Gangs armed with steel darts and machetes clashed in the town of Metinaro in Timor Leste on Thursday. The Metinaro market where the brawl happened was almost completely destroyed while 26 houses were burned down according to local police.

Dili – As a veneer of calm descends on East Timor after Thursday's clashes, the political tension remains high.

In an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI) Jose Texeira, an MP with the largest party, Fretilin, said that his party will not accept prime minister Xanana Gusmao's invitation to join his government.

Defence has rejected claims from East Timor renegade Alfredo Reinado that Australian soldiers broke the necks of two wounded men and shot dead civilians during the raid on his hideout five months ago.

This mountain town in Timor's eastern highlands has known its share of horrors and in recent weeks bad times returned with a wave of violent demonstrations and the alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl which some assert was a political crime.

Dili – Hundreds of machete-wielding youths clashed in an East Timorese town Thursday in the latest outbreak of violence following the appointment of a new government early this month, the UN and police said.

Dili – Hundreds of rampaging youths torched dozens of houses and clashed across East Timor on Thursday, leaving at least two people dead, the UN said, in violence sparked by the appointment of independence hero Xanana Gusmao as prime minister.

Dili – East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has offered the disgruntled former ruling party Fretilin several seats in his cabinet, in an apparently conciliatory gesture, a report said Thursday.

Tony Iltis – On August 6, East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta appointed his predecessor, Xanana Gusmao, prime minister and asked him to form a government without Fretilin, the largest party in the parliament elected on June 30. Despite the constitutional legitimacy of this being unclear, Gusmao's government was sworn in on August 8.

[Shakedown: Australia's grab for Timor oil. By Paul Cleary. Allen & Unwin, 2007. 336 pages, $29.95. Reviewed by Vannessa Hearman.]

[East Timor: Beyond Independence. Edited by Damien Kingsbury and Michael Leach Monash University Press, 2007. 302 pages, $36.95. Reviewed by Jon Lamb.]

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Australian troops in East Timor stole flags of the deposed Fretilin party, tore them up and wiped their backsides with them, Fretilin claimed yesterday.

Today, more than sixty organisations, comprising local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies have issued a public statement condemning recent acts of violence against children in Timor-Leste.

East Timor's former ruling party has abandoned plans for a court challenge to the legality of the Government sworn in last week, an official said.

But the party, Fretilin, still should be part of a unity government, its deputy president Arsenio Bano said amid continuing uncertainty following an inconclusive parliamentary election in June.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Dili – A furious United Nations chief in East Timor has rejected as "lies" a claim by the former ruling Fretilin party that his staff was responsible for triggering recent violence, including an armed attack on a UN police convoy on Friday.

Dili – East Timor's newly-appointed Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao on Tuesday accused the former ruling party of Fretilin of failing to halt ongoing outbreaks of violence in the tiny nation.

Lisbon, Portugal – United Nations peacekeepers maintained a tense calm Monday in East Timor, which has been rattled by riots, rapes and arson since Aug. 8, when Jose Alexandre Gusmao was sworn in as prime minister. Gusmao, a former president and resistance hero commonly known as "Xanana," was once East Timor's most popular and respected leader.

East Timor's former ruling party chief will sit in parliament with the opposition despite insisting the country's new government is illegitimate and has no right to rule.

Former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who heads the Fretilin party, urged supporters to remain peaceful following days of sporadic unrest since a new government was announced last week.

John Mcbeth, Senior Writer – Even the commissioners themselves privately acknowledge that there is one thing missing from the hearings conducted by the Timor Leste-Indonesia Truth and Friendship Commission into the bloodshed surrounding Timor Leste's 1999 vote for independence. And that is the truth.

Tito Belo, Dili – Armed gangs assaulted women students in a Catholic convent in East Timor, including a 12-year-old, a priest said on Saturday, in a wave of ethnic and political violence triggered by the appointment of a new government.

Dili – Unidentified assailants opened fire on a UN convoy in East Timor amid ongoing violence following the appointment of resistance fighter Xanana Gusmao as prime minister, the UnitedNations and police said Saturday.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Dili – Disgraced former East Timorese interior minister Rogerio Lobato has fled the country aboard a chartered Lear jet after a more than 24-hour standoff on the runway at Dili airport.

Rory Callinan, Dili – Pedro Belo hasn't slept in two days. Commander of the Police District of Baucau, about 100km east of Dili, Belo is still wearing his body armor, yawning as sirens wail around his station. He sits at his desk reading reports of local outbreaks of violence that his men cannot respond to.

Michael Leach – President Jose Ramos Horta's appointment of Xanana Gusmao as Prime Minister has once again set off conflict in East Timor's streets.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – East Timor is heading into a "people power" uprising, one of the country's most powerful politicians said yesterday, as the independence hero Xanana Gusmao took control of a new coalition government.

Mark Dodd – As East Timor's capital Dili lay a smoking ruin and starving dogs picked at rotting corpses, victims of retreating pro-Jakarta militia in September 1999, a US diplomat turned from the bleak apocalyptic vista to Australian ambassador James Batley and said: "East Timor is going to be Australia's Haiti."

Tim Costello – East Timor again appears engulfed in flames and violence, this time in the wake of a relatively free and fair election and the ascension of the revolutionary hero Xanana Gusmao as its new prime minister.

Dili – The top UN official in East Timor condemned on Wednesday violence in the tiny nation that has injured at least eight and led to more than 70 arrests since Xanana Gusmao was named prime minister.

Rory Callinan, Time correspondent in Dili – East Timor's former ruling Fretilin party warned last night it had lost control of its supporters, who in a second day of rioting in the capital burned down government buildings, wounded an Australian policemen and ambushed a patrol of Diggers.

Ed Davies, Dili – It has pristine beaches, lush highlands and an exotic cultural mix – and lies just a few hours flight east of the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

But currently almost the only overseas visitors to East Timor are foreign troops, journalists and aid workers after Asia's youngest nation descended into turmoil last year.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Gangs attacked Australian and United Nations personnel in the East Timorese capital, Dili, yesterday as the former ruling party Fretilin planned sweeping protests against being excluded from a new coalition government led by the independence hero Xanana Gusmao.

Damien Kingsbury – The troubles currently gripping East Timor following the appointment of Xanana Gusmao as prime minister reflect many of the reasons the country was plunged into political crisis early last year.

David Robie, Dili – Jornal Nacional Diaro is the smallest and youngest of Timor-Leste's three daily newspapers, but it's one of the brightest and gutsiest.

Rory Callinan, Dili – Herminio de Oliveira was enjoying a beer at his tiny drinks and cigarette stall near Dili airport when he heard the yelling from the nearby refugee camp. "Fretilin will govern!

Tokyo – After five years as an independent nation, East Timor has declared its first national park.

The government formally approved the declaration of Nino Konis Santana National Park on July 27, according to a statement from the East Timorese acting prime minister's office seen here Sunday.

Dili – East Timor's president was scheduled to announce the formation of the next government on Wednesday as former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri declared he was in the running for his old job.

Dili – East Timor's Fretilin party said Thursday its lawmakers would boycott parliament until it is asked to form a government by the president following national elections in June.

The move is the latest twist in wrangling between parties since the polls, which were supposed to open a new chapter in the young nation's democracy after a year of tensions and uncertainty.

Flag of Timor-Leste is red, with a black isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) superimposed on a slightly longer yellow arrowhead that extends to the center of the flag; there is a white star in the center of the black triangle.

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Official Name: Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

Jakarta – Indonesia's foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda has called on a commission set up to examine violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote to ignore a UN boycott threat, a report said Tuesday.

Jakarta – A commission set up to examine violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote brushed off Monday a UN boycott threat.

The United Nations warned last week that it would not send any officials to testify to the Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF), which has no prosecution powers, unless it rules out recommending amnesties.

Jakarta – Indonesia urged the international community to respect a joint truth commission tasked at gathering the facts surrounding Indonesia's military rampage ahead of East Timor's 1999 vote for independence, local media reported on Saturday.

Annabel Stafford, Canberra – Films or books praising East Timorese people who used violence in their fight for independence could be banned under proposed censorship laws before Federal Parliament, despite changes to the proposal intended to protect free speech.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told UN officials not to testify before a panel investigating the 1999 killings in East Timor because it could recommend amnesty for serious crimes. Indonesia and East Timor agreed to work together to investigate the events of 1999, when Timorese voted for independence under UN supervision.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) today praised the UN for publicly announcing its refusal to cooperate with the joint Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF).

Protesters in East Timor have staged a demonstration against Prime Minister John Howard as he left Dili, accusing Australia of interfering in East Timor's political affairs.

East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta on Thursday asked visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard to keep Australian peacekeepers in the young nation until the end of 2008.

New York – United Nations officials will boycott a commission set up jointly by Indonesia and Timor-Leste to foster reconciliation after the latter's bloody struggle for independence, unless it is precluded from recommending amnesty for crimes against humanity and other gross violations of human rights.

[Max Lane spoke to the Socialist Party of Timor's (PST) secretary-general, Avelino da Silva Coelho, in the wake of East Timor's June 30 parliamentary elections, in which the PST received 0.96% of the vote.]

No party or figure from the national liberation movement achieved more than 29% in the parliamentary elections. How do you explain that?

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo and Ary Hermawan, Jakarta/Sanur – Several human rights NGOs have criticized the fourth session of the joint Indonesia and Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) in Bali, saying it was summoning more "actors" in than victims of the aftermath of the 1999 referendum that led East Timor's secession from Indonesia.

Dili – Rival parties in East Timor have failed to agree on the formation of a new government, the president said Tuesday (July 24th), raising the prospect of political deadlock in the tiny nation.

Mark Dodd – A District Court judge in Dili has overturned a presidential decree offering amnesty to East Timor army rebel Major Alfredo Reinado.

The decision is a big embarrassment to the UN mission in Dili whose mandate includes reforming the country's notoriously weak justice sector.