Dili – It is easy to be optimistic about East Timor's future when you are sitting at the villa of its de facto king – UN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello.

David DeVoss – The East Timor branch of Portugal's Banco Nacional Ultramarino in Dili looks like a modern financial institution.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dare Mulo – Some people wept. Others sang national songs they had rehearsed for days and stamped their bare feet in the dust.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor's Cabinet member for foreign affairs, Mr Jose Ramos Horta, has blasted the United Nations mission in Dili for obstructing the implementation of Portuguese a

Dili – A US-based election monitoring group said Friday it was satisfied with conditions for East Timor's first free elections next week, but expressed concern over cases of voter intim

Some East Timorese political forces have set up security-style partisan groups in preparation for next week4s elections but have not generated any problems, UN administration officials

Mark Dodd, Dili – The UN Serious Crimes Unit, charged with investigating human rights violations in East Timor in 1999, says it is investigating 674 documented murders but has insuffici

Mark Dodd, Dili – An East Timorese anti-independence leader said yesterday he would tell refugees in camps in West Timor that the world's newest country was on the road to democracy.

Bronwyn Curran, Dili – East Timorese voters are relishing their first-ever taste of democracy but some parties in next week's elections have tried to intimidate them, local poll watchdo

Jane Counsel – Delicate negotiations over a new Timor Gap revenue sharing agreement were further unhinged yesterday, after a small American group launched legal action against the Feder

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The political party of East Timor's independence heroes, Fretilin, has been accused of using intimidation, threats and "Indonesian-style" campaigning ahead of

Mark Dodd, Dili – Those responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999 are likely to escape prosecution by a special Indonesian war crimes tribunal, accord

The Senate has rejected a proposal for an international war crimes tribunal covering the Indonesian occupation of East Timor.

Canberra – Australia is unable to dictate a solution to a dispute between East Timor and a US-based oil company that has stalled construction of a key gas pipeline, the government said

An American Civpol officer stationed in Bobonaro District was stoned by a group of Timorese at the border area.

The number two in East Timor's Fretilin party hierarchy, Mari Alkatiri, strongly critized Wednesday the territory's Independent Eletoral Mediation Panel, which has complained about the

East Timorese women's rights groups have gathered more than 10,000 signatures backing the inclusion of a "Women's Rights Charter" in the territory's future constitutiuon, activists anno

Canberra – Australia said on Tuesday it would urge Phillips Petroleum Co chairman and chief executive Jim Mulva to talk tough with East Timor over tax proposals which are stalling a Tim

Joe Leahy, Dili – Something resembling a commercial bustle has returned to Dili, East Timor's capital. Beaten-up taxis cruise streets frequented by illegal money-changers.

East Timor's UN Transition Administration (UNTAET) praised Monday the weapons collection campaign conducted last week by the Indonesian Armed Forces and targeting militias in Jakarta's

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Apocalyptic predictions are rife in East Timor as the territory approaches political freedom after centuries of Portuguese colonial rule and a quarter century of I

United Nations civil police in the Suai region of East Timor have detained two people suspected of committing infractions of election campaign rules, a UN source told Lusa on Friday.

Mark Riley, New York – The Prime Minister has asked to meet with the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, as the UN comes under pressure to accelerate its withdrawal from Ea

Mark Dodd, Dili – With an army of street kids recruited to plaster seafront coconut trees with stickers, and a UN vehicle pressed into service blaring raucous political messages, the Ti

Aout 200 ex-Falintil members on Tuesday staged a one-day sit-in at UNTAET headquarters to demand that the United Nations fulfill its promises to the former freedom fighters.

Mark Dodd, Dili – A former member of the independence movement Fretilin, Dr Abilio Araujo, expelled for his links with Indonesia, has returned to East Timor after 26 years' self-imposed

[Source: RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese. Excerpt from report by Portuguese radio on 14 August]

Joe Leahy – Antonio, a farmer in the arid highlands south of East Timor's capital Dili, points at a distant ridgeline.

Unidentified assailants have thrown stones at a vehicle carrying Democratic Party (PD) supporters on a campaign tour of the Liquiga district west of the East Timorese capital.

[Source: RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese]

Certain political parties have resorted to door knocking campaigns forcing people to vote for them.

Thousands of people made their way to Dili on Saturday to take part in the UDT mammoth campaign.

Mark Dodd, Dili – His name is distinctive, and in coming months Australians may hear a lot more of the East Timorese independence leader LuOlo.

Mark Dodd – An Australian-funded program teaching East Timorese to reject corruption hopes to make an impact on political parties competing in national elections this month for an 88-se

Warren Caragata, Dili – It's the road from nowhere, but it's surprisingly busy.

Warren Caragata, Dili – The big UN Land Rover that carries Xanana Gusmao and his bodyguards from event to event should have a bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be doing practically a

Mark Dodd in Dili and Craig Skehan in Canberra – An East Timorese militia leader who served in the Indonesian Army's special forces and is on trial for war crimes – including the murder

Ian Timberlake, Jakarta – The Indonesian military directed a militia campaign of killings, terror and forced deportation against East Timorese civilians, according to a new book on the

Nigel Wilson – For months there have been rumours of problems in the "co-operative" arrangement to develop more than 12 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Timor Sea.

Mark Dodd, Maliana – Every day a group of women meet at the shop called Nove Nove (Nine Nine) in bustling Maliana market. They share a chilling legacy.

Electoral officials in Dili said Thursday that final voters' lists for East Timor's August 30 constituent assembly elections contained 409,019 eligible voters, after additions made in c

The Indonesian government has rejected a United Nations proposal for a land link between East Timor and its Oecussi enclave in West Timor, a report said Thursday.

Kupang – Police forcibly evacuated some 500 former prointegration militiamen from East Timor on Tuesday.

Mark Dodd – A court holding the territory's first war crimes trial heard graphic evidence yesterday about the torture and murder of a pro-independence guerilla by Indonesian special for

Jon Land – With elections to the country's first post-occupation Constituent Assembly due on August 30, East Timor's socialists are building up their support across the country and are

Vaudine England – Aid groups may be reluctant to return to refugee camps in West Timor with as many personnel as before, despite the UN giving the go-ahead for workers to go back.

Mark Dodd – East Timorese officials have hailed President Megawati Sukarnoputri's decision to expand the terms of an Indonesian tribunal investigating violence in East Timor in 1999.

[Excerpt from report by Asih Nurhayati by Indonesian Satunet news web site on 6 August.]

The United Nations is to reduce its presence in East Timor in spite of Security Council members' reservations about the new administration in Jakarta.

[Source: Kompas Cyber Media web site, Jakarta, Auguse 3]