Timor Leste's former president and four-time prime minister Xanana Gusmao has come under fire for joining the birthday party of a defrocked American priest jailed for child sex abuse.

Rosmalis Anuar, Kuala Lumpur – After more than a decade of seeking full membership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Timor Leste was finally, in principle, given approval to join the regional bloc as its 11th member state by ASEAN leaders who gathered in Phnom Penh for the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and Related Summits in November last year (2022).

Malcolm Brown – Shirley Shackleton knew the risks. Married to journalist Greg Shackleton for just over nine years, and a mother of one, she was worried like any wife whose husband is about to embark on a dangerous assignment. But she resolved not to stand in his way.

Joanne Lin, Singapore – Timor-Leste may have received a consolation prize last year when it received in-principle approval to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as its 11th member state. However, it may have a long way to go in to reach the ultimate prize – full membership.

Anne Barker, Jakarta – Shirley Shackleton once sat on her husband's grave and declared it a crime scene.

In the late 1980s in Dili, she personally confronted the army general who had led Indonesia's invasion of then Portuguese Timor.

Now she has been remembered as feisty, courageous and passionate, after dying at the weekend aged 91.

She was an unlikely hero.

Chris Barrett, Singapore – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has called on the Australian government to finally release secret documents relating to the Indonesian invasion and occupation of the south-east-Asian nation as he led tributes to Balibo Five widow Shirley Shackleton.

Daniel A. Fajri, Jakarta – Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi welcomed a visit by her Timor Leste counterpart Adaljiza Magno in Jakarta on Wednesday, January 11, 2023. A number of issues were discussed at the bilateral meeting, such as opportunities to boost economic partnership and settlement of land boundaries between the two.

Hunter Marston – At the 41st ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh in November 2022, the leaders of the grouping agreed 'in principle' to admit Timor-Leste as their 11th member.

Rui Graca Feijo – In the past few years, everyday life in Timor-Leste has been disrupted by the multiple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conditions were imposed on the exercise of public liberties, the composition of government and the dynamics of political life were challenged, economic performance weakened and the wellbeing of the population suffered.

Fiona Gruber – Journalists' lives are often peripatetic, and few more so than foreign correspondent Jill Jolliffe, whose career included covering war in Angola, investigating secret Nazi gold in Portugal and documenting the sex-slave trade in Europe.

Henry Jom – East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta has urged Australian PM Anthony Albanese to publicly support the development of a gas pipeline in the Timor Sea following Woodside Energy's new position on the project.

The US$490 million-Tibar Bay Deepwater Port, in Timor-Leste was inaugurated last week by the President of Timor-Leste Jose Ramos Horta and high-ranking officials from the government.

Aloysius L, Fardah, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – The number of people crossing the border between Indonesia and Timor Leste has increased to an average of 200 people per day, according to the Atambua Immigration Office in Belu District, East Nusa Tenggara Province.

Philip J. Heijmans – Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta said that Australia has shown no signs moving forward with a long-stalled gas pipeline project that runs through the Southeast Asian country, leaving around $100 billion in potential revenue untapped.

Hariz Baharudin, Singapore – Timor-Leste will work actively with the Asean Secretariat and others in the region to accelerate preparations for its membership to the regional grouping, said the country's president, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta.

Hamish McDonald – When attorney-general Mark Dreyfus canned the long-running prosecution of Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery he was praised widely by critics of Canberra's national security culture. Five months later, the praise is tempered by puzzlement: a subsequent legal move by Dreyfus may block efforts to answer lingering questions about the long-running case.

Jean Iau, Singapore – Singapore on Thursday launched a training programme for Timor-Leste officials in support of the country's bid for Asean membership.

Timor-Leste has authorised a US$73.3 million finance agreement with Australia for works at Dili Airport.

"This is the last leg of the funding, so that progress can now be made on the project. We will now issue international tenders for this large-scale project," said Timor-Leste's Finance Minister Rui Gomes.

The Timorese state oil company Timor GAP, the majority partner in the Greater Sunrise consortium in the Timor Sea, has informed Australia's Woodside of its intention to replace it as operator of the project.

Timor GAP holds 56.56 per cent of the Greater Sunrise consortium, in which Woodside has 33.44 per cent, and Japanese Osaka Gas company has 10 per cent.

Damon Evans – The chief executive of Australia's Woodside Energy appears to have made a blunder with her comments that the company is open to revisiting a greenfield LNG export development in East Timor. Significantly, the melodrama around the project will likely continue.

Melbourne – Woodside Energy Group said for the first time on Thursday it was willing to consider sending gas from the huge Greater Sunrise field to East Timor, instead of its long-preferred option of Darwin in Australia.

Woodside Energy is reconsidering the potential development of Greater Sunrise via an onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in East Timor. This marks a significant about-turn for the Australian LNG developer.

Dili, Timor Leste – Timor Leste inaugurated a new deepwater port Wednesday operated by a French conglomerate, in the largest ever single foreign investment on an infrastructure project in Southeast Asia's youngest country.

The $490 million port at Tibar Bay near the capital Dili is expected to expand trade for Timor Leste, one of the poorest countries in the region.

The government in Catholic-majority Timor-Leste hosted the first music and cultural festival involving participants from across the country, part of an effort to promote tourism and diversify income sources.

Kornelius Purba, Jakarta – ASEAN has eventually accepted Timor Leste Republic as its 11th member last week after years of debate that included initial reservations from Singapore. The inclusion of the young republic into the regional club looks like Indonesia's mea culpa confession and fulfillment of its debts to its former colony.

In a November 17 statement, Jesuit Mission said thanks to the collaboration of many village leaders over the last four years, its partnership with

Annie Wu – The venue is brimming with cheers of excitement from the chicken owners. Despite bets being placed before the game started, the value of a bet can build up as the stronger chicken continues to win.

The atmosphere gets intense.

Phnom Penh – It was as a budding diplomat in the 1970s that Mr Jose Ramos-Horta, a man who would go on to win the Nobel Prize for his fight for East Timor's independence, first raised the idea of his country joining South-east Asia's economic and political bloc.

Hariz Baharudin, Phnom Penh – Timor-Leste will be admitted in principle as the 11th member state of regional grouping Asean, said leaders of its member states on Friday.

Two journalists have been summoned by the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) after publishing two articles on a minister's request to dismiss Gastao Pereira, the Director of Internal Intelligence at the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Ry Sochan – Prime Minister Hun Sen encouraged the competent authorities of both Cambodia and East Timor to continue to effectively implement the three documents that both countries had signed in order to boost economic cooperation, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Ry Sochan – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta arrived in Phnom Penh on October 19 for a three-day visit to boost ties.

Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Hun Sen will preside over the signing ceremony of two bilateral agreements – an air services agreement and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the rice trade between the two countries.

Ry Sochan – Cambodia and East Timor signed two documents to boost bilateral trade cooperation on October 20. The two documents are an air services agreement and a memorandum of understanding on the rice trade between the two countries.

The signing ceremony was held at the Peace Palace, and witnessed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta.

Rhiannon Hoyle, Adelaide, Australia – The chief executive of Woodside Energy Group Ltd. said she hopes a stalemate on the Greater Sunrise natural-gas project near East Timor can be broken following Australia's decision to appoint a special envoy to the project, but she highlighted challenges to the small nation's insistence that gas from the fields be processed in East Timor.

The Timorese government has reiterated its willingness to partner with Australian oil company Woodside to advance the development of the Greater Sunrise field in the Timor Sea.

The message was delivered by Timor-Leste's prime minister, Taur Matan Ruak, in a virtual meeting on Thursday with Woodside's CEO, Meg O'Neill, according to the prime minister's office.

The Vatican representative in Timor-Leste has urged Catholics to respect the sanctions that have been imposed on Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo for "the serious crimes" he has committed and asked them to maintain loyalty to the Church amid heated debates over the issue.

The Timorese government plans to buy the majority stake of Brazilian company Oi in Timor Telecom (TT) in 2023, in an operation valued at about US$14.5 million, an amount budgeted in the draft state budget for 2023.

Jose Ramos-Horta – At the recent UN General Assembly, the president of Vanuatu called on governments to negotiate a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, a proposal I have supported alongside 100 other Nobel Prize laureates.

John McBeth, Jakarta – A political bombshell could be about to explode over the deeply-Catholic state of Timor Leste following revelations that the Vatican covered up long-rumored accusations that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo was a serial pedophile.

Teesta Prakash and Jack Sato – Ahead of a visit to Australia last month, Timor-Leste's President Jose Ramos Horta sought to play the China card, raising the possibility of asking Beijing to finance the Greater Sunrise gas project in the Timor Sea.

A Catholic nun in Timor-Leste has bagged a human rights award for her role during the nation's independence struggle and for her service to end violence against women and children and other marginalized groups.

Nicole Winfield, Vatican City – The United Nations and advocacy groups for survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging Pope Francis to authorize a full investigation of Catholic Church archives on three continents to ascertain who knew what and when about sexual abuse by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East Timor.

Dili, East Timor – East Timor's Catholics reacted with shock but also expressions of support Friday for revered independence icon and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo following allegations he sexually abused boys decades ago in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

Chris Barrett, Singapore – The Nobel Prize-winning former head of the Roman Catholic church in East Timor has been accused of sexually abusing boys during the country's independence struggle in the 1990s.

Li-Li Chen – On 19 April, Timor-Leste held the second round of voting in its 2022 presidential election.

Ryan Dagur – The Vatican has opened a new embassy in Timor-Leste capital Dili in an effort to strengthen ties with the Catholic-majority tiny Southeast Asian nation.

Vatican Deputy Secretary of State Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra inaugurated the new embassy in Dili on Sept. 20 along with President Jose Ramos-Horta.

Timor-Leste and Vietnam are set to strengthen relations following a high-level meeting between Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry of Timor-Leste Jose Lucas Da Silva in Siem Reap, Cambodia, during the 54th ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting.

Ryan Dagur – Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta has underlined the importance of the papal document on human fraternity in building a prosperous country amid serious challenges, including extreme poverty.

Matthew Knott – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta has defended China's role as a growing strategic and economic power in the Asia-Pacific, arguing it has "hardly ever" invaded other countries and was unlikely to do so in the future.

Melbourne, Australia – Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China could all be interested in investing in the Greater Sunrise gas project in the waters between Timor Leste and Australia, President Jose Ramos-Horta said on Wednesday.