Stephen Fitzpatrick in Jakarta and Paul Cleary – East Timor MP Jose Teixeira was thoroughly perplexed yesterday by Julia Gillard's announcement of plans for an asylum-seeker processing centre.

The wife of an Australian reporter allegedly killed by Indonesian forces in East Timor in 1975 said on Wednesday that she trusted the Indonesian people to make up their own minds about what happened.

Meagan Weymes – East Timor's voters went to the polls Saturday in parliamentary elections seen as a key test for the young and fragile democracy and likely to determine if UN peacekeepers can leave by the end of the year.

Rohan Sullivan, Sydney – East Timor's president said Wednesday he supports in principle an Australian plan to turn his country into a regional center for processing asylum seekers but does not want his tiny, impoverished nation to become an "island prison."

Karlis Salna – Julia Gillard has flagged offshore refugee processing through East Timor as she seeks to reposition Labor on the asylum seeker issue ahead of the federal election.

The prime minister, in her second full week in the job, has torn up elements of Labor's border protection policy under Kevin Rudd and embraced the processing of refugees in third countries.

Sara Everingham, Kerri Ritchie and staff – East Timor's deputy prime minister says his country does not have the capacity to set up a regional processing centre for asylum seekers.

Earlier today Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the Government was negotiating with East Timor on setting up a centre to handle new boat arrivals before they arrived in Australia.

Rohan Sullivan, Sydney – Australia's new leader proposed Tuesday to stop an influx of asylum seeker boats by making East Timor a hub for processing UN refugee claims for people fleeing war and persecution – an idea the tiny, impoverished nation said it was still considering.

AI Index: PRE 01/206/2010

Amnesty International is urging Timor-Leste to close a legal loophole that is allowing war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1975-1999 Indonesian occupation to go unpunished.

People who committed war crimes in East Timor during Indonesia's 1975-1999 occupation are going unpunished because of a loophole in the country's penal code, Amnesty International says.

Dili – East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao on Friday welcomed new Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and thanked ousted leader Kevin Rudd for his "steadfast support".

Kirsty Needham – Bringing an oil pipeline to East Timor would do more to alleviate poverty than Australia's $100 million aid program could achieve, East Timor's President, Jose Ramos-Horta, said last night.

Matt Chambers – When East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta fronts the National Press Club in Canberra today, the Greater Sunrise gas partners – led by Woodside Petroleum – are hoping for a softening in rhetoric from the small country, which has railed against development plans for the huge resource.

East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta is using a state visit to Australia to try to calm escalating tensions over the development of the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field in the Timor Sea. He's still pushing for a pipeline take the gas for processing in East Timor, rather than go with Greater Sunrise Consortium's preference of a floating processing facility.

Ray Brindal and Rachel Pannett, Canberra – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday a decision on a site for a plant to process gas from the Greater Sunrise field will be made on commercial grounds, but whether the plant goes ahead will depend on the cost of a pipeline needed to haul the gas to East Timor.

Linda Mottram, Canberra

East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta is using a state visit to Australia to fight against plans to process gas from the Timor Sea on a floating platform, and not via a pipeline in East Timor.

Damien Kingsbury – Australia's relationship with East Timor is at its lowest ebb since 2005 when Alexander Downer bullied then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri into accepting a fundamentally unfair division of the Timor Sea between the two countries.

Adam Gartrell – An Australian woman cleared of plotting to assassinate East Timor's top political leaders intends to sue the country's president for defamation.

Angelita Pires says President Jose Ramos Horta was a driving force behind allegations of her involvement in the February 2008 attempt on his life and the life of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

On 14 June 2010, East Timor community figure Joao Quintao (57), a retired Indonesian military senior sergeant, said that the thousands of refugees from East Timor living in refugee settlements in East Nusa Tenggara have poor living conditions and were disappointed with government policy. Quintao made his comments at the Tuapukan refugee camp in Kupang.

Paul Toohey – East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has taken in recent weeks to heavily bagging Australia, including a strange speech in which he, seemingly apropos of nothing, dug deep into the past and said Australia had selfishly cost the lives of 60,000 East Timorese by coming to Timor to "wage war" against the Japanese in World War II.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta has attacked international aid agency AusAID for forcing the closure of what he says is one of his country's few successful aid projects.

Simon Roughneen – East Timor's government has declined a proposal by Australian oil and gas company Woodside to process gas drawn from the Greater Sunrise field on board a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the Timor Sea, claiming that it would be deprived of tens of billions of dollars in much needed revenues under the arrangement.

East Timor's government is emphatic it would rather leave the Greater Sunrise gas deposits under the Timor Sea than drop its demand the gas be piped to East Timor for processing.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Two 43-metre Chinese-made navy patrol boats mounted with 30-millimetre cannon, initially to be crewed by Chinese sailors, will be launched in East Timor this week in what observers say is a slap in the face for Australian diplomacy.

A military parade and blessing ceremony is planned in East Timor later this week to formally mark the arrival of two patrol boats purchased from China. The Shanghai-three-class vessels will be used to combat illegal fishing and other illicit activities in East Timor's territorial waters.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor has accused Woodside of "grandstanding" over its plans to build a floating liquefied natural gas platform above the Timor Sea's Greater Sunrise field, in the latest salvo in an acrimonious stand-off over the multibillion-dollar project.

Matt Chambers – Woodside Petroleum expects development of the Greater Sunrise gasfields through a floating liquefied natural gas platform to cost more than $US11 billion ($13 billion) – but this will be $US5 billion cheaper than building an onshore plant in East Timor.

Dili – East Timor on Tuesday accused Australian company Woodside Petroleum of trampling its sovereign rights as it again rejected plans to process Timor Sea gas on a floating platform.

Partners in the Sunrise gas field joint venture including Woodside and Shell submitted a report outlining their preference for a floating platform to the East Timorese government in May.

Canberra – East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao is prepared to block the multi-billion dollar Timor Sea development of the Greater Sunrise gas field by Australia's Woodside Petroleum, a report said on Monday.

Woodside and partners have come under pressure from Dili over their plan to develop a floating liquefied natural gas platform to exploit the fields.

Lindsay Murdoch – The Prime Minister of East Timor, Xanana Gusmao, has vowed to make a historic stand against corporate giants that plunder the resources of tiny nations, signalling his country is prepared to forgo billions of dollars from the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea.

East Timor's prime minister said an Australian consortium is trying to steal his country's natural resources from a gas field it's developing in the Timor Sea.

East Timor wants a pipeline to be built from the gas field to Dili, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao told a gathering on Tuesday that the consortium was ignoring that preference.

James Paton – East Timor's petroleum regulator has refused to accept Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s plan to develop the Sunrise gas project, insisting on more detailed analysis of alternatives, including a plant in the southeast Asian nation.

Perth – Australia's Woodside Petroleum has not successfully lodged a proposal to East Timor's government to develop the Sunrise gas project using a floating liquefaction plant, the tiny nation's petroleum regulator said.

James Paton – Woodside Petroleum Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Don Voelte said he's still seeking to resolve a dispute with East Timor over how to develop the Sunrise project after meeting with the country's president.

Matt Crook, Dili – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said his young country had finally achieved peace and could look forward to prosperity as it celebrated eight years of independence from Indonesia on Thursday.

New Zealand's military deployment in East Timor is being cut because the security situation there has improved, Defence Minister Wayne Mapp says.

The next rotation leaves tomorrow with 75 personnel, just over half the size of earlier rotations of around 140. "We have increasing confidence in Timor-Leste's journey towards permanent stability," Dr Mapp said today.

In three days time, the Timorese people will celebrate the anniversary of the restoration of our independence. Though we have been happily celebrating the day with festivities for nine years, a portion of the population is sad on this commemorative day because of wounds that have not healed and still inflict pain.

Lindsay Murdoch – The East Timorese government has complained to the ASX about Woodside's announcement that it plans to build a floating liquefied natural gas platform above the multibillion-dollar Greater Sunrise field in the Timor Sea.

Damien Kingsbury – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao is not budging over terms of a deal with Woodside on gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Lindsay Murdoch – The regulator of East Timor's petroleum industry has accused Woodside of failing to comply with its legal obligations before announcing plans to build a floating liquefied natural gas platform above the Timor Sea's Greater Sunrise field.

Dili – Partners in the Sunrise gas field joint venture met East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta on Thursday after the government angrily rejected plans to process Timor Sea gas on a floating platform.

The Federal Government has told East Timor it cannot invite another company to develop the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea.

East Timor prime minister Xanana Gusmao has rejected a decision by the developer Woodside to establish a floating platform to process the gas rather than a pipeline to either Darwin or Dili.

Jakarta – East Timor has rejected a proposal for a floating liquefied natural gas platform in a disputed Timor Sea gas field as a waste of time and money.

Xavier La Canna – Woodside Petroleum Ltd will send a high-level team including chief executive Don Voelte to East Timor, after the tiny nation threatened to sink plans for a multi-billion-dollar gas project.

A high stakes dispute between Australian Oil and Gas company Woodside and East Timor's Government has come to a head. Woodside operates the Greater Sunrise gas field, but negotiations over its development have been deadlocked over a disagreement about where a plant to process the gas should be based.

New York – Timor-Leste's police force has made considerable strides since its creation ten years ago, the top United Nations police official in the nation has said, while adding that the key challenge remains bolstering the trust of the people in the fledgling institution.

Ishaan Tharoor – For most, the presence of an outfit of ninjas conjures scenes of Japanese comic book assassins or, perhaps, of mutant turtles dwelling in a sewer. But in East Timor, ninjas have become a national security threat.

The Australian government is standing by its aid program in East Timor after a scathing assessment of the performance of donors by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

James Paton – Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, continues to face opposition from East Timor's government to proposals for developing the Sunrise project in the Timor Sea.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – In a fiercely anti-Western speech, East Timor's Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, has accused Australia of sacrificing the lives of 60,000 Timorese in World War II and secretly plotting for Indonesia to take over what was then Portuguese Timor in 1963.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Authorities in Dili have appealed against the acquittal of the Australian Angelita Pires on charges of conspiring to kill East Timor's top two political leaders.