Dili, East Timor – UN police returned control of a district to East Timorese police Thursday for the first time since bloody clashes threatened to plunge the country into civil war in 2006, the UN said.

Dili – The World Bank has been forced to defend its consultants in East Timor after the salaries of those hired by the finance ministry were leaked to local media, sparking widespread anger.

Adam Gartrell – East Timorese children were taken from their families and resettled in Indonesia under policies similar to those that created Australia's stolen generation, a Queensland researcher says.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – The East Timorese Government has admitted that corrupt officials are "well established" in areas such as tax, customs and procurement as a row deepens over highly paid foreign advisers.

The brother of an Australian woman accused of conspiring to assassinate East Timor's president and prime minister says he cannot believe the case is actually going to trial.

Angelita Pires, a dual Australian-East Timorese citizen, was the first person to be arrested over the February 2008 attacks.

Angela Macdonald-Smith – The East Timor government said it doesn't intend to approve plans that Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, has said it will put forward to develop the Sunrise field in the Timor Sea.

Aloysius Unditu – East Timor, the world's newest democracy, may invest about 10 percent of a $4.6 billion petroleum fund in regional equities seeking to diversify from US Treasuries, the government's economic adviser said.

Mark Dodd – East Timor's security forces and civil service are politicised, a situation that has not been reconciled and could trigger a return to instability on the restive half-island nation, a World Bank report says.

La'o Hamutuk is a Timorese NGO which undertakes research, monitoring and analysis of development processes in Timor-Leste. In order to improve information and understanding of local conditions we would like to discuss some errors and omissions in the U.S. Department of State 2008 report on Human Rights Practices in Timor-Leste.

East Timor's notorious martial arts gangs are growing in size and strength and pose an increasing threat to Australia's security, a new report says.

Jayandra Menon, Dili – Timor Leste is dropping the tagline 'the world's newest nation' in favour of 'the world's newest destination'.

And Singaporean hotelier Edward Ong Han Nam is banking hundreds of millions on it living up to the new label.

The Australian Press Council has expressed concerns about proposals to license journalists in East Timor.

The Council Chairman Professor Ken McKinnon said the proposed scheme could greatly affect the operation of a free press in the world's newest democracy.

Dili – It's been 10 years since Rudolfo dos Santos, then 14, watched as his neighbours and friends were shot, beaten and hacked to death by East Timorese and Indonesian anti-independence militias, police and soldiers.

On 4 April 2009, more than 200 people gathered in the town of Liquisa, Timor-Leste. Under a banner "Reflections about Ten Years since the Massacre 5-6 April 1999 in the Liquisa Church" the contemplative audience included local residents, survivors, and relatives of the dozens of civilians killed there ten years previously, as well as a few human rights activists.

A decade after a massacre intended to blunt East Timor's demands for independence, Lindsay Murdoch finds that the appetite for justice continues unabated.

We confronted the mass murderer as his men hosed blood from his balcony; Leoneto Martins angrily denied the massacre in the East Timorese town where he was Indonesia's appointed mayor.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – More than 600 non-government organisations have warned that three second-hand power plants under construction in East Timor may endanger the health and livelihoods of the country's 1 million people.

Dili – The tiny impoverished nation of East Timor will need several more years of international assistance to ensure stability and tackle poverty, the head of the United Nations mission here said Friday.

Dili – International donors to East Timor kicked off a three-day meeting Thursday to discuss how to lock in security gains and promote development in the young nation, one of the world's poorest.

A group of Australian forensic scientists may have solved one of East Timor's greatest mysteries. A team from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine has found the remains of 16 people in graves near the country's capital, Dili.

A decade on, East Timor is still linked to Indonesia

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Jose Ramos-Horta has intervened to delay a controversial $400 million deal to buy three highly polluting second-hand power stations for East Timor.

The East Timorese President told Parliament yesterday that serious concerns about the plants – bought from China – needed to be tackled.

Dili – A call for more lenient abortion legislation in this predominantly Catholic country is renewing friction between the Church and pro-abortion activists.

A working group convened by Fokupers ("Communication Forum for Women from the East"), a local NGO supported by others such as the Alola Foundation, has been pushing for a softening of abortion laws.

Corinne Podger – Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has told Radio Australia that Australian troops will stay as long as East Timor says it needs them.

Stephanie March – East Timor's state secretary for defence, Julio Tomas Pinto, wants to send more of his troops to Australia for training.

By Murray McLaughlin

Kerry O'Brien, Presenter: Here is a story about East Timor, where a newspaperman who was jailed for his resistance activity during the time of Indonesia's occupation is facing the prospect of being put back behind bars if he's found guilty of a charge of criminal defamation.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Authorities in Dili have charged 28 people, including Timorese-born Australian Angelita Pires, over last year's attacks on East Timor's top two political leaders.

Prosecutors say they will ask a Dili court to jail 42-year-old Pires for three years.

Paul Toohey – Angelita Pires has been accused of being an indirect author of last year's shooting of East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta and has been charged with 19 counts of attempted homicide.

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved East Timor's request to keep its peace keeping force there for another year.

The UN says peace and security have improved since the assassination attempt on President Jose Ramos Horta by rebel forces a year ago but the situation remains fragile.

The UN Security Council decided unanimously on Thursday to keep its peacekeeping mission in East Timor for another 12 months, noting that the political and security situation there remains fragile.

Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta appeared before the council last week to urge continued UN assistance to the tiny southeast Asian island nation.

Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person

United Nations – Oil-rich East Timor can maintain double-digit economic growth in 2009 because falling prices for commodities should reduce spending on imports, East Timor's president told the UN Security Council Thursday.

On February 19, 2009 the UN Security Council will review the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) prior to a decision on its renewal. Representatives of 60 organizations signed the letter below urging the Security Council to take concrete action to ensure justice and accountability for crimes committed during the Indonesian occupation. - IFET

One year after the near-fatal shooting of East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta, the country's foreign minister has admitted it still needs help.

He made the comments during discussions with his counterparts from Australia and Portugal, who also acknowledged that more needed to be done.

Nelson da Cruz – A year after rebel attacks left East Timor's president fighting for his life, the nation is on a "knife-edge" amid threats to stability from grinding poverty and a culture of impunity, analysts say.

Sunanda Creagh, Jakarta – Security in oil-rich East Timor has greatly improved in the year since an attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta, but significant reform is needed to create long-term stability, a think tank said on Monday.

East Timor, which was invaded by Indonesia in 1975, has suffered from outbursts of violence and unrest since gaining full independence in 2002.

Dili/Brussels – A year after Timor-Leste's president Jose Ramos-Horta was shot, security is markedly improved but at the cost of an army that is unreformed and increasingly unaccountable.

Tara Ravens – Women in East Timor are forced into potentially fatal abortions because they cannot legally terminate a pregnancy even for medical reasons, according to a Darwin researcher.

Restrictive laws in the mainly Catholic country mean women cannot request elective abortion for any reason, including to preserve their health or save their lives.

Dili – A rights group Monday urged East Timor to drop criminal charges against a weekly newspaper and its editor for alleged defamation of the justice minister.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) today called on Timor-Leste's (East Timor) prosecutor-general to drop criminal defamation charges against the local weekly Tempo Semanal and its editor, Jose Belo.

Joshua Frank – In wee morning hours on Friday, January 23, a US spy plane killed at least 15 in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border. It was Barack Obama's first blood and the US's first violation of Pakistan's sovereignty under the new dministration. The attack was an early sign that the newly minted president may not be overhauling the War on Terror this week, or even next.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned at the status of the free media in Timor Leste as a local newspaper editor faces a possible prison sentence on charges of criminal defamation.

Mark Dodd – East Timor's Gusmao Government yesterday denied claims by the Fretilin opposition that several million dollars' worth of unaccounted expenditure involved corruption.

[The following is an English translation of a statement issued by an ad-hoc coalition of Timor-Leste NGOs at a Dili press conference on 19 January 2009. The Tetum original and a photo, are available at http://www.laohamutuk.org/War/09PalestineStmt.htm.]

Mark Dodd – An urgent search is under way in East Timor for $13.3 million that was allocated to various government ministries but is unaccounted for, amid growing corruption concerns.

News of the missing millions is a severe embarrassment to the Gusmao Government, which is heavily dependent on aid from the UN and foreign donors, of which Australia is one of its biggest.

Manila – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said here Thursday he opposes putting Indonesian soldiers on trial for human rights abuses carried out during the fight for independence.

A report has found women in East Timor are 300 times more likely to die during childbirth than women in developed countries.

The UNICEF report shows that an East Timorese mother has a one in 35 chance of dying during childbirth. In neighbouring Australia the figure is one in more than 13,000.

Bangkok – East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta said Sunday he recently shook hands with the rebellious soldier who shot him last year, but had not yet named him to prosecutors.

Horta, who was in Bangkok for a peace seminar, told an audience that on December 26 he shook hands with the man who shot him on February 11, leaving him on the verge of death.

Bangkok – The US and European Union should review their policy of imposing economic sanctions on Myanmar as the country's pariah military regime is key to the future stability of any elected government, East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said Sunday.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The central government handed over 2,000 houses Thursday to former East Timorese refugees opting to reside in East Nusa Tenggara.