Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – East Timorese have voted overwhelmingly to end Indonesia's rule of their territory and become one of the world's newest, and smallest, independent countries.

At least 20 people have been killed and the western East Timorese town of Maliana set ablaze and all but destroyed.

Dili – Hundreds of pro-Indonesian militiamen roamed through the East Timorese capital Dili early Saturday as fear gripped the territory with the United Nations announcing an overwhelmin

Ian Timberlake, Dili – Furious United Nations staff – evacuated from Maliana following the murders of two UN poll workers in the district – yesterday blasted Indonesian police for doing

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – A skinny boy in filthy threadbare clothes hangs around my hotel. Ameu, 10, is a good kid, keeping an eye on my room when I am out.

Jakarta – Indonesian opposition leader and presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri said Saturday she was "very sad" East Timor had voted overwhelmingly for independence.

Jakarta – Leader of the National Council for East Timorese Resistance (CNRT) Xanana Gusmao hails the Aug.

Jakarta – President B.J.

New York, Friday: East Timor voted overwhelmingly to break its ties with Indonesia in favour of independence, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced here tonight.

Craig Skehan, Jakarta – Differences have emerged within the Indonesian Government over whether international peacekeepers could be needed in East Timor after tomorrow's announcement of

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces have long used street gangs and self-styled militia to do their dirty work, with East Timor simply providing a contemporary example o

Mark Riley, New York – The Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations was ordered to appear before a special session of the Security Council yesterday to face international anger over

Vaudine England, Jakarta – When Indonesia-backed militias go on the rampage in East Timor, threatening the United Nations, the East Timorese and local and foreign observers, reactions i

David Jenkins – The Indonesian Government was in disarray yesterday over the escalating violence in East Timor, with the civilian government of President B. J.

Mark Dodd, Gleno – Indonesian authorities have lost control of the strategic coffee-growing district town of Gleno which is now in the hands of hundreds of pro-Jakarta militia.

Jonathan Head --The militiamen simply appeared out of nowhere, and set upon us. We ran as fast as we could, and I sought shelter with my colleagues behind a building.

Richard Lloyd Parry, Dili – Even before the automatic rifles started firing late yesterday afternoon, the scene around the United Nations headquarters in the East Timorese capital, Dili

Dili – Hundreds of anti-independence militiamen blocked the street outside the UN headquarters in East Timor's capital Wednesday, setting on fire a nearby house and shooting cars drivin

Joanna Jolly and Agencies in Dili – Anarchy returned to East Timor's capital yesterday with at least five people killed as hundreds of anti-independence militiamen targeted the United N

Hamish McDonald – In Dili's airport, members of the Aitarak militia stand in the departure lounge, preventing Timorese and Indonesian families boarding the Merpati Airlines jet to fly t

Mark Dodd, Dili – Thousands of Jakarta supporters in East Timor have packed their belongings, locked their homes and fled across the border into Indonesian West Timor in fear of renewed

Jakarta – Indonesia's leading pro-Moslem newspaper on Tuesday called the UN-run independence ballot in East Timor a conspiracy to undermine the world's most populous Moslem nation.

Despite fears of militia intimidation, the people of East Timor turned out in their thousands to vote yesterday on independence. David Shanks reports from Maliana.

Lindsay Murdoch – Pro-integration forces blockaded Dili airport and set up roadblocks around the East Timorese capital late yesterday amid unconfirmed reports that militia had killed tw

Dili – Indonesian authorities on Tuesday deported four Australian journalists from East Timor, accusing them of inciting violence during the territory's autonomy ballot, a military offi

Paul Daley, Canberra – Australia has rejected advances from the United States to cooperate on peacekeeping plans for strife-torn East Timor.

Steven Gan – Today the people will decide. After 23 years of brutal Indonesian occupation, East Timorese will be given a choice: independence or autonomy.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Australia's senior observers have given a gloomy assessment of Monday's historic ballot on the future of East Timor, but said there was no alternative but to pre

Washington – US President Bill Clinton has warned the president of Indonesia that relations with the US will be seriously damaged – including an implicit threat to curtail international

Militiamen strutted the capital's streets yesterday, a day after going on a deadly rampage, as a final rally in the campaign for next week's vote fell victim to the violence.

The battle for the hearts and minds – and votes – of the East Timorese people will not lose its passion, writes Hamish McDonald from Dili, even after Monday's referendum.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Under intense diplomatic pressure, Jakarta has recalled from Dili a senior intelligence officer alleged to be a key figure behind militia activity in East Timor.

Brian Toohey – Australian policy makers have fought long and hard to get the international community to trust Indonesia's security forces to prevent a bloodbath in East Timor.

Craig Skehan – The Indonesian Government has hit back at foreign critics of the upsurge in violence in East Timor, arguing it does not need outside pressure over its handing of Monday's

Dili – The United Nations on Friday led international condemnation of Indonesia's handling of militia violence in East Timor as an exiled separatist leader called for a UN peacekeeping

Joanna Jolly, Dili – It was after the thousands opposed to independence had paraded through Dili that a hard-core of several hundred militiamen showed the true colours of the pro-integr

Peter Cole-Adams – Australia put military units on standby yesterday to evacuate about 200 Australians, and other foreign nationals, from East Timor after Monday's vote on the future of

Mark Dodd – Something is rotten in the regency of Suai.

Tim Dodd, Dili – United Nation officials are considering whether Monday's referendum for independence on East Timor can go ahead after pro-Indonesia militia groups fought pitched battle

Mark Colvin: We begin the programme tonight in Dili, capital of East Timor, where there's been a major and ominous development involving a shoot-out involving pro-autonomy militias and

Lisbon – The Indonesian army will fight to the last soldier if a UN peacekeeping force is sent to East Timor without Jakarta's approval, a senior Indonesian diplomat told the Portuguese

Lisbon – A photographer with US magazine Time said on Friday he had witnessed Indonesian police shoot dead a 25-year-old unarmed protester in the head during clashes in East Timor ahead

Jakarta – Jailed East Timor resistance leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao promised on Wednesday to offer amnesty to his political opponents if East Timorese voted for independence on

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Indonesia's top officials in East Timor are preparing to reject the outcome of Monday's ballot on the territory's future, claiming the way the United Nations wil

Convinced they will win a historic UN-supervised referendum by a landslide next week, up to 10,000 jubilant supporters of independence for East Timor defied threats by rivals and choked

Gay Alcorn, Washington – The Clinton administration said today that, on a practical level, it was too late for an armed United Nations peacekeeping force to enter East Timor before Mond

Tim Johnston, Dili – A leading opponent of East Timorese independence said on Tuesday that a narrow loss in next Monday's ballot on the future status of the troubled territory would lea

Jeremy Wagstaff, Dili – The United Nations mission in East Timor has refused applications by 24 Indonesian government-linked youth groups to send observers to this month's referendum on

Peter Cole-Adams – The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, telephoned his Indonesian counterpart, Mr Ali Alatas, last night to repeat Australia's concern over security breakdowns in Ea

The recent surge of violence in East Timor is part of a deliberate pattern to scare voters away from participating in the August 30 referendum on the territory's future status, the Unit