Lindsay Murdoch, Bangkok – East Timor's Parliament has been dissolved and fresh elections called to end a political impasse that has paralysed Australia's north-western neighbour for months.
President Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres announced the dissolving of Parliament on Friday, saying "only the people can help us out of the impasse".
Nelson Da Cruz, Dili – East Timor President Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres said on Friday he will dissolve parliament and call new elections in a bid to end a prolonged political impasse in the tiny country since polls last year.
Simon Roughneen, Jakarta – East Timor will hold parliamentary elections for the second time in a year after President Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres today dissolved the hung parliament that ensued after 2017's inconclusive vote.
Michael Sainsbury and Thomas Ora, Dili Timor-Leste – Timor-Leste's embattled Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has backed fresh elections, increasing the chances of a new poll being called in the wake of last July's election that has triggered political gridlock.
Michael Sainsbury and Thomas Ora, Dili – Timor-Leste's president has convened a meeting of the troubled Catholic Asian nation's State Council for Jan. 24 that is expected to help determine whether the country gets either a new prime minister or faces fresh elections.
Jakarta – Indonesia and Timor Leste have cooperated in building and reconstructing border bridges linking the two countries, an Indonesian official said on Monday.
Hadrianus Bambang, senior official of public works department in Kupang of East Nusa Tenggara province, said that the major work will be the construction of a bridge in Mota Ain of Kupang in Belu district.
Michael Sainsbury, Dili – Timor-Leste's constitutional crisis, due to come to a head on Jan. 22, could take weeks to solve with a range of options in terms of consultation and final decisions available to President Francisco Guterres Lu Olo.
Lindsay Murdoch – Only four months after taking office East Timor's minority government is set to fall, possibly within days, amid tense political manoeuvrings in Australia's nearest north-western neighbour.
David Hutt – Last year, Timor Leste was held up as a shining example of democratic progress after staging two successful elections after years of volatile and often violent politics. But a post-election constitutional crisis driven by political elite rivalries is putting the young nation to a new crucial test.
Michael Leach – Nearly six months after an election that left Timorese politics in a state of protracted uncertainty, the manoeuvrings in the young nation's parliament seem likely to reach their endpoint next week.
Dili – Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Timor Leste, Aurelio Guterres, expressed his solidarity with the Cuban people and government, and hopes for the end of the commercial and financial economic blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba.
Jose Ramos-Horta – As the aftermath of the U.S. election fixes our attention internationally, and will continue to do so as we wait to see what happens next, the issue of climate change is only accelerating in urgency. We must not allow ourselves to lose focus, particularly on the climate talks currently underway in Marrakech (COP22).
Michael Sainsbury, Phnom Penh and Thomas Ora, Dili – Timor-Leste has lurched into a constitutional crisis after Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's minority government failed to pass key legislation, including a fresh budget bill, in the week before Christmas.
Damien Kingsbury – A year that started so well for Timor-Leste has ended badly. The country is in a constitutional crisis, its minority government had refused to reconvene the Parliament and there is the prospect of another round of elections in 2018.
Vincent Bevins, Dili – Madalena Vidal Soares joined the armed resistance movement shortly after Indonesia invaded her country in 1975.
Tom Iggulden, staff – After almost 20 years, could the battle of lucrative gas fields in the Timor Sea be over?
Australia and Timor-Leste – also known as East Timor – have been given until March to finalise a draft treaty signed earlier this year.
Australia and East Timor will sign a new treaty next year setting maritime boundaries in an effort to settle lingering disputes over lucrative oil and gas fields in the East Timor Sea.
The Hague – Australia and East Timor will sign a new treaty next year setting maritime boundaries in an effort to settle lingering disputes over lucrative oil and gas fields in the East Timor Sea.
Bec Strating – Timor-Leste ends 2017 with great uncertainty over the future of the Greater Sunrise gas field, over the stability of its government and over its ambitions to become a member of ASEAN.
Sally Round – Timor Leste could face another election next year after the new government suffered a defeat in parliament on Tuesday.
Among the factors at play, according to observers, are the old rivalries between leaders of the resistance to the 24-year Indonesian occupation which ended in 1999.
Krithika Varagur in Aileu, Timor-Leste – It was 39 years since Kauka had last walked up the steep dirt road to her house in the Timor-Leste highlands, a lifetime since she was taken by an Indonesian soldier on her way home from school.
Sydney (Media Alliance/Pacific Media Watch) – Two journalists from Timor-Leste will benefit from the Balibo Five-Roger East Fellowship in 2018, an initiative of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA.
Raimundos Oki, Dili, East Timor – A political crisis is looming in East Timor after a coalition of opposition parties rejected the new government's policy program for a second time.
Timor-Leste's youth bulge presents huge opportunities for the still fragile country, 15 years after independence from Indonesia's brutal occupation.
Despite announcing a breakthrough in their protracted negotiations over a maritime boundary in August, Australia and East Timor have yet to finalize an agreement that would allow them to move forward on the joint development of an important natural gas field.
Damien Kingsbury – As East Timor went to elections this year, the country was the most peaceful and united it had been in its short history.
Anne Barker – East Timor's Government is deciding whether to adopt a controversial new policy that would ban contraceptives for anyone except married couples.
Rui Graca Feijo – Almost nine months after the election of the fourth President of the Republic, the first to be won by a President affiliated to a political party (FRETILIN) and to benefit from a pre-first round major party coalition, and four and a half months after FRETILIN narrowly won the legislative elections (by a mere thousand votes over Xanana Gusmao's CNRT, both winning just under 30%
Suffering for the East Timorese and great shame for Australia
The following statement was released by the Information Officer of the Australia East Timor Friendship Association, Andy Alcock, to observe the 42nd anniversary of the full scale invasion of the Democratic Republic of East Timor by the Indonesian military (TNI) on 7 December 1975.
Faisal Edroos – East Timor, one of the world's poorest countries, could still be an economic success story despite reports its main oil and gas fields will run dry by 2022 and it will go bankrupt by 2027, according to its former leader.
Jarryd de Haan – According to a press release published by Scoop, the Central committee of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Frente Revolucionaria do Timor-Leste Independente, or Fretilin), met at the party's headquarters on 2 December to discuss the political climate facing the party.
Robert Murray – "Kissingerian realism" and an associated hard nose for the "national interest", or "Wilsonian idealism"? Nowhere has this timeless tension in foreign affairs challenged Canberra more than over our nearest neighbour, East Timor.
The people of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste will today celebrate the 42nd anniversary of their Declaration of Independence.
For the last 26 of those years, the US-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has supported their struggle for self-determination.
Lolita Pacheco, Est – The School Principal Alberto da Costa Braz from Secondary School 4 September Balide, has placed a ban on his students, especially for girls not to wear short uniforms and to follow school regulations.
As he said, the school expects a person to follow discipline in school, as this will prepare them for a good future.
Celestina Soares, Est – The President of Timor-Leste National Youth Council (CNJTL), Maria Dadi Magno said unemployment rates in Timor-Leste are high and increasing annually, because now there are more high school graduates.
She said from the total number of high school graduates only some go on to study at university, while the others go into unemployment.
Jakarta, Indonesia and Dili, Timor-Leste – "I feel reborn today," said Antonio Ximenes in the car on the way to the airport in Bali. He carefully took out a tattered black and white photograph of his sister from his wallet. "I have carried this picture with me for 35 years.
Paulina Quintao – The government through the Ministry of Health (MH) made a decision to promote the International method of A and B (Abstinence and Be faithful) in its HIV/AIDS campaign activities to increase community awareness on the prevention of infections with the virus HIV, but not to promote method C (use of condom) to the general public.
New York – Next Tuesday, on November 28th, the people of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste will celebrate the 42nd anniversary of their Declaration of Independence. For the last 26 of those years, the U.S.-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has supported their struggle for self-determination.
Bec Strating – Throughout the course of 2017, Australia and Timor-Leste have negotiated in international conciliation proceedings to resolve their protracted disagreements over hydrocarbon resources and maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea.
Ian Lloyd Neubauer, Dili, East Timor – Smouldering fires. Haphazard explosions. Malnourished children. The disintegration of law and order and the absence of social services.
Michael Rose – Laying bare the greed for petroleum resources that has steered five decades of Australian policy regarding East Timor, Kim McGrath's "Crossing the Line" is a masterfully written and researched piece of scholarship.
Kyodo News – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will convene a meeting of senior officials next month to discuss admitting East Timor as a member, Asean officials said Sunday.
Mary Boland, Dili - November 12th, 1991. As day breaks, an eerie quiet hangs over Santa Cruz Cemetery in Dili, East Timor.
Paul Garvey, Perth – Timor Leste has reinforced its insistence that gas from the Greater Sunrise LNG project be piped to Timorese soil, dashing hopes of a compromise over the long-stalled project.
Shannon Power – An alarming majority of lesbian, bisexual and trans (LBT) people in East Timor have faced violence.
Many women and trans men reported facing extreme homophobic violence, often at the hands of family members.
The worrying findings were revealed in 'A Research Report on the Lives of Lesbian and Bisexual Women and Transgender Men in Timor-Leste'.
Timor-Leste (East Timor) has other oil deposits with potential for commercial exploration in the Greater Sunrise field, which will guarantee production over the next few decades, the Timorese Prime Minister said at a conference in the Australian city of Perth.
Bangkok – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has reached a decision to refrain from admitting East Timor to the regional grouping within the year, it was learned Saturday from ASEAN diplomatic sources.
Amid the 50th anniversary this year of the bloc's founding, there have been repeated discussions on whether or not to let East Timor join as its 11th member.
Manila – How "inclusive" and "pro-people" is ASEAN, as it marks its 50th anniversary this year? The question was raised at the weekend after immigration authorities from host country Philippines detained for nearly 12 hours four East Timorese nationals who flew in to attend the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples Forum (ACSC/APF).
Paul Garvey – Timor Leste will start negotiations today with Woodside Petroleum and other members of the stalled Greater Sunrise liquefied natural gas project in an attempt to finally resolve the regulatory uncertainty that has long lingered over the development.
Edward Aspinall & James Scambary – One of the surprises of East Timor's July parliamentary election and the subsequent wrangling over the formation of a new government has been the role played by a new force in Timorese politics: the KHUNTO Party.