Simon Roughneen, Dili – Allegations that East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao signed off on a food contract benefiting a company that listed his daughter Zenilda as a shareholder has caused new political ructions in the volatile young country.

Dili – Police in East Timor have arrested 10 members of an alleged human trafficking ring who brought women into the tiny country as sex workers, the United Nations mission and police said Monday.

Matt Crook, Dili – Pressure to resign is mounting on East Timor's Prime Minster, Xanana Gusamo, amid claims that he misused authority when he signed-off on a multi-million dollar government contract last year to a company his daughter has ties with.

Dili – East Timor's opposition called on Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao to resign Wednesday for alleged corruption in awarding a multi-million-dollar contract to a company linked to his daughter.

East Timor's government has defended Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's authorisation of a multi-million-dollar contract to a company in which his daughter was a major shareholder.

The government says it is taking action to eliminate corruption and on Monday approved plans to establish an anti-corruption commission.

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Xanana Gusmao, East Timor's Prime Minister and independence hero, is facing calls for his resignation amid allegations he personally signed off on a lucrative contract that benefited his daughter.

Dili – The government of East Timor says it plans to establish a national park to protect a bounty of dolphins and whales – some of them endangered species – recently discovered mingling and feeding off the coast of Asia's youngest country.

Frank Jordans, Geneva – East Timor's president said Wednesday that venture partners in a vast underwater oil and gas field would be better served if they choose to lay a deep sea pipeline to his country instead of Australia.

President Jose Ramos-Horta said he hopes agreement on where to pump oil and gas from the Greater Sunrise field will be reached by the end of the year.

Metinaro, East Timor – On a sweltering day at a camp for displaced people outside East Timor's capital, children play excitedly in the dust as their parents pack their meagre possessions for the trip home.

A new film about the killing of five journalists by Indonesian troops in East Timor in 1975 fails to depict the true cruelty of their deaths, East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta says.

Dili – East Timor began emptying its last remaining camp for thousands of internally displaced people on Wednesday, more than three years after unrest drove an estimated 100,000 people from their homes.

More than 20,000 East Timorese live in dire poverty over the Indonesian border

Guido Goulart, Dili – The UN population agency is urging predominantly Catholic East Timor to soften laws that criminalize abortion and to promote contraceptives, saying in a report released Wednesday that women are dying from secret abortions.

Dili – A new penal code implemented in East Timor this week is adding an exception to allow emergency abortions, despite opposition from the predominantly Catholic country.

Jon Lamb – The people of Indonesia will go to the polls to elect a new president on July 8. The current president, former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will face competition from two tickets in which both vice-presidential candidates – Prabowo Subianto and Wiranto – are former generals.

Corruption allegations continue to be directed at East Timor's finance ministry, with the latest claims centring on Finance Minister Emilia Pires's hiring of foreign advisers, including Australians.

p>The movie 'Balibo' headlining the coming Melbourne International Film Festival will again put in the spotlight the murder and its cover-up of six Australian based journalists in East Timor in 1975 - five in the border village of Balibo and one in Dili eight weeks later.

New York – The predominantly Catholic nation of East Timor is under pressure from the United Nations for its laws that penalize abortion, even in the case of rape and incest.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 decade on, East Timor is still linked to Indonesia

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.

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.

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