Michael Bachelard and Mouzinho Lopes – East Timor's sometimes fractious politicians are contemplating the extraordinary – forming a government of national unity in which all parties would govern together.

Dili, East Timor, and Jakarta, Indonesia – Not until she was at the deathbed of the man presumed to be her father did Alexhia Cordova da Silva's life start to make sense.

Raised by an elite political family in Jakarta, da Silva had endured years of hushed rumors about her dark, Melanesian features at social events. On the street, "slumdog" and "monkey" were regular taunts.

Tito Belo, Dili – The party of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has won East Timor's parliamentary election, but was short of a majority, provisional results showed on Sunday, raising the prospect of a coalition government in Asia's youngest nation.

Michael Bachelard – East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has consolidated his power and extended his lead over the country's opposition, winning the largest bloc of votes in the country's parliamentary elections.

Peter Ker – Academics and other dedicated election observers will not be the only Australians watching today's East Timor election with interest.

Thousands of kilometres away, Perth oil and gas executives will be taking more than a passing interest in the young nation's latest effort at peaceful democracy.

Tito Belo, Dili – East Timor voted on Saturday in a parliamentary election in which Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's party faces a stiff challenge from two opponents as it seeks to extend its term at the helm of Asia's newest and one of its poorest nations.

Vincent Souriau – The abject poverty visible only an hour's drive out of East Timor's capital illustrates the challenge facing the government that takes over one of Asia's poorest countries after elections on Saturday.

Helene Hofman, Dili, East Timor – Grace Gunawon, 22, remembers Dili before East Timor gained independence from Indonesia, when it wasn't safe to play in the streets after dark.

But like most of the world, she witnessed the worst of the violence – the clashes in the lead-up to the 1999 referendum on independence and the 2006 gang riots – from a distance.

Dili – East Timor is about to face a crucial test of its fragile democracy in parliamentary elections that will determine if UN peacekeepers can leave.

The UN, after presidential polls were held peacefully over two rounds in March and April, says it will pull out its remaining 1300 troops within six months if the general election tomorrow goes well.

Meagan Weymes – The UN, after presidential polls were held peacefully over two rounds in March and April, says it will pull out its remaining 1300 troops within six months if the general election on Saturday goes well.

Dili – The UN peacekeeping force is on track to begin withdrawing from Timor-Leste in October 2012 after a "remarkably peaceful" parliamentary election campaign concluded on 4 July, ahead of the election on 7 July.

Michael Bachelard – "If I've got $600 million a year... you'll partake in it," Olgario de Castro reassures his mates, his voice caught by a secret recorder as coffee cups clink in the background.

"I want the money, not the power!" he says at one point and, later, of another deal: "Last minute, we'll find $2 million!"

New Zealand MPs will be among official observers of East Timor's parliamentary elections this weekend. Foreign Minister Murray McCully says five are going, meeting a request from East Timor.

Damien Kingsbury – In 2010, a senior Timorese political figure remarked in private conversation that Timor-Leste had never been better. This particular political figure was commenting on the general state of Timor-Leste since his return in 1999, after a forced 25 year absence from the country.

The East Timor government believes that the choice of the south coast of the country for the new gas pipeline running from the Greater Sunrise field, which it shares with Australia, will prevail.

Police in East Timor have uncovered a mass grave of 52 people at the government palace in Dili, with initial examinations suggesting the bodies are not Timorese, an official said Tuesday.

Construction workers discovered the remains last week in a garden outside the beachfront government palace, which houses the office of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, and contacted police.

The Timorese police today arrested two persons in Baucau, east of Dili, for stoning supporters of the Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor (Fretilin) at the end of a rally for the parliamentary elections on July 7.

"The PNTL arrested two individuals undergoing investigation following the incident," said the police source to Lusa.

In East Timor, the politics of language can be a complex and fiercely debated topic. While the official languages are Tetum and Portugese, there are no fewer than 16 other local languages. For children starting school that's a complicated world to understand, let alone navigate, and many are being left behind.

Reporting: Liam Cochrane

Jakarta – Twenty four bodies were recovered on Wednesday from a mass grave that was accidentally found in the garden of the office of Timor Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in Dili last week by several construction workers.

The workers were digging the ground to construct pipes for the park's new water fountain.

Damien Kingsbury – When Timor-Leste's Anti-Corruption Commission (CAC) was established in 2009, many people wondered whether it was just a political sop to minimise concern about perceptions of growing corruption, or whether it would be serious in trying to tackle the growing problem. If the CAC was to be serious, they wondered, would it last?

Emma Macdonald – The decision by independence fighters in East Timor to swap guns for diplomacy not only worked in creating the new independent nation of Timor-Leste, but serves as a cautionary tale to countries such as Syria.

Paul Stewart – My mother has had one contact from the Australian federal government in the 37 years since my brother, Tony Stewart, was murdered at Balibo in East Timor.

Kate Hodal – Young, blonde, and Australian, she was an unlikely undercover agent for an unlikely cause: a far-flung province on a Southeast Asian island that had been in a bloody fight for independence for more than two decades.

Edward Rees – Last weekend, a number of uniformed Indonesian military officers were lounging about the Dili Beach Hotel drinking coffee, laughing, and shooting pool.

Dili – With UN peacekeepers set to leave East Timor at the end of the year, local police are striving to shed a reputation for rough justice as the nation learns to fend for itself 10 years on from independence.

East Timor had dual celebrations over the weekend, as it marked 10 years of independence and also swore in its third president, Taur Matan Ruak.

Correspondent: Liam Cochrane

Speakers: Father Jose Filipe, parish priest of Liquica church; James Batley, former Australian Ambassador to East Timor

Damien Kingsbury – As Timor-Leste heads towards it parliamentary elections, it is increasingly likely that no single party will receive sufficient votes to hold an absolute majority in parliament in its own right.

Vincent Souriau – East Timor's new president on Sunday lauded the "maturity" of his young country's democracy at celebrations marking 10 years of independence, which come as UN forces prepare to leave at year's end.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – The East Timorese political party headed by Prime Minister and former guerilla leader Xanana Gusmao has been accused of corruptly raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations, as Mr Gusmao leads this weekend's celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of his country's independence.

Fitri & Arientha Primanita, Mataram – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the acceleration of development in the impoverished province of East Nusa Tenggara, particularly for those people who fled East Timor following its independence from Indonesia in 1999.

Damien Kingsbury – On Sunday 20 May, East Timor will celebrate ten years of independence. As a nation born from the ashes of destruction, its first decade has been marked by problems and set-backs. Many in East Timor, not least its outgoing president, Jose Ramos-Horta, lament a lack of development since independence.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – East Timor has made a new plea for Indonesia to return the remains of Timorese national hero Nicolau Lobato on the eve of the country's 10th anniversary of independence.

Lisa Martin – On the eve East Timor's decade anniversary of independence former Prime Minister John Howard has reflected Australia's involvement was one of its more noble appearances on the international stage.

Mr Howard said he considered Australia's role in East Timor's independence one of his greatest legacies.

This weekend, East Timor will see the installation of the new head of state after the recent presidential elections. But it's also facing a parliamentary poll in less the two months time and it looks like it is going to be a tough political fight.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Celebrations down the mountains marking the 10th anniversary of East Timor's independence today mean little to Ines Lemos. "I don't think about anything other than my daughter, and her killer being free."

Arientha Primanita & AFP – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will attend the 10th anniversary celebrations of East Timor this weekend, according to Teuku Faizasyah, special staff to the president for international relations.

East Timor's new president says the 10th anniversary of his country's independence from Indonesia is a time for generational change.

Taur Matan Ruak was elected after a run-off vote on April 16, defeating another former independence fighter, Francisco Guterres "Lu Olo", from the opposition Fretilin party.

This weekend, East Timor's president-elect will be sworn in to office as the country celebrates ten years since its formal independence from Indonesia. East Timor's president-elect hopeful for good ties with Australia (Credit: ABC)

Meagan Weymes, Dili – Ten years after winning formal independence following a brutal occupation by Indonesia, East Timor is struggling to escape extreme poverty, corruption and an over-reliance on energy revenues.

Shamim Adam and Ramsey Al-Rikabi – The Southeast Asian nation of East Timor celebrates 10 years of independence tomorrow night facing a challenge that has eluded emerging economies across the world: How to stop oil wealth wrecking your economy.

Liam Cochrane, Dili – The government in East Timor has shown off a European-built pipeline which it says can be used to send natural gas to the country from the disputed Greater Sunrise Field off the north-west coast of Australia.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) congratulated the people of Timor-Leste as they prepared to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the restoration of their country's independence on May 20.

Damien Kingsbury – As Timor-Leste moves towards marking the 10th anniversary of its independence and completing the third round of its national elections, the question arises as to whether it has consolidated its democracy.

Adapted from http://laohamutuk.blogspot.com/2012/05/lh-observations-on-president-election.html.

On 30 April 2012, La'o Hamutuk submitted this report in Tetum to the National Elections Commission and other relevant officials. Printable PDF versions with photos are available at:

The federal government is in discussions with East Timor about carbon price liabilities for gas companies which operate in the Timor Sea.

Police in the East Timorese capital Dili fired warning shots and arrested 84 people to disperse some 500 May Day protesters calling for higher wages on Tuesday, police and a witness said.

Lindsay Murdoch – Jose Ramos-Horta guns his Mini Moke along Dili's pot-holed backstreets, waving and laughing with barefooted children running to see their President.

"I'll show you the real Timor," he says as the Moke races past ramshackle homes where some of the world's most disadvantaged people live in squalor, despite a five-year government spending spree.

David Wroe – East Timor could be slugged millions of dollars a year under the carbon tax, which is set to take a bite out of revenues from offshore natural gas fields that Australia shares with the impoverished nation.

The East Timorese government has raised concerns that it risks losing millions of dollars in revenue, as a result of Australia's carbon tax.

The carbon price of 23 dollars per tonne, which will be imposed on July the 1st, might be applied to companies operating in the oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea, which are jointly shared by both countries.