[East Timor's spiritual leader and joint nobel peace prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo has announced that he'll step down as the Bishop of Dili, due to ill health.

East Timor's Nobel peace prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a symbol of resistance during the years of Indonesian occupation, said he was resigning as bishop.

Ruth Ratcliffe, Darwin – "I'm here because I don't like injustice, and I don't like being ashamed of my country", declared Jack, one of the 250 people who attended a public meeting in s

Jon Land – Pressure is mounting against the federal government's moves to deport 1600-1800 East Timorese asylum seekers, some of whom have been seeking refugee status for up to 10 years

[Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has returned to East Timor for the first time since the signing of the Timor Sea Treaty in May.

Bruce Hextall – The development of more than $10 billion of oil and gas projects in the Timor Sea moved a step closer yesterday as debate started in the East Timor Parliament to ratify

Moch. N.

Rules making it more difficult for people to gain permanent residence in Australia have been necessary to stop an increasing flow of people, by no means all of them genuine refugees, wh

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timorese Police Commissioner Paulo Martins said yesterday authorities were worried about the security situation in Dili after a series of incidents in past we

Atambua – More and more East Timorese refugees in the camps in Belu regency, East Nusa Tenggara, expressed their wish to return to their homeland of East Timor especially now on the occ

Baucau – A mob, including some former guerrilla fighters, ransacked police headquarters and damaged several vehicles in East Timor's second city, Baucau, Monday morning, before being ro

Neil Sands, Sydney – Australia and East Timor are locked in a David and Goliath struggle over spoils from Timor Sea gas fields, which analysts warn could jeopardise the entire project.

Lisbon – Portugal will continue to support the reconstruction East Timor, "particularly in the areas of education and the promulgation of the Portuguese language", a senior Lisbon offic

Federal Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock knows how to kick a man when he's down.

Paul Toohey – Three Timorese men working in the Darwin-based Timor Gap Joint Authority have been suspended on full pay after they asked their Australian bosses why they were paid less t

Jakarta – East Timor investigators have charged 12 people with committing murder just ahead of the territory's vote for independence at the end of August 1999, the United Nations Missio

The Senate has endorsed a motion recognising the plight of the East Timorese refugees and has called on the Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to grant special visas on humanitarian gr

Jakarta – Prosecutors at Indonesia's human rights court on Wednesday demanded 10-year jail sentences for the former police and military chiefs in the East Timor capital of Dili for fail

Sarah Stephen – Fatima is a widow and grandmother who has been in Australia for 10 years, living with her family who are financially supporting her.

East Timor may not seek a United Nations tribunal to try cases of militia atrocities three years ago even if Indonesia's human rights court fails to deliver justice according to its for

Helen Signy and Cynthia Banham – The Australian Government issued a secret directive that refugee applications from the East Timorese community should be put on hold, documents obtained

[The East Timor government says unsuccessful asylum-seekers forced to return from Australia will be a burden on the country's fledgeling economy.

Dili – Violent clashes Monday between security forces and residents near East Timor's second city, Baucau, left two people injured, a police source said.

Andrew West – Under the threat of deportation, the Lay family celebrated the eighth anniversary of their arrival in Australia at their Fairfield home yesterday.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – With the deadline for the closure of refugee camps here drawing near, 121 East Timorese families have registered for the government-sponsored resettlement prog

Dili – The UN will respect its engagement with East Timor and has no plans for an anticipated reduction or withdrawal of its civilian team and peacekeeping forces, Dili's UN ambassador

Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – Armindo Soares Mariano, caretaker of UNTAS – an East Timorese refugee organization – disclosed here on Friday that East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao wou

A lack of foreign investment rules has been highlighted as the main factor restricting economic growth in the newly independent East Timor.

[East Timor has marked the eleventh anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre.

Dili – East Timorese students and human rights groups called Tuesday for an international court to judge those responsible for human rights abuses during the Indonesian occupation of Ti

Jason Koutsoukis – The $3.5 billion Bayu-Undan natural gas project between Australia and East Timor received a major boost yesterday when a joint federal parliamentary committee recomme

Dili – About 1,000 protesters Tuesday demanding that the Indonesian soldiers who shot to death 200 people at a rally 11 years ago be brought to justice.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Witnesses at East Timor's truth and reconciliation commission have described atrocities going back to 1975 involving Indonesian soldiers, militia groups – and the

Dili – Australia is using East Timor's vulnerability as one of the world's poorest nations to gain leverage in negotiations on the carving up of oil resources in the Timor Sea, Dili's p

Jakarta – Prosecutors on Monday sought the minimum 10-year jail sentence for a former Indonesian army chief officer charged with crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A United Nations prosecutor has hailed the indictment of two Indonesian officers for the 1999 murder of Dutch journalist Sander Thoenes as a turning point in East

Kupang – The people of the western half of Timor Island, East Nusa Tenggara, must also enjoy their traditional rights as owners of the Timor Sea, the site of oil and gas explorations kn

Jakarta – The government has agreed to hold a special repatriation program for East Timorese refugees who want to go home late this year, Antara reported.

Dili – The leadership of East Timor's ruling Fretilin party met Thursday with its deputies in the Dili parliament to discuss recent revelations of high absenteeism among Fretilin MPs an

A former militia chief has denied he had committed human rights abuses in East Timor three years ago and said he was a victim of the Indonesian government's desire to appease internatio

Dean Yates, Jakarta – Investigators in East Timor have issued an indictment against two Indonesian military officers over the 1999 killing of a Dutch journalist around the time the terr

Jakarta – Two Indonesian soldiers were among seven people indicted Wednesday in East Timor for killing a Dutch journalist and 19 others during the country's independence struggle in 199

Dili – Defense force recruits attacked traffic police in the East Timorese capital Friday, in an apparent act of revenge, injuring at least two officers.

East Timor's first Portuguese-language newspaper in more than a quarter century will be formally launched in Dili Thursday.

Jill Jolliffe, Atambua – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has called on the United Nations to lower its security rating for West Timor, which is now at a higher stage of alert than

Dili – An average of 12 percent of lawmakers do not attend sittings of East Timor's parliament and only one in ten of these absentees offers a valid excuse for their non-appearance, a r

Jill Jolliffe, Kupang – President Jose "Xanana" Gusmao has led a delegation of more than 100 East Timorese, including parliamentarians, cabinet ministers, a football team and 16 enterta

Dili – International donations were used to plug East Timor's USD 22 million budget deficit in the financial year 2001-2002, although the world's newest nation's state receipts were hig

Kupang – East Timorese president Xanana Gusmao told a sports stadium filled with East Timorese refugees Saturday that it was their decision whether or not to return home.

Jill Jolliffe, Lacluta – In the remote south coast town of Lacluta, nine villagers accused of violence against their neighbours during 1999 militia attacks have faced their victims in t