Washington – A US judge has piled 66 million dollars in damages on a top Indonesian general, concluding after a civil lawsuit lodged in a US court that he was guilty of crimes against humanity in East Timor.

Kupang – The government has said that, as of December this year, there will be no more humanitarian aid for around 290,000 East Timorese who opted to stay in Indonesia and are now living in West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara province. This means that, starting next year, the refugees will be expected to rely on their own resources to survive.

A former pro-Indonesian militia member has received a 16-year sentence from the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in Dili.

[East Timor is finally on the road to independence but there is still a long way to go. Following its first election, a constituent assembly is drafting the constitution that will decide this young nation's political future. For 25 years, the East Timorese associated politics with violence and killing. Adjusting to the idea that politics can be peaceful has been a struggle.

Tom Fawthrop and Paul Harris – Formally recognising the continued security threats to East Timor, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on 26 July: "There is concern that some militia elements have adopted a strategy of lying low until independence in the belief that the international military peacekeeping force will be removed from East Timor.

Indonesian and East Timorese authorities have begun discussions on the removal of remains of Indonesian soldiers from various cemeteries across East Timor, according to an Indonesian government source cited by Monday's Jakarta Post newspaper.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – United Nations officials are challenging Indonesia's stand on East Timor war crimes. They are demanding the handover of 10 men accused of a September 1999 massacre in which 65 unarmed civilians were killed. Classified as crimes against humanity, the killings occurred in East Timor's western Oecusse enclave on September 8-10, 1999.

Ian Timberlake, Dili – Sister Erminia somehow survived the volley of rifle fire that tore into her van at a militia roadblock two years ago.

The Catholic nun, almost 70 years old, got out and knelt down to pray while the militia made sure none of the seven people with her survived.

Kupang – Six people, including Adj. Brig. Imanuel, a member of the East Nusa Tenggara police Mobile Brigade, were shot on Wednesday evening in a clash between security officers and East Timorese refugees in front of the local police headquarters.

Camden Smith – Closer ties can be forged between East Timor and the Territory because a Labor government is in power, East Timor's Chief Minister-elect Mari Alkatiri said yesterday.

Jakarta – A man accused of murdering a New Zealand peacekeeping soldier in East Timor last year is to face trial in Jakarta, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Kupang – Of their own free will, hundreds of thousands of East Timorese who have been living in refugee camps in Indonesia's West Timor for the past two years, have now decided to return to their homeland following the successful general election in East Timor, held in a free, orderly and safe manner on August 30, 2001.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The election victory on August 30 of Fretilin, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, sent UN and World Bank officials in Dili into an instant policy huddle which lasted three weeks.

East Timor's Constituent Assembly has been sworn in this week following a peaceful election at the end of August. All but two of the country's 16 political parties won seats in the new assembly which now has just 90 days to write a constitution for the country's future governance.

Dili – The UN peacekeeping force (PKF) in East Timor and Indonesia's military have signed an agreement on sharing information and coordinating military activity along the border between the UN-administered territory and Indonesian-ruled West Timor, a PKF spokesman said Friday.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – The United Nations' transitional administrator in East Timor, Sergio Vieirade Mello, appointed the territory's first entirely East Timorese government yesterday to lead the fledgling country to full independence next year.

Christine T. Tjandraningsih, Dili – UN-administered East Timor's transitional government Thursday swore a new cabinet comprised mostly of figures from a long-established political party that won last month's election.

Dili – The following is the lineup of the new cabinet of East Timor's transitional government.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia's commitment to prosecuting human-rights cases in East Timor has come under fire following revelations that it has apparently stopped its probe into the 1999 murder of a Dutch journalist, possibly by Indonesian troops.

Jakarta – Indonesia expects to have repatriated 190,000 East Timorese refugees, currently still living in East Nusa Tenggara province, by the end of 2002, a minister said on Wednesday.

"So far, an average of 10,000 refugees are being sent back to their homeland every month," Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said as quoted by Antara.

Jakarta – At least 500 East Timorese members of Indonesia's armed forces have resigned to return to their homeland, a report said Wednesday.

Seth Mydans, Dili – They are the new missionaries. Steeped in the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, they travel from one emerging nation to another to share their gospel.

East Timor's new parliament convened Tuesday for its second session to choose deputy speakers, following Monday's election of Fretilin party leader Francisco Guterres (Lu-Olo) as speaker.

Proceedings were interrupted for several minutes due to an earth tremor, which was felt throughout East Timor. When the session continued, the two deputy speakers were elected.

Jakarta – A senior UN refugee official rapped Indonesian authorities Monday for failing to properly punish the "cold-blooded" killers of three of its staff.

Christine T. Tjandraningsih, Dili – Francisco Guterres, a veteran of East Timor's long struggle for independence, was elected the territory's first speaker of the Constituent Assembly on Monday.

Lindsay Murdoch, Bali – Eight children and their parents, who were separated at the height of violence in East Timor two years ago, have been reunited after a year-long tug-of-war with pro-Jakarta Timorese activists. The children, part of a group of 130 aged between seven and 16, have been living in Indonesian orphanages.

Dili – The UN administration in East Timor on Saturday inaugurated the newly elected assembly that will draft the territory's first constitution, bringing it one step closer to full independence.

The 88-member assembly, which was voted in last month, will have three months to draft the charter and adopt East Timor's new political system.

Vaudine England in Jakarta – Children snatched from refugee camps in East Timor and taken to central Java two years ago were reunited with their parents yesterday.

Independence hero Xanana Gusmao also welcomed home the families of former pro-Indonesian militiamen. His move came as mass refugee returns resumed across the border with Indonesian West Timor.

Mark Dodd, Tumin – On a barren ridge just outside the village of Tumin, hundreds gathered last weekend to commemorate one of the most shocking mass murders that occurred in the violence following East Timor's 1999 referendum.

Jakarta – In a gesture of reconciliation, East Timor's independence hero Xanana Gusmao welcomed home the families of former pro-Jakarta militiamen Friday as mass refugee returns resumed across the border with Indonesian West Timor.

Ian Timberlake, Dili – Police officers in smart blue uniforms confidently direct traffic. Newly refurbished government buildings sparkle with white paint, and a constituent assembly will be sworn in tomorrow following East Timor's first democratic elections.

Kupang – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has decided to reopen its base in West Timor to help channel humanitarian aid to some 290,000 East Timorese refugees currently settling in West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.

[The following is the officially certified list of East Timorese who were elected to the Constituent Assembly on the August 30 ballot. Some of these people will probably be selected to serve in the cabinet, in which case they must resign from the Assembly. The next-ranking person on the slate of the party they were elected under will fill the vacancy. The assembly has 88 seats.

Dili – Opposition leaders in East Timor criticized the United Nations on Thursday for favoring one political party and not creating the framework for democracy in their fledgeling nation.

Jakarta – A senior East Timor official said on Wednesday that the country would not prosecute the alleged human rights violations by Indonesian Military (TNI) troops in the international court of justice.

Vaudine England – The barefoot children were scrambling up the bougainvillea bushes to gather fresh clusters of the flowers – the only bright spot in the dry, dusty and still-devastated landscape of the East Timorese town of Memo.

Jill Hickson – "Where are our missing children? We have nothing – no land, no houses, nothing to do, no materials to work with to make an income. The women here are dying from childbirth because they have no money for doctors, there is little food and in some camps little water.

Jon Land – Fretilin, the party which declared East Timor independent in 1975 and which was the largest single force in the long fight against occupation, has won 57% of the vote in the country's first elections since the end of Indonesian rule – but the result is well short of the 85-90% the party had been predicting.

Jana DK, Dili – In its first major mobilisation since the beginning of East Timor's election campaign, on August 25 some 5000 Timorese Socialist Party members and supporters gathered at Dili's Independence Field for one of the most energetic, enthusiastic and political rallies the country has yet seen.

Yemris Fointuna, Dili – The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) is planning to forge economic cooperation between the former Portuguese colony and Indonesia's province of West Timor, the other half of the island of Timor. This is one of the programs to be tackled by a development commission to be set up here this month.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Pressure is building on Indonesia to return 124 East Timorese children taken from their parents in West Timor refugee camps following East Timor's 1999 independence vote.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – There is a palpable mood of relief in East Timor this week after the election in which the country voted overwhelmingly in favor of the leftist nationalist party Fretilin.

The tension in the air has dissipated after the vote went ahead in an orderly manner nationwide. It is as though the population has passed a strenuous test, as indeed it has.

Mark Dodd, Dili – What's in a word? Quite a bit if you are considering running for president of East Timor.

Ambiguous comments from Mr Mari Alkatiri, secretary-general of the election-winning Fretilin party, have cast doubt on the independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao's offer to stand.

• Total Votes Cast: 384,248
• Total Valid Votes: 363,501
• Invalid Votes: 20,747

National Ballot

Mark Dodd, Dili – Fretilin, the party that led East Timor's 24-year struggle for independence from Indonesia, has won the fledgling nation's first democratic election. But it fell short of the two-thirds majority in the new Constituent Assembly needed to draft unilaterally the country's Constitution, and may be forced into a coalition.

Results of last week's elections in East Timor indicate that the territory's new 88-seat Constituent Assembly will have a total of 24 women members.

Dili – The Chief Electoral Officer of the East Timor's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Carlos Valenzuela, today presented the full and final results of the 30 August Constituent Assembly elections.

Despite its decision to contest the election process, East Timor's UDT party congratulated Thursday the Fretilin party for its victory in last week's voting for the 88-member Constituent Assembly.

For Fretilin [East Timor Revolutionary Front] – the party most likely to win the recent Timor Lorosae (TL) elections – there are three main things which need to be maintained [from 1975] should the new country finally become a reality.