Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – Two former generals both have a strong chance of becoming the nation's new leader, even if they have blood on their hands. The rise of these generals-turned-party-leaders, however, rests on the shaky assumption that military leaders are more capable of providing stability than civilian leaders.

Jason Koutsoukis, Canberra – Prime Minister John Howard may face further pressure to call a royal commission on Australia's intelligence services following new claims that the Defence Department for six weeks ignored warnings that a spy was operating in the army with impunity.

Dili – The East Timorese parliament narrowly approved Wednesday a controversial general amnesty for all crimes committed up to March 31, including the so-called "serious crimes" carried out by anti-independence militias and Indonesian troops in 1999. The bill, presented by Justice Minister Domingos Sarmento, passed in generality by 24 votes to 18 with 14 abstentions.

A reduced number of Australian troops and police are set to stay in East Timor after United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today proposed that the UN extend its mission in the fledgling nation for another year.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer welcomed Mr Annan's call for a one-year extension of the UN mandate in East Timor.

Lisbon – East Timor's Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who was awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, has ruled out running for president in 2007.

"I have decided to leave politics to politicians," he said today in comments broadcast on Portuguese state television RTP.

Dili – Just two years after gaining independence, East Timor has one of Asia's freest presses, an international watchdog group said.

Toni Somes – It is an arduous task being "mother of the nation" when you are also the mother of two small boys, but Kirsty Sword Gusmao has never been one to sidestep challenges.

But East Timor's first lady did admit to being slightly weary in Charters Towers yesterday.

The language in the border negotiations between Australia and East Timor is heating up. East Timor says Australia is trying to steal its oil reserves while Canberra responds that Dili is trying to stir up emotion to create controversy. The latest idea from East Timor is a call for a third country or neutral umpire to step in to the border negotiations.

East Timor President Xanana Gusmao says his country will cooperate with former general Wiranto, indicted for crimes against humanity in the territory, if he was elected Indonesian president.

"We will support anyone who is elected democratically in the July presidential election [in Indonesia], including Wiranto," Gusmao told a news conference.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – A joint military and police force in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) are keeping a watch on pro-Indonesia militiamen suspected of attempting to create chaos in neighboring East Timor.

The militia are hoarding thousands of firearms, grenades and ammunition in NTT territory bordering East Timor, the Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Friday.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military is investigating reports that pro-Jakarta militiamen are stockpiling weapons along the border between East and West Timor, an officer said Saturday.

"We don't know how many are stashed. We suspect that the weapons were from past unrest," said Indonesian Army Col. Moeswarno Moesanip, who is in charge of security in the region.

Brendan Nicholson – Prime Minister John Howard has rejected the calls of army intelligence analyst Lieutenant-Colonel Lance Collins for a royal commission into Australia's intelligence agencies.

Mr Howard dismissed Colonel Collins's claims that there were serious systemic failures in the military intelligence agencies.

Tom Allard – Defence Intelligence Organisation chief Frank Lewincamp ordered that a crucial flow of intelligence to Australian troops during the East Timor conflict remain shut down, in an extraordinary act that came amid a major row among Defence spies.

Louise Williams – East Timor's rapidly souring stance towards Australia is all about money.

Oil and gas money. It's an emotive tale of the world's poorest and youngest nation confronting the region's richest nation over a fair share of the wealth beneath the Timor Sea.

David Jardine – In the commentary Wiranto must face the storm by Pitan Daslani (The Jakarta Post, April, 26) there appears a truly astonishing paragraph, "Everybody put the blame on Wiranto as well as the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the police, despite their self-sacrificing devotion to the conception of the Republic of Timor Leste."

Dili – Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri launched a public debate Friday on proposed legislation to facilitate and promote private investment by East Timorese entrepreneurs.

In presenting the draft bill at a Dili conference, Alkatiri said it currently cost 30 percent more to set up a new business in East Timor than in neighboring countries.

John Kerin – John Howard has used a previously top-secret report to comprehensively reject explosive claims of intelligence agency failures by Lieutenant-Colonel Lance Collins.

The rebuff comes in a seven-page letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, obtained by The Australian, in which the Prime Minister rejects the whistleblower's call for a royal commission.

Naval lawyer Martin Toohey today continued his criticism of Australia's spy agency the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO), saying it was politicised and misled the public.

Captain Toohey has attacked the Federal Government over its treatment of him and whistleblower Lieutenant Colonel Lance Collins amid allegations of failures by the DIO.

The senior officer who wrote a damning report on the Australian intelligence services says he has been made a scapegoat in a "shabby, tawdry cover-up". John Lyons reports.

Jon Lamb – Human rights and solidarity organisations are deeply concerned by the Golkar party's nomination of General Wiranto for president of Indonesia. Wiranto, the former head of the Indonesian military, was indicted in February 2003 for his role in coordinating the 1999 terror campaign in East Timor, conducted by the Indonesian military and its militia proxies.

Robyn Waite, Dili – During April 14-16, an empty block opposite the Australian embassy in Dili became a fervent and colourful site of protest, as more than 1500 people mobilised to oppose the Australian government's violation of East Timorese sovereignty in the Timor Sea.

Sarah Stephen, Sydney – "Each of us has to choose between being either a champion of human dignity or a collaborator with an increasingly inhuman system", Sister Susan Connelly from the Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies told a crowd of 600 people in the Sydney Town Hall on April 21.

Lt Col Lance Collins' claims that Australian officials attempted to suppress crucial intelligence about East Timor may have found an unlikely new ally – a diplomat at the US embassy in Canberra. Paul Daley reports.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected allegations by another senior military officer that his government was involved in a cover-up over a critical report into defence intelligence.

Federal Labor today supported a lawyer who wrote a damning report on Australia's intelligence services and who now claims the government has been involved in a shabby cover-up.

Lisbon – East Timor's president lashed out at Australia, saying in an interview published Tuesday that Canberra had snatched oil reserves that belong to his country.

In an interview with the Portuguese newspaper Publico, President Xanana Gusmao added his voice to the increasingly public spat between the countries over a disputed oil field in the Timor Sea.

Bob Burton, Canberra – Australia's effort to block East Timor from billions of dollars of oil resources – by refusing to agree to a maritime boundary between the two countries – will be tested by an emerging coalition of community groups, which insist on economic justice for the world's newest nation.

Melbourne – East Timor would work with former military chief General Wiranto if he is elected Indonesian president despite his alleged war crimes, the fledgling state's first lady said Monday.

Wiranto was last week selected as the presidential candidate for the Golkar Party, which ruled Indonesia for 35 years under former President Suharto.

James Irwin, Singapore – Some cracks are appearing in Australia's refusal to renegotiate the Timor Sea Treaty with East Timor – the latest being the emergence of past testimony from a key member of the Australian negotiating team, Dean Bialek, that his country should negotiate in good faith with East Timor and not deplete resources in disputed areas.

By anyone's standards, it's been a long day. The flight to Australia, the burden of intermittent media commitments, the trip to Sydney's Taronga Zoo with two screaming toddlers. It's her birthday, too, and no call yet from hubby, President Xanana Gusmao. Yet Kirsty Sword Gusmao, first lady of the fledgling nation of East Timor, is undaunted.

Alan Boyd, Sydney – Benefactor or bully? Australia has been portrayed as both in its protracted standoff with tiny East Timor over US$30 billion worth of deep-sea oil and gas reserves. So uneven is the contest, between the richest and poorest nations on the southern rim of the Pacific, that Canberra was always going to come off worse in the public relations battle.

Sydney – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer accused East Timor of trying to stir up sympathy over its claims for a greater share of oil and gas revenues from the Timor Sea oil reserves.

Alan Ramsey – Five years ago a brilliant man hanged himself. Five weeks ago a distinguished army officer put his career on the line in an extraordinary letter to the Prime Minister. Both men were driven by remarkably similar circumstances. Each felt betrayed by the closed, insiders' culture of Australia's intelligence community. One succumbed and took his life.

Alison Roberts,Lisbon – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has launched a fierce attack on Australia's attitude in its dealings with the fledgling country.

Mr Gusmao said there was an unequal struggle with Australia to secure oil and gas resources.

Alisa Newman Hood – Barely two years after achieving independence, East Timor is learning to navigate the stormy seas of new nationhood in more ways than one. Its population, the most destitute in Asia, continues to suffer the typical scourges of the desperately poor: widespread unemployment, illiteracy, high infant mortality and short life expectancy.

Sydney – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer rejected appeals to settle a maritime boundary dispute with East Timor in international courts Thursday and lashed critics who accuse Canberra of bullying its impoverished neighbour.

Hobart – The East Timorese were fuming over Australia's plans to steal their oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.

Australia and East Timor began talks earlier this week to establish a permanent maritime boundary in the oil-rich Timor Sea.

Lisbon – President Xanana Gusmao of East Timor said Thursday that his country's "unequal struggle" with Australia over disputed offshore hydrocarbon resources bore parallels with Dili's independence fight against Indonesia.

Hugh White – Our key agencies got the big questions right and called the issues as they saw them.

Let's test the recent claims made by Australian Army intelligence officers about the handling of intelligence over East Timor in 1999.

Dili – Australian Green Party leader Bob Brown said in Dili on Wednesday he is pessimistic about negotiations between East Timor and Australia over the disputed maritime boundary between the two countries.

Talking to reporters after meeting with East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, Brown said Australia would not change its mind on the boundary.

In the wake of The Bulletin's damning exposi of Australia's intelligence services and the attempted character assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Lance Collins, come further explosive charges against the military and its political masters. John Lyons reports.

Jakarta – Rights activists expressed dismay on Wednesday after a former Indonesian military chief accused of crimes against humanity became the Golkar party's presidential candidate.

Wiranto, 57, has been indicted in East Timor for failing to curb army-backed militia atrocities against independence supporters in the Indonesian-ruled territory in 1999.

John Kerin and Steve Lewis – A classified document warning intelligence analysts of the risks of providing advice challenging a "pro-Jakarta lobby" in the bureaucracy was circulated within Australia's defence agencies in the late 1990s, a former senior analyst has told The Australian.

Mark Forbes, Canberra – A senior army officer may sue the Howard Government over his treatment after warning of widespread failings in the intelligence system.

Jon Lamb – The recently formed Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOT) staged a series of peaceful demonstrations in Dili on April 14-16, demanding an end to the theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources.

Last month, the Australian government released new offshore areas for companies to bid for petroleum exploration permits. This includes territory that is much closer to East Timor's coast than to Australia, which East Timor's government claims as part of our national territory.

Now to East Timor, where for the last three days, teams from there and Australia have been in bitter negotiations over where our sea boundaries lie and who will control the oil and gas royalties within them, worth an estimated $30 billion. This has been an ongoing issue between the two countries, which to date has been handled reasonably amicably.

Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – On April 14, 50 members of the Timor Sea Justice Campaign met outside the High Court to launch the group. Comedian Rod Quantock was joined by protesters disguised as Prime Minister John Howard and foreign minister Alexander Downer. They waded in the ornamental pool, making a grab for Timorese oil, represented by black balloons.

Viseu, Portugal – Economic difficulties in the world's newest nation, East Timor, are a potential source of violence, President Xanana Gusmao has warned.

Nigel Wilson – Australia is being painted as a bully and an ogre for refusing to accept an East Timor argument that a maritime boundary should be negotiated that gives East Timor control of potentially billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues.