John Lyons and Sarah Ferguson – Timor-Leste's President Jose Ramos-Horta has revealed China is "very interested" in partnering with his government on a contentious gas project.

Mr Ramos-Horta said he'd had informal discussions with Chinese officials about their potential involvement in the project over the last two or three years.

The growth of China's influence in our region is a significant issue, but there is a danger in making it the sole focus for relations with our neighbours.

Australia has for years been on the alert about China's ambitions in the Pacific, and those concerns were realised this year when the Solomon Islands concluded a security agreement with China.

Matthew Knott – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta has defended China's role as a growing strategic and economic power in the Asia-Pacific, arguing it has "hardly ever" invaded other countries and was unlikely to do so in the future.

Nick Perry, Wellington, New Zealand – Give our country $100 billion – or stop lecturing us about making money from fossil fuels.

That was the message East Timor President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta had Wednesday for those raising environmental concerns about his nation's proposal to build a new gas-processing plant.

Melbourne, Australia – Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China could all be interested in investing in the Greater Sunrise gas project in the waters between Timor Leste and Australia, President Jose Ramos-Horta said on Wednesday.

Thousands of people in Timor-Leste lined the streets of the capital Dili to welcome the Catholic-majority nation's first on Sept. 5.

Cardinal Da Silva, Archbishop of Dili was returning home after attending a consistory on Aug. 27 during which Pope Francis created 20 new cardinals including himself and five others from Asia.

Parker Novak – It's been hard to miss Jose Ramos-Horta, the President of Timor-Leste, in the news over the past couple of weeks. He's been doing the rounds with major media outlets, including the ABC and Guardian Australia.

Rod McGuirk, Canberra – East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta arrived in Australia on Tuesday for a state visit as negotiations over lucrative gas resources reach a critical stage for his impoverished nation.

Tess Ikonomou (AAP) – Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has pushed back against Timor-Leste's use of the media to apply pressure to Australia over a gas project.

Senator Wong is in Timor-Leste's capital Dili on Thursday, where she is in discussions to resolve a dispute over the location of a gas processing hub.

Sonali Paul, Melbourne – East Timor's majority owner of the huge Greater Sunrise gas field says piping gas from the field to be processed in East Timor can be done economically and would be much cheaper to run than if the gas were piped to Darwin in Australia.

Matthew Knott – Foreign Minister Penny Wong has used a visit to East Timor to publicly rebuke the country's president, Jose Ramos-Horta, for using the media to pressure Australia over the terms of a massive potential gas project in the Timor Sea.

The people of Timor-Leste rejoiced at the inauguration of Salesian Cardinal Dom Virgilio do Carmo da Silva, the first cardinal for the tiny Catholic-majority country.

The 54-year-old archbishop of Dili was among 21 new cardinals that received a red hat at the consistory in the Vatican on Aug. 26.

Timor-Leste's president, Jose Ramos-Horta, has warned his nation will seek Chinese support if Australia and corporate giant Woodside Energy fail to back a gas pipeline between the resource-rich Timor Sea and his country's southern shore, rather than Darwin.

Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta has come under criticism for his decision to confer an award to a retired Indonesian army general, who allegedly violated human rights during the country's independence struggles.

A top leader of Timor-Leste's minority Muslim community has turned down an offer from a leading Indonesian Muslim group to open its branch in his Catholic-majority country, fearing it would destroy religious harmony.

Singapore – Timor-Leste's president Jose Ramos-Horta recently declared his hope that his country would become the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) eleventh member in 2023 when Indonesia chairs the regional grouping.

Ryan Dagur – Timor-Leste's Baucau Diocese has apologized for the controversial decision by a local parish to impose a heavy fee for issuing baptismal certificates.

Timor-Leste's Petroleum Fund (PF) was worth US$17.84 billion at the end of June, down from US$19.12 billion at the end of March, the central bank has announced.

Luke Hunt, Phnom Penh – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Aug 3 that he was confident Timor-Leste would become the 11th member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) by next year, shelving plans to shepherd the tiny state into the bloc under his stewardship.

Luke Hunt – Expectations that Timor-Leste would be shepherded into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen have been formally dashed amid concerns the tiny country is not ready for membership in the bloc.

Ryan Dagur – Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta has urged citizens to respect and not discriminate against the Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

"Timor-Leste must show a model or example about respect, tolerance to our children, to our brothers involved in this community," he said in a statement on his official Facebook page on Aug. 3.

John Kehoe – A confidential report prepared for East Timor's government advises that the stalled Greater Sunrise gas project to be operated by Woodside Petroleum in waters north of Australia can be built and run at a similar cost in East Timor, instead of Darwin.

Bangkok – Authorities in East Timor should drop their investigation into journalist Raimundos Oki and stop using legal threats to curb independent reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

A global media watchdog has urged Timor-Leste to drop charges against a journalist accused of violating judicial confidentiality by publishing reports questioning the virginity tests of underage girls in an abuse case involving an ex-priest.

Indonesia's leading Catholic university has signed a deal to collaborate with nine universities and colleges in neighboring Timor-Leste, as part of an effort to improve education quality and foster fraternity between the institutions.

Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta on Thursday talked about how arduous it is to get a seat in ASEAN and even said that entering heaven would be easier than getting full membership in the Southeast Asian grouping.

Anything concerning the Catholic Church is extremely sensitive in Timor-Leste, as Raimundos Oki, the editor of The Oekusi Post website can confirm, reports the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

Timor-Leste and the United States have signed the largest cooperation agreement ever, valued at US$420 million, focused on improving infrastructure in Dili over the next five years.

The agreement was signed by the Timor-Leste Cabinet office minister, Fidelis Magalhaes, and Millennium Challenge Corporation Vice Chairman Cameron Alford, at a ceremony in Dili.

Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta has said he will be nominating two moderate Indonesian Muslim organizations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jakarta – Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta said on Tuesday during a visit to Indonesia that he hoped to boost trade ties between the countries and seal a decades-long bid by his nation to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year.Ramos-Horta met his counterpart Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on his first state visit to neighbouring Indonesia since he was elected

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Timor-Leste's authorities to put the public interest first by dropping charges against a journalist accused of violating judicial confidentiality for reporting that 30 girls were illegally detained and forced to undergo virginity tests as part of the investigation into an American Catholic priest accused of raping minors.

Sirwan Kajjo, Dili – In a deeply Catholic country, accusations that an American priest abused dozens of children at an orphanage stunned many in East Timor.

Jakarta (VNA) – Timor-Leste has reiterated its readiness to become a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) while working with the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Fact-Finding Mission to the country.

Spencer Zifcak – Last week Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus put an end to Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery's criminal prosecution.

Collaery was prosecuted in 2018 and was facing five charges, including allegedly conspiring with his client, "Witness K", to disclose confidential information about the Australian government's spying operation in Timor-Leste.

Oscar Grenfell – Last Friday, Labor government Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced that he was ending the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, a lawyer who had been charged with breaching national security laws by allegedly exposing Australian spying on East Timor.

Binoy Kampmark – The Anglo-Australian legal system has much to answer for. While robed lawyers and solemn justices proclaim an adherence to the rule of law, the rule remains a creature in state, more fetish than reality.

Australians in general are not hobbled by the convention of neither confirming nor denying what is as plain as day ("Bernard Collaery's leaking charges over East Timor operation dropped on Mark Dreyfus' orders", July 8).

Michael Pelly – The unprecedented decision by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to discontinue the prosecution of former ACT attorney-general Bernard Collaery over national security leaks could lead to a substantial bill for the Commonwealth.

Kieran Pender – It was easy to feel hopeless, watching from the sidelines as a brave whistleblower went through hell.

Bernard Keane – Bernard Collaery's immediate ordeal is over. For four years he has been pursued by a vindictive government hellbent on punishing him not merely for helping, with Witness K, to expose the malignant crimes of the Howard government in Timor-Leste, but for trashing basic concepts of the rule of law to do so.

Lisa Visentin – Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has ordered the Commonwealth to drop the prosecution of lawyer Bernard Collaery, four years after he was charged with leaking classified information about Australia's alleged spying operation in East Timor.

Christopher Knaus – On the last day of summer, 2013, lawyer Bernard Collaery sat down to pen a missive to a client known only as Witness K. The client, a veteran of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, had spent years stewing over his involvement in an Australian mission to bug the offices of Timor-Leste during 2004 negotiations to carve up crucial oil and gas resources.

High-profile lawyer Bernard Collaery says he can finally move forward with his life after Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus ordered longstanding leaking charges against him to be dropped.

Mr Collaery had been facing charges for four years after he was accused of leaking classified information about an alleged Australian spying operation in East Timor.

Bernard Keane – The prosecution of Bernard Collaery for his role in the exposure of the Howard government's bugging of the Timor-Leste cabinet in 2004 is over. This afternoon, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced that he had no-billed the prosecution, under section 71 of the Judiciary Act.

Michelle Grattan – The Albanese government has acted quickly to abandon the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, who was charged in relation to the leaking of information about Australia's alleged spying in Timor-Leste.

Christopher Knaus and Paul Karp – Timor-Leste's president, Jose Ramos-Horta, has welcomed the "wisdom and fairness" of the decision to end the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, saying the lawyer is a "good man" who represented the best of Australian ideals.

Raimundos Oki, chief editor of news portal Oekusipost.com, has been accused of breaching judicial secrecy following an investigative report concerning the detention and forced virginity testing of 30 underage girls in 2020. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the charges and calls on the Timor-Leste government to immediately rescind the case.

Police in Timor-Leste have charged a journalist for allegedly violating judicial secrecy by publishing reports that question the virginity tests of some underage girls, who were sexually abused by a convicted former priest.

Journalist and editor-in-chief Raimundos Oki of Timor-Leste's online media Oekusipost.com was today accused of "violating legal secrets" related to his reporting about the case of illegal detention and forced virginity testing of about 30 underage girls in Oe-Kusi Ambeno during 2020.

Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta has vetoed a proposed law on presidential responsibilities after a court ruling granted his appeal and declared it unconstitutional.