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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dili – East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Thursday his country is "doing our best" to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but Asean members Myanmar and Singapore are still withholding their support.

Paulina Quintao – The Director of the organization Women's movement (MOFFE), Yasinta Lujina acknowledges that new Members of Parliament (MPs) need transportation to facilitate their work, especially to do monitoring activities on the ground, but this does not mean said transportation must be an expensive Prado.

Celestina Soares – Since 2016, the government through the Ministry of Education has distributed 1100 chairs and tables to schools throughout Timor-Leste.

The Director General of the Ministry of Education (ME), Antoninho Pires said now there are only 200 or 300 chairs left, as the rest have been distributed.

Paulina Quintao – Women's organizations urge political parties from the VII constitutional government to put away party interests and uphold the public interest in order to bring sensible development for everyone in Timor-Leste.

Damien Kingsbury – Australia's agreement with Timor-Leste to settle a permanent maritime boundary in the Timor Sea may have hit a snag as Timor-Leste's politics is thrown into turmoil.

Michael Leach – In 2015, not long after the formation of the unprecedented national unity government between Timor-Leste's two largest parties, CNRT and Fretilin, senior CNRT Minister Agio Pereira commented on the country's remarkable transition from 'belligerent democracy' to a new era of consensus democracy.

East Timor's new government has suffered a major setback after opposition parties vetoed its policy programme, a blow that could see the impoverished young democracy return to the polls.

The Fretilin party, which won the July election by a narrow margin, did not receive enough votes to govern alone and has formed a minority coalition government with the Democratic Party.

David Hutt – What a relief. For years, myself and some other pundits deplored the fact that there was very little political opposition to Timor-Leste's "unity government." So little, in fact, that President Tuar Matan Ruak went beyond his constitutional role by taking it upon himself to hold the government to account.

How a policy scare galvanized a small island's family planning sectorBy Kelli Rogers @kellierin19 October 2017

The government of Timor-Leste (East Timor) intends to double non-oil tax revenues to US$400 million a year with the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) and increases in the taxes on tobacco and alcohol, said the Minister of Planning and Finance.

Paulina Quintao – The government through the National Commission of Food Security and Nutrition (KONSSANTIL) held a meeting with non-government organizations to evaluate the progress and discuss the continuation of the implementation of the National Action Plan to end Hunger and Malnutrition in Timor-Leste (PANHAM-TIL).

Paulina Quintao – The rate of Anemia has been increasing in the country according to data from the Timor-Leste Food and Nutrition survey 2013, that showed that 63% of anemia had an effect on children older than 6 years old, while 40% of women from reproductive age 14 to 60 suffered from anemia.

Lindsay Murdoch, Bangkok – A landmark agreement to develop billions of dollars' worth of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea has been referred to East Timor, where the future of country's new minority government is in doubt.

As rain rat-a-tats on a flimsy tin roof, baby Afeena lies sleeping. On the walls, pieces of cardboard are tacked up, to give warmth, while across a window, a piece of fabric, mint green and paper-thin, blows gently.

Australia and Timor Leste have drawn up a draft treaty setting out their maritime borders, aiming to end a bitter dispute over lucrative oil and gas fields, officials said Sunday.

"Timor Leste and Australia have reached agreement on the complete text of a draft treaty" in confidential talks in The Hague over the past week, the Permanent Court of Arbitration said in a statement.

In the far-east of Timor-Leste, where the road narrows to one lane overhung with vegetation, where crocodiles still lurk in the rivers, and where freedom fighters were born, lies Lospalos. It's a small town of about 17,000 people that tells its story openly.

Erin Cook, Jakarta – A long-running territorial dispute between Australia and Timor-Leste is a step closer to resolution with last month's announcement that talks at The Hague arrived at a new maritime border treaty for the Timor Sea.