Venidora Oliveira – The 2015 General State will continue to prioritize infrastructure development with the government believing there hasn't been a significant progress in the quality of roads and bridges across the country.
Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao said quality infrastructure will contribute towards sustainable economic growth and improve services delivery to the people.
Paulina Quintao – Breast and cervical cancer sufferers are forced to travel overseas for treatment due to a lack of facilities in Timor-Leste.
Paulina Quintao – Health Ministry Department of Non-infectious Diseases chief Dr Herculano Seixas dos Santos says consultation on draft tobacco control legislation is complete and the laws will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for consideration before progressing to Parliament for debate.
Paulina Quintao – Students have come forward concerned about the quality of teaching in schools across Timor because of teachers who abandon classes because they teach in more than one school concurrently.
Student Antonio da Costa believes the Ministry of Education is failing in its duty of care to prevent teachers on the public purse from double dipping.
Paulina Quintao – The results of an assessment conducted by the National Commission for the Rights of the Child (KNDL) in Timor-Leste show that some 67% of children get some form of physical punishment by school teachers in schools.
KNDL Commissioner Maria Barreto said physical violence should not be used by teachers to educate children.
Venidora Oliveira – Timor-Leste is unlikely to be admitted to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2015.
Foreign Affairs and Co-operation deputy minister Constbncio da Conceicao Pinto said the government had approached ASEAN member nations and worked towards ticking off the admittance criteria.
Jakarta – The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) will form a local branch in Belu district, East Nusa Tenggara on the border of Indonesia and Timor Leste to intervene in the flow of drugs between the two countries.
Paulina Quintao – More than 100 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) houses are sitting abandoned in Lospalos sub-district in Lautem as the residents they were intended for refuse to live in them due to their poor condition.
Paulina Quintao – Former resistance member Olandina Caeiro has encouraged young women to involve themselves in politics in order to bring about positive changes to their lives.
"Many Timorese women are intelligent therefore young women should have the courage to compete to create a sense of equality between men and women in politics," she said.
Paulina Quintao – CNRT, PD and FRETILIN party benches at the national parliament agree with the Prime Minister's decision to reshuffle the fifth Constitution Government as it has become ineffective.
Paulina Quintao – The bodies of many victims shot dead by the Indonesian military during the Santa Cruz massacre 23 years ago remain missing.
12 November Commission president Gregorio Saldanha said finding the bodies was a difficult task. "We have identified some but many have not been found yet," he said.
Venidora Oliveira – The recent incident that took place in Sailari in Baucau District resulting in injuries to six police officers won't affect national security according to the Timorese National Police (PNTL) Operations Commander, Superintendent Armando Monteiro.
Yohanna Ririhena, Jakarta – Indonesia, Timor Leste and Australia are ready to move forward with a trilateral initiative for sub-regional integrated economic development linking eastern Indonesia, Timor Leste and northern Australia.
Paulina Quintao – Research conducted by Marie Stopes International in the District of Dili and Viqueque has revealed that the dowry system limits the ability of women to access family planning programmes.
Paulina Quintao – Child abandonment cases are on the rise in Timor-Leste, according to Legal Assistance for Women and Children (ALFeLa) director Merita Correia.
She said the children abandoned were often born out of adulterous relationships. In the past, adultery was outlawed in Timor-Leste under the Indonesian penal code.
Paulina Quintao – Women in rural areas feel disenfranchised and disconnected from Timor-Leste's development process, according to the Parliamentary Women's Group of Timor-Leste (GMPTL).
Singapore – Dutch brewer Heineken said on Thursday it will begin building a beverage plant in East Timor this year that will manufacture a range of drinks including beer.
The company said in a statement that it had signed an agreement with the East Timor government to build the facility, which will require an investment of between US$30 million and US$45 million.
Brasilia – The Angolan state-owned oil company, Sonangol, has been invited to carry out prospecting and exploration for oil in Timor Leste.
The invitation was extended by the Timorese Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, Constancio Pinto, during a meeting with Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister Georges Rebelo Chikoti here over the weekend.
An American woman arrested in East Timor and released from prison on Christmas Day is staying at the home of former president Jose Ramos-Horta until her passport is returned.
Nani Afrida, Kupang – In an effort to curb rampant fuel and narcotics smuggling, Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu plans to add more posts to the border of Indonesia and Timor Leste.
Associated Press in Portland, Oregon – A US traveler detained for months in Timor Leste has been released from prison.
Washington – A veterinarian from Oregon who was arrested while traveling in East Timor in September was released from jail on Thursday after nearly two months of detention, the US State Department said.
Nearly two years ago, Stacey Addison of Portland, Oregon, began a trip around the world starting in Antarctica. But the trip turned into a nightmare soon after she arrived in East Timor. On September 5, Stacey, a veterinarian, was traveling in a shared taxi with another passenger she had never met.
Paulina Quintao – The Decolores Del Amor Foundation has urged the government to establish an independent national drugs council to address the issue of drugs within the nation.
Paulina Quintao – Research by the National University of Timor Lorosa'e's (UNTL) gender studies unit has shown that many female students are shunning school because of a lack of toilet facilities.
Venidora Oliveira – Newly appointed human rights ombudsman Silverio Pinto says he is ready to ready to continue to implementing the Human Rights and Justice Provedoria's (PDHJ) 10 year strategic plan.
A communications strategy to determine what difficulties people faced will be drawn up, Pinto said.
Estevao Nuno – The Judicial System Monitoring Program (JSMP) has raised awareness in schools in six districts of laws prohibiting domestic violence.
JSMP executive director Luis Oliveira Sampaio said the districts involved were Liquisa, Ermera, Maliana, Same and Viqueque. Oe-Cusse would be included in the near future, he said.
Estevao Nuno – Squatters living in the former Comoro market will be evicted to establish new National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) dormitories.
Dili district administrator Gaspar Soares said as the site was state property, those living there must vacate the property.
Estevao Nuno – Luta Hamutuk has called for the government to investigate why emergency works projects scheduled for completion within three months are taking up to a year.
Venidora Oliveira – The Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (KIP) has investigated allegations the Secretariat of State for Public Works (SEOP) acted improperly in commissioning emergency works projects in five districts.
Venidora Oliveira – National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) members are using service weapons to hunt animals, according to Member of Parliament Ana Ribeiro.
Estevao Nuno – Member of Parliament Eladio Faculto has criticized the government for using force to move on fish and coconut vendors at the Lecidere beachfront. Faculto said the vendors only wanted to make a living.
"They should be moved politely. One day I went to a vendor at the beach and he said that the government had moved them by force," he said.
Yoseph Kelen, Jakarta – President Joko Widodo says that the facilities along the nation's border with Timor Leste should be improved, along with the quality of customs, immigration and quarantine services.
Paulina Quintao – Member of Parliament Antoninho Bianco has warned citizens that providing false information to receive more than one voting card is a criminal offence.
Paulina Quintao – Timorese visiting sex workers are neglecting to use condoms to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.
National Commission to Combat HIV/AIDS – Timor-Leste (CNCS-TL) secretary Daniel Marcal said the HIV situation in Timor-Leste was serious, with many infected people living in the community.
Venidora Oliveira – The community of Cova in the sub-district of Balibo within Bobonara has not had electricity from the time of independence until the present day.
Member of Parliament Manuel Gaspar Soares da Silva said it was unfair for Cova to go without electricity while other sukus were powered.
Paulina Quintao – The government must ban the import of cigarettes into Timor-Leste for the health of its people, says Member of Parliament Eladio Faculto.
Faculto said there were no local cigarette manufacturers and that the imported products were known to cause diseases such as cancer and hypertension in smokers.
Luke Buckmaster – Director Robert Connolly's 2009 expose Balibo is based on the true story of Australian journalists the Balibo Five, who were captured by Indonesian militia in the eponymous East Timorese town in 1975. It thrusts audiences into nightmarish situations and forces us to contemplate how we might feel and react.
Armandina Moniz, Dili (Notisias Online/Pacific Media Watch) – Timor-Leste's Court of Appeal has once again delivered a judgment declaring the controversial Media Act unconstitutional.
Paulina Quintao – Member of Parliament Antoninho Bianco has criticized the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) for its failure to ensure people in rural areas have voting cards.
Paulina Quintao – National Member of Parliament MP Bendita Magno wants to know why midwives at the Fatubolu Health post in Hatulia sub-district, Ermera, are using candle light and mobile phones to assist new mothers birthing.
Paulina Quintao – The Education Ministry's declaration that six districts are free from illiteracy is incorrect as it does not take into account adult illiteracy, says Timor-Leste Coalition for Education (TLCE) program manager Matias dos Santos.
Paulina Quintao – Analytical skills and critical thinking will be the focus of the new primary school curriculum to be introduced by the Education Ministry.
Dili – Timor-Leste's efforts to reduce the prevalence of domestic gender-based violence through criminalization and prosecution, already hampered by a general lack of trust in the formal court system, have suffered a fresh setback with the enforced departure of 11 foreign judicial staff who had played a key role in delivering justice in rural areas.
Venidora Oliveira – Non-government organization (NGO) Haburas asks the government to explain why it is not doing more to promote local products and ecotourism across the country.
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) is concerned that recent events in Timor-Leste weaken the country's hard-won constitutional democracy and endanger the right of Timor-Leste's citizens to live in a society governed under the rule of law.
Paulina Quintao – Seventeen children are currently living with their mothers at Women's Forum Communication Timor-Leste emergency accommodation, says the organization's shelter home co-ordinator Judith Ribeiro.
These children were indirect victims of domestic violence, she said. Most of the children are still breastfeeding.
Venidora Oliveira – Member of Parliament Estanislau da Silva has criticized the government for its failure to attract major investors to Timor-Leste.
The Government says it will not carry out its own inquiry into the killings of five journalists from Australia and New Zealand in Balibo, East Timor, just before the 1975 invasion by Indonesia.
Paulina Quintao – Deputy Human Rights Ombudsman Silverio Baptista Pinto has appealed to all people to respect the rights of those suffering from mental illnesses. Pinto said sufferers' family members were most likely to discriminate.