Alan Boyd, Sydney – East Timor is preparing for next year's withdrawal of United Nations peacekeeping troops with a diplomatic offensive aimed at confronting worsening security and social tensions.

Larissa Dubecki – The State Government will give financial aid to about 1600 East Timorese refugees in Australia fighting to gain permanent residency status.

A $50,000 grant, announced yesterday, will help pay for their legal costs.

Australia promised East Timor millions of dollars in a secret aid deal that convinced the world's newest nation to give up claims to a huge undersea gas field, a newspaper reported.

Rick Kelly – The long standing plan of the Australian government to maintain control of East Timor's oil and gas reserves reached its dinouement late last week, as the East Timorese approved the International Unitisation Agreement (IUA) after a systematic campaign of threats and intimidation from Australia.

Terry MacAlister – United Kingdom BP has been warned by a panel of experts led by the US senator, George Mitchell, that it could trigger human rights abuses if it proceeds with a $2bn gas scheme in Indonesia.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Press and Broadcasting Community (MPPI) issued a statement on Monday protesting violence against the press and journalists, which the organization said posed a threat to press freedom.

Jakarta – Dozens of journalists rallied near the State Palace on Monday to protest against the recent attack on the offices of Tempo newsmagazine.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government plans to submit a new bill as part of an addition to the set of antiterrorism bills, one of which was endorsed by the House of Representatives last week, to reduce to a minimum the authority of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) in dealing with terrorism.

Banda Aceh – Eight Indonesian student activists said here Monday they have begun a hunger strike to demand freedom of speech in the restive province of Aceh. AFP reported the eight began their fast under a tent outside the office of the Joint Security Committee (JSC) which oversees a peace pact between the government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement.

Indonesia remains the most corrupt country in Asia, according to a new survey. The latest Asian Intelligence Report found Indonesia was regarded as the most corrupt of 13 Asia-Pacific countries listed for the sixth consecutive year.

Craig Skehan – Despite its natural splendours, cultural diversity and tragic history of decolonisation gone awry, Papua has not loomed large in world or regional affairs. But that's about to change. Papua has the potential to become as explosive an issue between Australia and Indonesia as East Timor.

John Martinkus – Forty kilometres from the Papuan capital of Jayapura, its border with PNG has become a no-go area for Indonesian police and human rights workers – and home to Kopassus-run training camps for Laskar Jihad Islamic militants and Papuan militia.

Tim Colebatch – They fooled me. Perhaps they fooled you, too. These days the spin doctors are everywhere, and they know how to pull the wool over our eyes.

Kalinga Seneviratne, Sydney – The Australian government is denying claims that it bullied the world's newest country, and one of its poorest – East Timor – to grab a large slice of a US$48 billion gas and oil deal signed between the two countries on Thursday.

Dili – The East Timorese government defended today the imposition of restraints on the activities of foreigners in Timor-Leste and rejected suggestions of that the proposed law about immigration and asylum presented to the National Parliament violates international rights.

Aboeprijadi Santoso – Instead of expressing regret over Dili's indictment of Indonesian generals (as East Timor President Xanana Gusmao did) or flatly rejecting it (as Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda and President Megawati Soekarnoputri hastily did), Jakarta and Dili would do well to review their policies and consider the long-term implications of the issue.

A prayer rally in the province of East Java in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-populated country, attracted hundreds of thousands of Muslims to pray for peace and a non-violent end to the Iraq crisis.

Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta – International Women's Day (IWD) which falls on this day, Saturday, was also commemorated in the city of Yogyakarta.

Jakarta – A fact-finding team of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) have discovered that the local military was allegedly involved in the recent attack on the office of the Aceh peace monitoring team in Takengon, Central Aceh.

The military, however, denied the allegation and described the Kontras report as "absolute rubbish".

Yulianti, Jakarta – As planned, on Saturday hundreds of protesters from the Women's Defence Alliance (Aliansi Perempuan Menggugat, APM) held a demonstration in commemoration of International Women's Day.

Richard Woolcott – John Howard may regard intervention in East Timor as Australia's "most positive and noble act" in 20 years, but our most senior former diplomat sees only needless damage to relations with Indonesia and unnecessary suffering for the East Timorese.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Jakarta and Surabaya will see a wave of mass rallies in a couple of days to show Indonesia's strong opposition to a possible attack on Iraq.

Influential Muslim preacher A.A. Gymnastiar, popularly known as Aa Gym, will lead thousands of Muslims to the streets to voice their opposition to a US-led military strike on Iraq.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia has removed major obstacles in its efforts to crack down on terrorism with parliament's recent approval to endorse two presidential decrees into anti-terrorism laws.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Several housewives from Cipinang Besar Selatan subdistrict in East Jakarta said they have been intimidated by two subdistrict officials after they reported a reduction of rice aid for the poor from the Jakarta City Council.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A House of Representatives (DPR) special committee of inquiry into corruption at state oil firm Pertamina alleged on Friday a number of former ministers and cronies as well as family members of former president Soeharto were involved in various graft cases at the company.

Mark Phillips – Australian troops in East Timor have broken up an organised crime gang after a gun battle that left a gangster dead and another fighting for his life.

It was the first live fire incident involving Australian troops in East Timor for almost two years.

Prime Minister John Howard denied yesterday bullying East Timor over a lucrative gas project as Parliament passed the crucial Timor Sea Treaty.

The laws, rushed through on the last sitting day before a March 11 deadline to ratify the treaty, underpinned the $3 billion Bayu-Undan gas development in the seabed shared between Australia and the fledgling nation.

Tony Sitathan, Singapore – After last October's bombing in Bali, Indonesia's foreign investment was hit hard, sliding to a record low. According to the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals plummeted by 35 percent to US$9.7 billion last year from $15.06 billion in 2001.

Steve Lewis and Nigel Wilson – Relations between Australia and East Timor have deteriorated even as they signed a breakthrough agreement yesterday paving the way for billions of dollars in shared revenue.

Richel Langit, Jakarta – Using threats by poorly equipped separatist movements and prolonged religious conflicts as a pretext, Indonesia's powerful military is seeking to regain the domination it previously enjoyed for more than three decades during the Suharto dictatorship.

M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta – The Coalition for Democracy is of the opinion that granting powers to the commander of the armed forces (TNI) to mobilise troops in an emergency situation, without a decision of the President, is a move to give legality to the TNI commander to take a political decision in violation of the Law on the State Defence and the 1945 Constitution.

Mark Baker – East Timor has bowed to intense political pressure from Australia and will today rush through the signing of an agreement to clear the way for joint development of the vast oil and gas reserves of the Timor Sea.

Kurniawan Hari and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The recent indictment of several Indonesian military officers in East Timor shows that the international community has no trust in either the ongoing human rights trial or the country's judiciary, a noted rights activist says.

Jakarta – A top Indonesian Cabinet minister warned East Timor not to press ahead with the prosecutions of several Indonesian generals for alleged crimes committed during the former province's independence drive in 1999.

Chris McCall, Laivai – L7 is disgusted with East Timor's government. Its leaders ran away from war to save their skins, he said, and are now back to squabble over the spoils of independence.

"They went away and they did nothing for this country," he said. "In the end Falintil struggled on its own. In the end Timor was independent."

The formal indictment of Indonesia's former armed forces chief, retired General Wiranto, and seven of his senior military officers for war crimes in East Timor is no watershed in the quest for justice in the former Indonesian-controlled territory.

M. Munab Islah Ahyani, Bandung – As many as 1000 activists from the Students Executive Council (BEM) from all institutions of higher education, except for the Bandung Institute of Technology, demonstrated in front of the West Java parliament today. For the umpteenth time, BEM declared its mistrust of the elite.

Mark Baker, Singapore and Mark Riley, Canberra – East Timor has bowed to intense political pressure from Australia and will today rush through the signing of an agreement to clear the way for joint development of the vast oil and gas reserves of the Timor Sea.

Jakarta – A charismatic Muslim cleric in Indonesia has adopted as his foster daughter a singer whose dancing has stirred controversy in the country.

Jakarta – Army chief Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu said the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is not only an enemy of the Indonesian Military (TNI), but is also an enemy of the state.

Pontianak – Haze from forest and bush fires returned here on Thursday, forcing some residents to wear masks, head of West Kalimantan provincial metereology office Suwardi said on Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesia said on Thursday it had imposed a ban on sand exports to all countries in a bid to curb rampant mining which was causing damage to the environment.

"We have decided to stop sand exports from Indonesia to any country, including Singapore," Trade and Industry Minister Rini Soewandi told Reuters.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's former military chief Wiranto has been making a not-so-quiet pitch for the top job in the country.

Cynthia Banham – The Howard Government is facing dissent from its backbenches over a decision to deport more than 1000 East Timorese refugees.

Surabaya – Indonesian prosecutors demanded on Wednesday a two- and-a-half-year jail term for the highest-ranking special forces soldier on trial for the murder of a top Papua independence leader in 2001.

Seven members of the army's elite Kopassus force are on trial over the killing of Theys Eluay, an advocate of separation from Indonesia through peaceful means.

Johanna Son, Kuta – Nearly five months after the Bali bombing, the site of the blasts is curiously clean, areas of emptiness in stark contrast to the maze of stores, cafes and hotels that have long marked Indonesia's idyllic – and now wounded – haven for tourists.

Washington – A US rights group has urged Washington and the United Nations to press Jakarta to colaborate with East Timor in trying Indonesian officials accused of crimes against humanity in the formerly occupied territory and called for the creation of an international criminal court.

Kate Stockdale, Darwin – Local community organisations, politicians and activists – meeting regularly as the Refugee Action Network (RAN) – are campaigning to allow all 1800 East Timorese asylum seekers to stay in Australia.

Dili – East Timor on Wednesday created a new post of vice-prime minister in a bid to boost government efficiency in the world's newest nation.

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri appointed Justice Minister Ana Pesoa to the new post. Pesoa, of the ruling Fretilin party, is to be replaced at the Justice Ministry by her deputy, Domingos Sarmento, the prime minister said.

United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan has recommended to the Security Council to slow the withdrawal of UN troops from East Timor. Citing the frequency of security-related incidents over the last three months, Mr Annan said there was a need to readjust the downsizing plan.

Presenter/Interviewer: Kanaha Sabapathy