Australia is supporting Timor-Leste to be prepared in case there is an outbreak of COVID-19. The neighbouring country has provided personal protective equipment and medical supplies to protect healthcare workers.

Patrick O'Connor – East Timor recorded its first confirmed COVID-19 virus case on Saturday. The south-east Asian state is among the most impoverished in the world, with only minimal healthcare facilities. If the global pandemic sweeps through the country, there could be mass casualties.

Dili – East Timor reported its first case of coronavirus, its Ministry of Health said on Saturday, adding that the case was from someone who had just returned from abroad.

The ministry said the patient posed little risk to the public, as he immediately consulted with doctors after showing symptoms of the coronavirus.

Hamish McDonald – With the release of his book detailing the sorry saga of Australia's negotiations with less well-equipped neighbours over oil in the Timor Sea, Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery has dramatically raised the stakes in his impending trial for breaching secrecy laws.

Eden Hynninen – She misses her family, but for the first time in her life she feels financially independent and knows that her skills on a farm are not based on gender.

Ms Vieira is a group leader and picker on a berry farm in northern Tasmania, where she supports 160 seasonal workers from her country – many are women.

Wendy Tuohy – Like thousands of others thrust into a health crisis by Australia's most common women's cancer, breast cancer, Kirsty Sword Gusmao was not ready to be told that she had it.

Dili – A six-party coalition in East Timor has chosen independence hero Xanana Gusmao to lead the next government, pending approval from the country's president.

Dili – The new coalition consisting of six political parties wants CNRT-leader Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao to become the new prime minister of Timor-Leste. The coalition submitted a letter to the republic's president, Francisco Guterres Lu Olo, requesting him to appoint Xanana as prime minister of a new government, which will be the ninth since independence.

A six-party coalition in East Timor is ready to form a government led by independence hero Xanana Gusmao, it has told President Francisco Guterres in a letter, the coalition's spokesman said on Tuesday.

Dili – A six-party coalition in Timor-Leste is ready to form a government led by independence hero Xanana Gusmao, it told President Francisco Guterres in a letter, according to the coalition's spokesman.

Robert Baird – The Australian lawyer who helped uncover the Timor-Leste bugging scandal says Australia had direct, advanced knowledge of the threat that faced the murdered Balibo Five journalists, with a report describing the men as a "hurdle to be got over" in keeping clandestine activities secret.

Christopher Knaus – Lawyer Bernard Collaery says Australia had direct knowledge of the dangers facing the murdered Balibo Five journalists, citing a damning report suggesting Australian intelligence knew Indonesia viewed reporters as a "hurdle to be got over" in keeping its invasion of East Timor secret.

David Hutt – Yet another government has fallen in Timor-Leste, as Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak last week offered up his resignation, following the breakup of a ruling coalition. And the latest collapse happened for the exact same reason as the downfall of a previous government in 2017: failing to pass a budget in parliament.

Dili – After the CNRT, the party of the East-Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao, decided to abstain on 17 January during the vote in parliament on the national budget for 2020, prime minister Taur Matan Ruak submitted on Monday (24/2) this week his dismissal letter to president Lu Olo. He now waits for the president's decision.

Nick Miller – "When you start singing those songs, the whole memory comes back to us," says former East Timor freedom fighter Domingos Gabriel.

The 63-year-old is better known by his nom de guerre "Berliku", given to him decades ago by then-future president Xanana Gusmao.

Through a translator, Berliku explains.

Nelson de la Cruz, Dili – The Prime Minister of East Timor says he is prepared to stay in office until a solution can be found "to guarantee government activities in our country".

Guardian staff and agencies – The prime minister of Timor-Leste has sent a letter of resignation to the president, after the collapse of a coalition supporting him in parliament, plunging the tiny southeast Asian nation into new political uncertainty.

Raimundos Oki – Timor-Leste's prime minister offered his resignation Tuesday after the budget failed to pass in Parliament.

Evaristo Soares Martins, Dili – Early elections cannot be allowed to "become the political culture" in Timor-Leste, says the leader of the opposition Fretilin party, Dr Mari Alkatiri.

The former Prime Minister said he wants to see an end to the political impasse, prompted by the collapse of the governing AMP Alliance.

Michael Leach – Saturday morning saw the widely anticipated announcement of a new parliamentary majority in Timor-Leste, led by Xanana Gusmao. Assuming it is installed by president Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres, the alliance will become the country's ninth government since the restoration of independence in May 2002.

For the second time in president Lu Olo's term (elected 2017), Timor-Leste is experiencing a severe political crisis and has been without a functioning government since early January.

Michael Koziol – Former Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson was forced to defend the integrity of his official historian in a stand-off with the Department of Foreign Affairs over the memorial's history of Australia's involvement in East Timor.

Matthew V. Veazey – Australia-based junior explorer Timor Resources is one step closer to making history in the young country of Timor-Leste, which became a sovereign state only 18 years ago.

Patrick O'Connor – After just a year-and-a-half in office, East Timor's coalition government has collapsed.

Jose Fernando Real – News has recently surfaced that Pope Francis might visit Timor-Leste later this year (as part of a proposed trip to the larger nations of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea).

Peter Job and Hamish McDonald – In later years he wore a hat for all seasons, whether it was the bitter cold of a Canberra winter or the tropical heat of Dili: a cap of checked tweed.

Dili – After a seven-hour long discussion, the national leaders agreed that the president must find ways to resolve the current political crisis that Timor-Leste is facing. They also concluded that early elections are only a last resort, when no other options are left.

Hengky Ola Sura, Maumere – The East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) provincial administration has confirmed that 17 Timor Leste citizens evacuated from China had been quarantined in New Zealand after Bali turned down Dili's pleas for help.

Jakarta – East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Governor Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat has agreed to lend Timor Leste a helping hand as the neighboring country pleads for assistance from Indonesia to quarantine its citizens airlifted from coronavirus-stricken China, an NTT administration official says.

Dili – The government of Timor-Leste has expressed its gratitude to New Zealand for helping to evacuate 17 Timorese students from Wuhan, the city in China which is the centre of the corona-virus outbreak.

Jakarta – Timor Leste Planning and Strategic Investment Minister Xanana Gusmao confirmed that the country had requested assistance from Indonesia to put 17 of its citizens who are soon to be repatriated from China because of the coronavirus outbreak into quarantine in Bali, despite a prior refusal by the island's administration.

The Morrison government has joined with Labor to shoot down a senate inquiry into East Timor's controversial oil and gas project.

Crossbench senator Rex Patrick has warned Australia that not doing more to help its northern neighbour with the Greater Sunrise project could give China a strategic boost.

Dili – East Timor Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak on behalf of the government and the people of his country offer condolences and sympathy to James Dunn's Family.

"I would like to extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the family for losing a loved one, Mr. James Dunn, who was also a brother and a hero to Timor-Leste," said PM Taur Matan Ruak in a press release.

Jakarta – The Bali provincial administration has rejected Timor Leste's request to put 17 of its citizens who are due to be repatriated from China due to the novel coronavirus outbreak into quarantine on the island.

The decision to reject the request was made during a meeting held by the administration on Monday.

Graeme Dobell – Australia had a part in East Timor's march to tragedy and a key role in its salvation.

Cruel ironies and strange mirror effects mark Australia's performance in the lead-up to Indonesia's invasion, in 1974-75, and East Timor's independence vote in 1999.

Michael Koziol – The acting director of the War Memorial has promised its trouble-plagued official history of Australia's deployment to East Timor is back on track after an intervention from Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

Neil Ford – In August, Timor-Leste – formerly known as East Timor – celebrated the 20th anniversary of the referendum that paved the way to independence from Indonesia, yet its economic future looks very uncertain.

Michael Leach – In an extraordinary development, the government's revised budget for 2020 failed to pass Timor-Leste's parliament last Friday, despite the governing alliance having an outright majority.

John McCarthy – Every country has its legends. They may be important to national self-esteem, but they're not necessarily good history.

Twenty years after the ballot in which the East Timorese decided their future, it's time to reflect on Australia's East Timor legend.

Dili – The parliament of Timor-Leste rejected the new proposal of the government for the state budget.

Joao da Cruz Cardoso – Timor-Leste's Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030, commonly referred to as the SDP, aims to make Timor-Leste an upper middle-income country by 2030.

Isal Mawardi, Jakarta – Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto invited veterans of the Seroja Operation in East Timor to his private residence in Hambalang on Wednesday. The invitation was to show his respect to the former fighters.

Nick Bonyhady – The Howard government refused to offer safe haven to a group of about 1500 pro-independence East Timorese the United Nations believed were at risk in Indonesia.

By mid-1999, Australian military involvement in East Timor was looking increasingly possible.

It appeared so likely that the government used it as a justification for rejecting a UN request for a military contribution for its operations in war-ravaged Kosovo.

Gay Alcorn – Australia leading an international peacekeeping force in East Timor after the territory voted for independence in 1999 was a turning point in Australia's role in the region, according to former treasurer Peter Costello.

Dili – The body of Timor-Leste's first prime minister, Nicolau dos Reis Lobato has never been found. He was killed by the Indonesian military on 31 December 1978. But after 41 years it is still unclear where his remains are.

Annie Yuan Cih Wu – A wedding is one of the biggest expenses in Timor. The bulk of the cost comes from the "barlake", a Tetum word which can be translated as "dowry", or "bride price", even though the exchanges are usually two-way between the bride and groom families.

Ivo Mateus Goncalves – On 28 November 1975, East Timor's interim government unilaterally declared its independence from all forms of colonialism and exploitation.

Dili – Timorese seasonal workers have been experiencing 'big problems' in Australia, said Tim Nelthorpe, lead organiser for the Australian United Workers Union (UWU).

Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – Two Indonesian Navy warships, KRI Usman Harun and KRI Sultan Iskandar Muda, were part of a mini defense exhibition in Dili, the capital of East Timor, on Thursday.

The exhibition was attended by officials from East Timor's Defense Ministry and soldiers from its military.