Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The minister known as the strongman in East Timor's Government wept like a child as he confessed publicly to beating a prisoner during the 1975 civil war.

Patrick Walters – East Timor is calling for the United Nations to deploy a 400-strong paramilitary force at least until 2006 to bolster its tiny security forces.

As East Timor continues to delve into its painful past, there's been a suprising confession from Timor's last European governor.

East Timor's tiny military has discharged 27 soldiers and will soon fire more than 60 others for being absent without leave or skipping training, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Rob Taylor – An East Timorese human rights crimes court today sentenced a former member of Indonesia's military to 11 years in jail for murder and torture committed during the wave of v

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – In the hope that the seasonal spirit will prevail, East Timor's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is asking former political leaders to seek forgiveness for trig

Since gaining independence in 2002, the people of East Timor have struggled with the legacy of violence of Indonesia's 24-year occupation.

Australia will leave some 50 to 60 troops to assist with training of the East Timorese military once the peacekeeping force comes home, defence chief General Peter Cosgrove said today.

Cynthia Banham – East Timor has accused Australia of dragging its feet in talks over billions of dollars in oil and gas rights under the Timor Sea.

An East Timor court has jailed a former Indonesian army sergeant for crimes against humanity during the territory's bloody breakaway from Jakarta.

Canberra – East Timor Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta has demanded Australia halt development of massive natural gas fields in the Timor Sea until a dispute over their ownership is se

Canberra – East Timor Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday it is too soon to fret over the final shape of a permanent maritime boundary between his impoverished nation and A

Michelle Nichols, Canberra – East Timor appealed to the United Nations Wednesday not to desert the world's newest nation by diverting its assistance to flashpoints like Iraq and Afghani

Mark Colvin: In East Timor, thousands of people remain in the grip of an acute food shortage, and now face a bleak and hungry Christmas.

Kupang – Twenty-six East Timorese who have been seeking asylum in Belu district since last October have sent a petition to President Megawati Soekarnoputri asking for protection and exp

Chris White – Not 8 hours into this day and google retrieved over 100 American news articles that have been published commemorating the day that will forever live in infamy.

Rachel Kleinman – Yarra's East Timorese asylum-seekers face a miserable Christmas unless their appeals for residency are resolved.

Nigel Wilson – Production from the Bayu Undan gas recycling project in the Timor Sea has been delayed at least eight months with implications for East Timor's revenues running into mill

Eighteen months ago East Timor became the world's newest nation, but the euphoria of the independence celebrations is now long over.

Peter Kammerer – East Timorese look at Iraq in wonderment.

Dili – A Timorese militiaman was convicted Wednesday of crimes against humanity and sentenced to nine years in jail for killing three independence supporters and torturing others during

It was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration to mark the death of a fellow East Timorese activists.

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – A United Nations official has pointed the finger at the UN police command for its failure to intervene effectively during riots in East Timor last December.

Post-independence confidence in East Timor has declined, with nearly 40 per cent of East Timorese saying they feel worse off now than under Indonesian rule and less than half optimistic

Canberra – East Timor's prime minister Friday accused Australia of deliberately dragging out talks aimed at bolstering his impoverished nation's share of billions of dollars worth of oi

Frederik Balfour – Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao became President of the world's newest country, East Timor in May, 2002.

Dili – Thousands of people gathered Wednesday to remember the victims of one of East Timor's worst massacres under Indonesian rule with a moment of silence and flowers as well as demand

Canberra – Australia and East Timor began talks on Wednesday aimed at settling a bitter dispute over carving up the seabed between the two nations, which holds billions of dollars worth

Australia is refusing to set a deadline for talks beginning today with its neighbour East Timor on their contentious maritime borders.

Nigel Wilson – Australia is refusing to give East Timor a timetable for reaching a permanent maritime boundary between the two countries that could affect ownership of billions of dolla

Sydney – Australia has denied bullying its tiny Pacific neighbour East Timor Tuesday as the nations prepared for talks on finalising a contentious martime border that will determine how

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – As the United Nations winds down its presence in East Timor ahead of next May's departure, the fledgling state is still wrestling with forces that could of

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timorese politicians are hoping a formal headcount to identify former pro-independence guerillas will end their discontent and return them to the social mains

The first lady of East Timor, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, has urged Australia to consider the plight of the fledgeling nation when negotiations begin later this week on establishing maritime b

From a correspondent in Dili – East Timor introduced its own coins today, hoping to spur economic development and create a symbol for the country following its hard-won independence fro

Sandra McLean – During East Timor's independence struggle, few men were more revered than Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the resistance movement.

Louise Williams – The quest for justice for East Timor's victims of human rights abuses under Indonesian military occupation is in effect over.

Just four years after the vote for independence in East Timor, the country's first lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, believes the country's peace is still too fragile to enter into the politic

Louis Beckerling – East Timor president Xanana Gusmao warned Asian business leaders yesterday that if people in the poorest countries of the region were left without food, there could b

Dili – East Timor's governing Fretilin party has lost electoral support but retains majority backing after nearly 18 months in power, according to the country's first political poll, so

Linda Mottram: Australian troops in East Timor are preparing for the pull out of UN peacekeepers next year.

Kupang – A top East Timorese community leader in Indonesia, Armindo Soares, said a lot of East Timorese refugees who participated in the repatriation program returned to Indonesia.

For several years stories have been circulating, mostly unpublished, concerning claims that Australian soldiers were engaged in acts of torture of militia prisoners in East Timor in 199

Deborah Snow – Fresh allegations of torture by Australian troops in East Timor will be made in tonight's SBS Dateline program, with former militia members claiming they were beaten, kic

Kirsty Sword Gusmao, the Australian-born first lady of the world's newest nation, once shared two of her husband's big dreams for an independent East Timor then, when the long battle ha

Atambua – The Belu district government said it was treating the 26 East Timorese seeking asylum in Atambua as foreign nationals.

["A Woman of Independence". By Kirsty Sword Gusmao. Macmillan, 321pp, $30.]

Keith Suter – The largest loss of life ever sustained by the Australian media industry took place on October 16, 1975, at the East Timor village of Balibo.

Jill Jolliffe – Today's pilgrimage to Balibo by the families of the five television reporters killed in an Indonesian attack on the East Timorese border town 28 years ago is a turning p

Waingapu – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has expressed anger over attitude of the country's citizens seeking asylum in Atambua, Belu district, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), a milita