Matthew Abbott, Lospalos, East Timor – The two scientists, crammed in the back of a sweltering car, had come a long way hoping to encounter what most people try to avoid: man-eating crocodiles.

Phnom Penh – Cambodia and Timor-Leste vowed on Monday to enhance bilateral relations in trade, tourism and education, a Cambodian spokesman said.

James Massola, Jakarta – The tiny nation of Timor-Leste hopes to become the world's first "plastic neutral" country, after signing a deal to create a new chemical recycling plant with Australian technology.

Kuala Lumpur (Reuters) – In a region where seas are awash with trash, Timor-Leste is set to become the world's first country to recycle all its plastic waste after it teamed up with Australian researchers on Friday (May 17) to build a revolutionary recycling plant.

Helen Davidson – Calls for Australia to repay a year's worth of oil and gas revenue revenue to Timor-Leste will not be considered by the Labor party before the election, Penny Wong has said.

Wong, the shadow minister for foreign affairs, expressed disappointment that the historic maritime border treaty – signed in March 2017 at the United Nations – had not been ratified.

Helen Davidson – Jose Ramos-Horta, the former president of Timor-Leste and Nobel laureate, says he believes Australia will reimburse "every cent it wrongly received" after the countries signed a maritime border treaty last year.

Peter Milne – East Timor is now the majority owner of the Woodside-operated Sunrise gas field after it completed the purchase of equity from Shell and ConocoPhillips.

The East-Timorese national oil company Timor Gap paid Shell $US300 million ($420 million) for a 26.6 per cent interest in the Greater Sunrise fields.

Helen Davidson – Australia has been accused of "siphoning" millions of dollars a month in oil revenue that should belong to Timor-Leste, because the government is yet to ratify last year's maritime border treaty.

Susan Connelly – Franz Kafka's book "The Trial" is a waking nightmare. Josef K, a bank clerk, is arrested. He is never charged, and no evidence of wrongdoing is ever revealed. For the next 12 months he undergoes a series of encounters with strange people, hearing insinuations and veiled accusations.

Peter Milne – Two Australian mining investors want locals to look to nearby and untapped East Timor for their next venture.

Iron Fortune founder and director Mary Thompson said the private company had been seeking iron ore opportunities in South Australia before a 2014 trade delegation trip to East Timor.

Christopher Knaus – A senior ex-judge has condemned delays in the prosecution of former spy Witness K and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, saying they represent an "absolute abandonment" of the principles of open and fair justice.

Paulina Quintao – According to the National Hospital Guido Valadares (HNGV) Surgeon, Dr. Alito Soares, most breast cancer patients registered at the National Hospital entered only during the advance stages of the cancer with only a small number surviving.

Jakarta (Antara) – Some 60 families of Timor Leste are currently settled in Indonesia's Naktuka Village, Amfoang Timur Sub-district, Kupang District, East Nusa Tenggara, with this rising number triggering concerns among Indonesians there, a local community leader stated.

Paulina Quintao – An exploratory research report on local market facilities conducted by the Australian Government's Program To'os Ba Moris Diak (Farming for Prosperity) and by UN Women, in Bobonaro and Baucau municipalities, showed that most conditions in local markets are not gender sensitive, because they lack electricity, toilets, water and rubbish bins, which limits women's pa

Paulina Quintao – After conducting a comparative study to Australia, the President of the Timor-Leste Parliamentary Women's Group (GMPTL), MP Lidia Norberta, said lack of childcare services to be the main factor impeding women's involvement in public life.

Joao da Cruz Cardoso – Timor-Leste successfully held its first early election on May 12, 2018 demonstrating its growing maturity as a democratic state.

Jano Gibson – It's feeding time outside a police station in Dili, where three large saltwater crocodiles are kept as pets.

As an officer dangles a chicken carcass into the enclosure, one of the reptiles lunges for its meal. Watching on are a group of Darwin-based researchers, who have come to Timor-Leste on the hunt for crocodile DNA.

Donald Greenlees – Just over 20 years ago, a letter from Australian prime minister John Howard to the president of Indonesia, B.J. Habibie, set in motion a chain of events that would lead to East Timor's passage to nationhood.

Alexandra Back – A jury could hear the controversial prosecution of a former spy known as "Witness K" and his lawyer who are both accused of revealing information about the Australian government spying on East Timor, a court has been told.

Ernst Willheim – Australians reading about secret trials in foreign countries tend to content themselves in the belief that in Australia we have an open court system and an independent judiciary.

Paulina Quintao – The Chief of the Surgery Department at the National Hospital of Guido Valadares (HNGV), in Dili, Surgeon Alito Soares said many patients of cancer, with broken legs and arms chose to leave the hospital early in favour of doing traditional treatments.

An American missionary who was a hero in Timor-Leste for founding children's shelters that have operated for more than two decades has been expelled from his Catholic congregation after admitting to sexual abuse of minors.

Estevao Nuno – The Director of the organization BELUN, Luis da Costa Ximenes, urges the Secretariat of State for the Combatants of the National Liberation (SEAKLN) to verify the data and lists of veterans.

He said, in 2018, there were 28,896 veterans registered, which for him is a substantial number.

Press freedom advocates are raising the issue of political interference in Timor-Leste's public television network after the unceremonious removal of the network's president.

Paulina Quintao – The Chief of Suku of the Suku of Kaikoli, in the administrative post of Vera Cruz, Dili municipality, Hipolito Marques, said drains are full of rubbish because the government has not created a proper rubbish control and management system.

Havana, Cuba – Loro Horta, Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of East Timor to Cuba, participated in this capital in a martial arts exhibition, which aimed to further strengthen relations of friendship and solidarity between the peoples of both countries.

Timor-Leste's Press Council (TLPC) has strongly condemned political interference in the country's public broadcasting service (RTTL) newsroom where political-appointed advisers for the president of RTTL have interfered in its coverage.

Antonio Sampaio, Dili (Asia Pacific Report/Pacific Media Watch) – New debates in Timor-Leste are circulating about political interference in newsrooms.

Attempts to condition or determine that somebody cannot make news on a subject or interview this person or that person. It's a problem affecting both public and private media groups.

Paulina Quintao – After a secret voting at the National Parliament, Sergio de Jesus Hornai, was elected new Commissioner for the Anti-Corruption Commission (KAK) for the period of 2019 until 2023.

Dili, Timor-Leste – The former president of Timor-Leste's public television network says he has been sacked for political reasons.

Gil da Costa was removed this month from the post of chairperson of the board of directors of Timor-Leste Radio and Television (RTTL) following an audit undertaken by the government – and he had no knowledge of the result.

Paulina Quintao – The National Director for Agriculture, Horticulture and Extension at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery (MAP), Amaro Ximenes, said every year the government provides seeds only to some farmers because it only

Nelson Da Cruz, Dili – East Timor's president has approved a decree allowing use of the country's petroleum fund for a $650 million buyout of Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips' holdings in the Greater Sunrise gas project, a proposal he had vetoed in December but which subsequently won overwhelming parliamentary backing.

Sophie Raynor – There used to be thousands of them – the children of the children of the first Chinese people to migrate to Timor-Leste in the 1800s and their indigenous Timorese husbands and wives.

Jared Ferrie, Phnom Penh – The Australian owners of a restaurant in East Timor are hoping to use their passion for the local cuisine to combat malnutrition in the tiny Southeast Asian nation.

Christopher Knaus – Commonwealth prosecutors have been accused of acting unfairly in the Witness K case after dumping their brief of evidence on defence lawyers about 6pm on the last working day of the legal year.

Jakarta – Presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto says that the elite in Jakarta do not understand the Indonesian people's struggle to defend the sovereignty of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), including the struggle of former pro-integration militia in East Timor.

Hamish McDonald – When Australia and East Timor settled maritime boundary dispute in March, guided by conciliators from The Hague, it seemed the way was now clear to develop the big Greater Sunrise petroleum field under the Timor Sea and thus sustain the new state for decades.

Paulina Quintao – The President for the Special Olympics, Maria Domingas Fernandes Alves, said people with disabilities, including intellectual, vision, and hearing, and with other physical disabilities and impairments, need special attention and conditions to move and to be able to actively participate in society so there is a need for a National Council for People with Disabilitie

Damien Kingsbury – Timor-Leste started the year in political chaos and ended it with a return to the confrontational politics of the past.

Viji Menon – In March 2018, Timor-Leste and Australia signed a treaty resolving the issue of the long-disputed maritime boundaries between the two countries.

Paulina Quintao – The Vice Minister of Health, Bonifacio dos Reis, said the Ministry of Health (MoH) will continue to promote the global HIV/AIDS prevention method of ABC, Abstinence (A), Be faithful (B), or use a Condom (C), to prevent the transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Paulina Quintao – The Minister of Public Works, Salvador Soares dos Reis Pires, said the government has reestablished a taskforce to control and identify members of the community who destroy public water pipes to establish illegal connections to the water grid.

Stephen Dziedzic – Timor-Leste has bought Shell's stake in the rich Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields as it presses ahead with its contentious plan to pipe the natural resources to its south coast for processing.

Michael Sainsbury – The recent agreement by Timor-Leste's government to purchase US energy group ConocoPhillips' 30% stake in the Greater Sunrise syndicate, which has rights to exploit the substantial undersea gas and oil reserves worth upwards of US $50 million, is in many ways a logical step.

Simone Rensch – Timor-Leste needs to "sustainably manage" its public finances to ensure it doesn't spend too much too quickly as its natural resources run low, the World Bank has warned.

Paulina Quintao – The government of Timor-Leste and its partners including the United Nations and its agencies in Timor-Leste, Diplomatic Corps, and representatives of the private sector and civil society organizations will revise the implementation of the commitments, policies and the programs of government to achieve the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Estevao Nuno – The 12 November Committee working with the Forensic Police Unit has been able to recover the remains of 16 victims of the 12 November 1991 Santa Massacre in Dili.

Paulina Quintao – The National Director for Meteorology at the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Terencio Fernandes Moniz, said based on the changing weather patterns in Timor-Leste and the effects of El Nino, even though weaker than in previous years, rain fall will be affected until December 2018.

Paul Karp – Bernard Collaery and Witness K have suffered a setback in their bid to have an open court hearing on protected information in the Timor-Leste spying case.

Alexandra Back – The case of a former spy and his lawyer accused of conspiracy to provide information about an intelligence service has been adjourned until the federal Attorney-General Christian Porter decides whether the as-yet undisclosed brief of evidence is likely to prejudice national security.