SINGAPORE, Jun 12 (IPS) - The recent arrest and deportation from Malaysia of three Sri Lankan Tamils on U.N. refugee status, under suspicion of trying to revive the disbanded Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has raised questions about regional security and minority politics.

WASHINGTON, Jun 12 (IPS) - U.S. companies newly operating in Myanmar have until the end of the month to file official reports detailing the actions they've taken to ensure that their investments comply with safeguards around land, human rights and other concerns.

, Jun 11 (IPS) - Colombians will basically decide Sunday whether to continue the five decade counterinsurgency war or persevere in the attempt to negotiate a political solution to the conflict, in order to allow the children being born this year to experience what their parents have never known: a country at peace.

SINGAPORE, Jun 11 (IPS) - China's early-May decision to dispatch the state-of-the-art oil rig, HYSY981, into Vietnam's 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), has intensified ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea, raising fears of uncontrolled military escalation in one of the world's most important waterways.

BARCELONA, Jun 11 (IPS) - More than six years after the global financial crisis broke out, European Union (EU) countries continue to protect banks and investments funds from tougher rules, despite abundant evidence of recurrent criminal or reckless activities in the sector, and new accumulation of enormous financial risks.

YAOUNDE, Jun 11 (IPS) - It is almost 6pm. A group of kids are plying their craft in a dusty, dirty courtyard in a poor neighbourhood in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital. That craft is football.  They kick the once-white-but-now-brown, aged football around. One child is barefoot, the other wears worn shoes and is dressed in the kit of the national team. 

SANTIAGO, Jun 11 (IPS) - The Chilean government rejected Tuesday the controversial HidroAysén project for the construction of five hydroelectric dams on rivers in the south of the country. The decision came after years of struggle by environmental groups and local communities, who warned the world of the destruction the dams would wreak on the Patagonian wilderness.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 (IPS) - When the United Nations inaugurated the first-ever global forum on renewable energy last week, it provided a laundry list of financial pledges aimed at achieving one of the world body's most ambitious goals: sustainable energy for all (SE4ALL) by 2030.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 (IPS) - "My mother used to just stay at home, now she has come back and is an engineer and a leader. She is on the Village Energy Committee," said a 10-year-old girl from the village of Chekeleni, in Tanzania's southeastern Mtwara district.

PORT VILA, Jun 10 (IPS) - Rapid migration to cities and towns, driven by scarce public services and jobs in rural areas, is producing a profound social shift in Pacific Island countries, where agrarian life has dominated for generations. But the urban dream remains elusive as a severe lack of housing forces many into sprawling, poorly-serviced informal settlements.