Angela Macdonald-Smith, Sydney – Woodside Petroleum should delay plans to develop the Sunrise natural gas field in the Timor Sea for up to 10 years to extend the time East Timor will get royalties, an East Timor non-government group says.

Belinda Lopez – East Timor, a fragile young democracy rocked by assaults on its two top leaders last week, must work to overcome grinding poverty and a divisive politics to achieve stability, analysts say.

Paul Toohey, Dili – Some 90 of Alfredo Reinado's rebels, most of them armed, broke the East Timor-wide 8pm curfew and entered Dili late on Wednesday night to pay their last respects as their leader and his offsider, Leopoldino Exposto, lay in coffins awaiting burial the following day.

Susan Wellings – One of East Timor's most bloody massacres is finally to be investigated by a team of Australian forensic scientists who plan to excavate a mass grave and identify up to 400 missing people.

[Against calls to make Suharto a national hero, human rights activists want the world to remember his deadly legacy. Bella Galhos, who escaped to tell the world about the genocide in East Timor, says very little has changed.]

Paul Toohey, Dili – East Timor is a changed land, with what remained of its simple innocence lost the moment gunmen opened fire on its most revered statesmen.

Bob Boughton – The mayhem in Dili last Monday, in which rebel soldier Alfredo Reinado was shot dead and East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta badly injured, raises a fundamental question: How was Reinado, a minor military figure, allowed to become and remain such a dangerous force in Timorese politics?

Mark Forbes – Relations between East Timor and Indonesia have leapt ahead, even as ambivalence remains in the tiny nation's ties with Australia.

Kevin Rudd's mission to East Timor yesterday was as much about fact-finding as it was about bolstering a government in crisis. On Monday after the shooting of President Jose Ramos Horta Rudd had agreed immediately to Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's request for more troops and police, and announced he would visit Dili as soon as possible.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – A chill breeze was blowing across the ruins of the old Portuguese fort on a hill overlooking the small town of Maubisse in East Timor's rugged mountains. Alfredo Reinado was comfortable with the venue for his meeting with the country's President, Jose Ramos Horta.

The man who claims to be the new leader of East Timor's fugitive rebels says he's heavily armed and will not surrender without a fight.

John Martinkus – Tonight on Al Jazeera, Xanana Gusmao will answer allegations that he was the late rebel leader Alfredo Reinado's puppet master in the 2006 violence that plunged East Timor into crisis

Dili – Timor-Leste's prosecutor-general, Longuinhos Montiero, has now issued 12 arrest warrants for suspects in the 11 February assassination attempts against President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

Montiero expects to issue five more in the immediate future, and one other warrant is pending, awaiting further investigation.

Jonathan Head, Dili – They gave Alfredo Reinado a hero's burial, his coffin draped in the red, black and yellow flag of East Timor.

His bearded face looked down defiantly from banners in a revolutionary pose that deliberately aped the portraits they used to hoist of Xanana Gusmao, the one-time guerrilla leader who is now prime minister.

Alfredo Reinado 1966-2008

Jill Jolliffe – Alfredo Reinado became a hero to East Timor's disenchanted urban youth in May 2006 after the army major refused orders to fight 600 protesting fellow soldiers and fled to the mountains with a small band of armed followers.

Donald Greenlees, Dili – When the rain-laden clouds open up, as they frequently do this time of year, the tarpaulin over Alicia Pinto's bed leaks and the pathway outside her tent home becomes a quagmire.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Investigators believe that gangs of armed men led by East Timor's rebel leader Alfredo Reinado intended to kidnap, not assassinate, the country's two top political leaders during Monday's attacks in Dili.

They have been told that two separate groups of armed men attempted to kidnap the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, who managed to flee unharmed.

Donald Greenlees, Dili – The body of the slain army mutineer who led attacks on the president and prime minister of East Timor was buried in the garden of his home here Thursday in a peaceful ceremony witnessed by hundreds of mourners.

Setyo Budi, Dili – Hundreds of people gathered Thursday for the funeral of Alfredo Reinado, the rebel soldier who was slain in an alleged coup bid against the government of President Jose Ramos-Horta.

The UN must play a part in ending the lawlessness that culminated in this week's attempted assassinations of Timor-Leste's President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and the death of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado by acting on its mandate to further the cause of justice for serious crimes, say campaigners

Michael Leach – When I wrote on Monday that disarming the increasingly threatening and erratic Major Alfredo Reinado had become a critical priority for national unity in East Timor, there was little indication that these concerns could be so dramatically realised within hours.

Donald Greenlees, Dili – Before President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot outside his home on Monday, the Nobel Peace laureate was not overly concerned about his personal security in a country with a history of sudden and unpredictable eruptions of violence.

Anthony Deutsch, Dili – The rebels jumped from two cars, firing machine guns as they stormed the compound of President Jose Ramos-Horta. "Traitor! Traitor!" they shouted, hunting for the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

East Timor's maverick seemed desperate for martyrdom

Fabio Scarpello in Banda Aceh – When Alfredo Reinado died in a hail of gunfire outside the home of President Jose Ramos Horta yesterday, he was fulfilling a dream to either seize control of East Timor, or to go down in a blaze of glory trying.

The United Nations Security Council meeting on UNMIT has been delayed one week, until 21 February. Yesterday, La'o Hamutuk sent the following letter to the Security Council members.

12 February 2008

United Nations Security Council
New York, New York, USA

Dear Members of the United Nations Security Council:

Simon Montlake and Nick Squires, Bangkok/Sydney – A foiled dawn attack Monday by rebel soldiers on East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta, who was shot and seriously wounded, has roiled this fledgling Southeast Asian country. But it may also signal the end of a rebel movement that had plagued efforts to restore stability.

Jill Jolliffe – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta is undergoing surgery at an Australian military base in the capital, Dili, after being shot twice in an attack on his home by rebels, a presidential adviser said today.

Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was shot and killed in the attack, according to Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres and an army spokesman.

Meg Munn MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH

11 February 2008

Dear Ms Munn,

Seth Mydans and Tim Johnston – President Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor was shot and critically wounded at his home on Monday by renegade soldiers in an attack that threatened to intensify the continuing unrest that has destabilized the struggling young nation, according to reports from the capital, Dili.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – East Timor's president, Jose Ramos Horta, was shot in the stomach in a pre-dawn attack on his home by fugitive members of the country's armed forces, a presidential spokesman said Monday.

Keiji Hirano, Tokyo – Human rights campaigners in Japan and East Timor have jointly made a set of panels for exhibition showing testimonies of former "comfort women" in the newly independent nation so the local people can learn about their history during the occupation by the Japanese military.

Dili – Eight unidentified men attacked a bus and killed three passengers near Los Palos, the Indonesian police said on Tuesday. The spokesman for the police in Dili, Colonel Muarfi, said that the attack took place last Sunday and that the three passengers were beaten to death.

Heather Stewart – While there has been relative calm during the wet season in East Timor, more than 100,000 East Timorese are living in appalling conditions in tent cities across Dili and in the fledgling nation's remote districts.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has promised a "year of reform" but the refugees have almost given up hope.

Loro Horta, Dili – Since the 2006 deployment of Australian peacekeeping troops to East Timor, the Australian Defense Force (ADF) has been confronted with a persistent anti-Australian sentiment from large sections of the population.

James Madden – The widow of one of the five journalists killed by the Indonesian military at Balibo in 1975 has labelled Paul Keating "ignorant" for attributing the blame for the murders to "irresponsible" Australian news organisations.

Dili – "It's when you see a child who looks nine but is actually 12 that you realise the extent of malnutrition in Timor Leste," Jean Flueren, the World Food Programme (WFP) country director, told IRIN. "Forty-six percent of children throughout the country are stunted," he said, and 42.6 percent of children under five are underweight, according to the WFP.

President Suharto of Indonesia, who died last month, was responsible for the invasion of East Timor in 1975, for its occupation for almost 25 years, for the murder of so many of its people and for the insecure and traumatised state it remains in despite its emergence as a free, new country six years ago

Dili – The building of the former Portuguese and Indonesian prison of Balide, Dili, hosts this week-end an exhibition dedicated to former political prisoners of East Timor between 1975 and 1999.

The exhibition is organised by the Association Memory Alive, which is dedicated to the collection of material on the prisoners Timorese under Indonesian occupation of East Timor.

Neil Campbell – An incident during my recent visit to Timor-Leste gave a useful insight into the difficult security conditions in the small, young and troubled independent state.

Backgrounder on the Indonesia/Timor-Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship

1. This backgrounder provides a brief summary of the work of the controversial Indonesia/Timor-Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF), which is due to report in February/March 2008.

Dili – It was in October 2007 that 27-year-old Guillermina Freitas Corte Real entered Timor Leste national hospital in Dili, the capital city, for gall stone surgery.

Karen Michelmore, Jakarta – A truth commission into the violence in East Timor in 1999 risks becoming a "diplomatic charade" unless it delivers a strong and independent finding, a new report warns.

East Timor's Prime Minister wants international peacekeepers in his country to move away from security duties and focus instead on mentoring and training.

There are almost 800 New Zealand and Australian troops working on security duties in East Timor.

[Shakedown. By Paul Cleary. Allen & Unwin, 304pp, $29.95.]

Tim Johnston – The exercise of power is rarely a pretty thing to watch; but there is something particularly ugly in watching the inept exercise of power.

Indonesia – The government of Timor Leste has yet to conclude arrangements for Indonesians wishing to reclaim their assets deserted in the country post the 1999 secession referendum, East Nusa Tenggara Deputy Governor Frans Leburaya said Thursday.

Anne Barker – Recent monsoonal rains and wind have caused serious damage to homes, buildings and crops across East Timor. There are fears the damage could threaten food supplies in the already vulnerable nation.

Relief authorities in East Timor say wet season rains have caused serious damage in 11 of the country's 13 districts.

Dili – East Timor's laws should be translated into the local Tetun language to give people a better understanding and respect for the law, according to one of the country's legal experts.

East Timor's fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado has refused to attend a scheduled court hearing to face murder and other charges related to a deadly outbreak of violence in 2006.

Mr Reinado escaped from jail in the capital, Dili, in August 2006 and has been on the run ever since.

East Timor's fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado has refused to attend a scheduled court hearing on Thursday to face murder and other charges related to a deadly outbreak of violence in 2006.

Reinado's lawyer Benevides Barros said the rebel leader would not submit to the judicial process until the government met several demands.