Dili – The United Nations should maintain a trimmed-down operation in East Timor after the scheduled withdrawal of its UNMISET mission in May, a Portuguese government official said Wednesday.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – East Timor is poised to formally accept Australia's invitation to resume negotiations on a permanent maritime boundary.

Julian Lee and Cynthia Banham – An advertising campaign accusing the Prime Minister of stealing billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues from East Timor has been branded "deceptive and misleading" by the Government.

The Government has gone on the defensive as it attempts to resume stalled talks over disputed maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea.

East Timor's charismatic president Xanana Gusmao today made an emotional visit to the Indonesian prison where he was held for four years as a rebel before his country was granted independence.

Jakarta – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao in a three-day visit here Friday sought to mend bilateral ties with Indonesia, hand humanitarian assistance to tsunami victims and express opposition against US military embargo.

Jakarta – Indonesia and Timor Leste (East Timor) have agreed to establish a permanent border crossing (PLB) for traditional communities that live on the border between the two countries to strengthen kinship ties and to preserve peace.

Astrid Felicia Lim, Jakarta – The Timor Leste (East Timor) government has promised to lobby the US government in its congress, in February 2005 about withdrawing the embargo on Indonesian military requirements.

Julian Lee – The organisers of an advertising campaign that ambushed the Australian Open to highlight disputed maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea have pledged to dog John Howard at public events to further their cause.

Businessman Ian Melrose has recommenced his campaign of television commercials criticising the Australian Government's unfair treatment of East Timor, branding the $1.5 billion Australia has already taken in disputed oil and gas revenues from the Timor Sea as "Stolen Goods."

Dili – Former pro-Indonesian militiamen are gradually slipping back into East Timor and resorting to banditry, a military source in Dili told Lusa Friday.

The officer said the latest evidence of the infiltration from Indonesia West Timor came from an ex-militiaman captured by police after a firefight Tuesday.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – Australia is hopeful East Timor will in the next week or two accept its invitation to return to the negotiating table to settle ownership of vast oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Dili – Police in East Timor detained a man after an exchange of gunfire between security forces and an armed group near the border with Indonesian West Timor, officials said Wednesday.

Six armed men opened fire on a police patrol Tuesday after being spotted by patrolling officers in the district of Ermera, about 50 kms southwest of Dili, a police source told Lusa.

Jakarta – Former East Timor governor Abilio Soares vowed on Wednesday to continue his challenge against the retroactive application of the rights tribunal law despite his acquittal of all charges arising out the 1999 atrocities in the former Indonesian province.

The secretary of state for defence's visit to East Timor, due to start tomorrow (Tuesday 18 January), has been postponed until the end of the month. Jorge Neto is now expected to visit the country on 30 January, during which he will sign the Military-Technical Cooperation Programme for 2005 with the Timorese authorities.

Dili – Australia and East Timor will resume in March talks to resolve their dispute over shared maritime boundaries and the carving up of Timor Sea hydrocarbon revenues, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Monday.

Adam Gartrell – Buses donated to East Timor by the NSW Government in 2002 have never been used and sit in an empty parking lot, makeshift homes to a handful of Timor's poor.

Five of the 20-year-old Mercedes-Benz Mark Two buses, worth about $10,000 each, were shipped to East Timor, at an added cost of $70,000, by the Transport Department in January 2002.

Paul Dyer – The $7 billion Greater Sunrise gas project in the Timor Sea has been shelved by project operator Woodside Petroleum.

Woodside has halted funds and reassigned project employees because a border dispute between Australia and East Timor remains unresolved.

Dili – It was announced on 21 December 2004 that the governments of East Timor and Indonesia had agreed on the formation of a Truth and Friendship Commission to look into the Referendum-related violence which took place in East Timor in 1999, however, the precise details as to how this will be achieved remain unclear.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – Indonesia has asked East Timor to initiate a joint-commission of truth and reconciliation to resolve the issue of the violence during and after the United Nations-organized vote in East Timor in 1999.

Kupang – Atambua Bishop Anton Pain Ratu has called on the Timor Leste government to grant amnesty to former pro-Jakarta militia as part of efforts to end refugee problems in West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara province.

Bob Burton, Canberra – Despite his reputation as a progressive social thinker, former Australian Labor Party prime minister Gough Whitlam – according to just declassified documents – refused to criticise the invasion of East Timor by the Indonesian military in December 1975 or the subsequent brutal treatment of its population.

A law regulating demonstrations and assemblies passed by East Timor's parliament violates basic rights to free expression and assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. President Xanana Gusmao should refuse to sign this law.

After 25 years of repression and persecution, the tiny country of East Timor is racked with poverty and in desperate need of rebuilding. John Vidal on the efforts being made to help the Timorese stand on their own two feet

1. In response to the proposition for the establishment of a UN Commission of Experts, on Tuesday, December 21, 2004, the Governments of Indonesia and Timor Leste declared the establishment of bilateral Truth and Friendship Commission (TFC).

Indonesia has rejected UN plans for a commission that would study Jakarta's resolve to punish those responsible for human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999.

The United States welcomed creation of a joint Indonesia-East Timor commission on the 1999 bloodshed in the former Portuguese colony, but made clear the necessity of a separate UN inquiry as well.

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor announced this week they would establish a bilateral "truth and friendship commission" to heal wounds between the two countries left by the 1999 violence in which Jakarta's military and associated militias laid waste to East Timor.

There have been mixed reactions this week to a proposal by Indonesia and East Timor to set up a joint commission to investigate the violence in East Timor four years ago. The plan was announced on Tuesday after talks between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his East Timorese counterpart Xanana Gusmao in Bali.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to set up a truth and friendship commission to address the issues of 1,500 murders and thousands of other human rights violations committed during the 1999 independence referendum in East Timor.

Washington – US officials do not want a planned Indonesian-East Timorese commission on 1999 violence in East Timor to supplant UN efforts to determine if justice has since been done, a senior US official said on Wednesday.

Indonesia and East Timor announced plans for a historic joint commission to draw a line under past hostilities and resolve the 1999 bloodshed that marred the East Timorese march to independence.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Indonesia and its former province East Timor are set to reject an idea to establish a commission of experts to review the judicial processes of human rights abuse cases involving Indonesian military and police officers during a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan this week, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Jakarta.

Dili – East Timor's Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) indicted 14 people Friday for war crimes committed in 1999, in what the joint Dili-United Nations body said would be its last indictments before winding up its investigations.

East Timor's cabinet has passed a landmark petroleum law that will open the door to foreign firms seeking oil and gas exploration licences and create millions of dollars in revenue for the impoverished nation.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The leaders of Indonesia and East Timor have quietly agreed to discuss setting up a "truth and friendship commission" that would reconsider the massacre of East Timorese about the time of their 1999 vote for independence.

Reporter: Anne Barker

Eleanor Hall: East Timor has upped the ante in its dispute with Australia over oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

[East Timor: Testimony. Elaine Briere. Between the Lines Books. 128 pages, 64 photographs, $56.95.]

Stephen Langford – For people involved in East Timor's struggle, this book is a must-read. I have Elaine Briere to thank for my start in East Timor solidarity, and I am an admirer of her photography, and of her documentary on East Timor, Bitter Paradise.

Dili – Dili understands the worries of investors over corruption in East Timor and the government is determined to crackdown on the emerging phenomenon in tandem with aid donors, Foreign Minister Josi Ramos Horta said Tuesday.

Brendan Nicholson – Troops in East Timor were allegedly told to stop filing reports on Indonesia's role in the violence there.

John Vidal, Dili – The only way to reach the village of Fatuhei in East Timor is a four-hour hike over tropical mountains. You are then in one of south-east Asia's most isolated places – seven miles from the nearest school and health clinic, 10 from a rudimentary road, and 20 from any public transport.

East Timor wants the United Nations to extend its mission here for at least another year after its current mandate expires next May in order to strengthen the nascent state's still-fragile security institutions, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Friday.

An army whistleblower today found some backing for his claims after a government review found Australian troops in East Timor had been cut off from top secret information.

Late today, Defence Minister Robert Hill released details of a review by Inspector General of Intelligence and Security Ian Carnell into claims by army officer Lance Collins.

Nigel Wilson – John McCarthy, Australia's ambassador to Indonesia at the time of the Australian-led peacekeeping mission in 1999, yesterday confirmed Indonesia was critical of Australia's argument on maritime boundaries.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Over 270 people, who were deported from East Timor, were moved into a dormitory belonging to East Nusa Tenggara's Manpower and Transmigration Office in Kupang on Thursday.

Dili – East Timor's human rights court has sentenced a senior member of a pro-Jakarta militia to 15 years in prison for organizing an attack on the house of an independence leader's house which left a dozen people dead.

Reporter: Anne Barker

Mark Colvin: A court in East Timor has jailed a former pro-Indonesia militia leader to 15 years jail for murder and crimes against humanity.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) here Wednesday condemned the expulsion of 253 Moslems from East Timor, saying the action was a violation of the Moslems' human rights.

Jean-Pierre Catry – Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, told the Security Council this year that: "Limited revenue and widespread poverty within the country continue to pose severe constraints on Timor-Leste's social and economic development.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – After five hours of immigration checks in Motaain, on the border of East Timor and Indonesia, 62 people were deported from the neighboring country, finally arriving on Monday evening in Atambua, the capital of Belu regency in East Nusa Tenggara.