerness to supply Burma with weapons highlights new quid pro quo policies...

"Increased contacts between senior military chiefs o­n both sides of the Burma-India border, involving Indian weapons sales, are believed by analysts to have two primary objectives: to help flush out Burma-based Indian insurgents and to counter growing Chinese influence in Naypyidaw.

Key developments since May 2002: "Myanmar’s military has continued laying landmines. At least 15 rebel groups also used mines, two more than last year: the New Mon State Party and the Hongsawatoi Restoration Party. Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and ICBL Coordinator Liz Bernstein visited the country in February 2003."..."Myanmar’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Myanmar abstained from voting on the pro-Mine Ban Treaty UN General Assembly Resolution 57/74 in November 2002.

On remote Madae Island on Myanmar’s western coast, the Chinese state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), is constructing a huge seaport, oil terminal and oil and gas pipeline to China for shipping more than 80% of China’s imported oil from the Middle East and Africa without people’s consent, and without implementation of EIA, SIA and FPIC. The construction of these projects has resulted in human rights abuses, massive land confiscation, environmental destruction and destruction of the islanders’ livelihoods and farmlands.