Sydney – An Indonesian military commander who later became a government minister opened fire on a group of Australian-based journalists killed in East Timor in 1975, an inquest heard Tuesday.

Mark Dodd – Prosecutors have dropped an investigation into allegations that former East Timorese prime minister Mari Alkatiri ordered a hit squad to kill political rivals, clearing the way for the Fretilin leader to contest April's presidential elections.

Mark Dodd and Nigel Wilson – East Timor's ruling Fretilin Party has threatened to withdraw from parliamentary elections unless they are held before the end of May, following confirmation a presidential vote will take place in April.

Hamish McDonald – If Canberra's defence and foreign affairs establishment thought Maureen Tolfree was going to give up, this was another intelligence failure.

More than 30 years ago, she came out from her home in Bristol, England, to find out how her brother Brian Peters, a Channel Nine cameraman, had died with four other Australian-based newsmen at Balibo in East Timor.

Reporter: Emma Alberici

Eleanor Hall: The NSW Coroner's Court has today begun investigating just what happened to Sydney journalist Brian Peters, 31 years after he died in Balibo in East Timor.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor's rebel leader, Major Alfredo Reinado, has agreed to surrender and face charges, including attempted murder, but a deal he negotiated secretly from his mountain base is almost certain to collapse.

Tom Hyland – East Timor's Fretilin party, the dominant political force in one of the world's poorest nations, is pushing for lavish pensions and other benefits for former government ministers.

Lucy Bannerman and Richard Lloyd Parry – In the three decades since Brian Peters died during Indonesia's secret invasion of East Timor, his sister Maureen Tolfree has been told countless versions of who killed him and how.

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Timor Leste women activists called for more solidarity and cooperation from Indonesian women to help build their new nation.

Canberra – Australian troops have participated in a major armed operation with the United Nations against warring gangs in Timor-Leste in which 50 people have been arrested in the capital of Dili.

Jakarta – Forty-seven people have been arrested in East Timor in an operation against gang violence in the tiny territory, the United Nations said in a statement on Thursday.

Dili – An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 East Timorese have rallied to the governing party, Fretilin, at the country's second city, Baucau, about 122 kilometres east of Dili.

Mark Dodd – East Timor's parliament is to vote on a conscription bill that aims to fill the ranks of the country's ethnically divided defence force, but which critics say could trigger renewed social upheaval.

East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said he would not run for the presidency later this year unless there were no other candidates. "I do not want to (stand in elections) for the parliament, the government or the presidency," Ramos-Horta told AFP.

Janet Fyfe-Yeomans – Indonesian troops were recorded by a previously unknown top secret Australian listening station discussing the execution of five young Australian journalists.

The RAAF No. 3 Telecommunications Unit was so highly classified that little reference to its existence was made even in formal air force publications.

Dili – Two youths were hacked to death in Dili Sunday as violence involving disciples from rival martial art schools erupted, witnesses said.

The youths, one of whom was a member of the national police, were killed as they walked home from church in the East Timor capital, a witness said.

Mark Dodd – Rebel army major Alfredo Reinado is in negotiations to give himself up to face murder charges over the deaths of five people during a gun battle. East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta said yesterday that Major Reinado had been "much more co-operative" in talks with the Prime Minister's office and other senior government and UN officials.

Dili – East Timor and the US today launched an appeal for $US16.6 million ($21.13 million) to help resettle and reintegrate about 100,000 people displaced by violence which wracked the country last year.

The money would pay for humanitarian projects implemented by a network of UN and aid agencies and non-government organisations, the UN said in a statement.

Mark Dodd – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao will not recontest presidential elections scheduled for April but is expected to run for parliament.

The former resistance leader took office in 2002 as the country's first democratically elected president after a quarter of century of Indonesian occupation.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The Commission for Truth and Friendship (KKP) will leave the granting of amnesties for human rights violators in Timor Leste to the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments.

Commission member Lt. Gen. (ret) Agus Widjojo said Tuesday that amnesty should, however, be given to those who had been co-operative in giving information to KKP inquiry.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – A joint Indonesian and East Timorese commission will recommend amnesty for people responsible for atrocities in East Timor in 1999 if they admit their involvement and apologise to their victims.

Tom Hyland – East Timor's fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, wanted for attempted murder and armed rebellion, has been photographed with a rocket launcher of the same type as those stolen from the Australian Army.

Hundreds of supporters of former home affairs minister Rogerio Lobato rallied today in East Timor outside the court where he was due to go on trial on weapons distribution charges.

Mr Lobato has been charged with involvement in arming civilians during unrest last year.

Jakarta – Three women accused of being witches were killed and burned along with their house in East Timor. The three women, aged 70, 50 and about 25, were killed on Saturday evening in Liquica, about 40km west of the capital Dili.

Patrick Thronson – Americans lose part of the past in an obvious sense when a former president dies: A living link to our history is extinguished. We also lose part of the past, however, in the blissful forgetfulness that ensues with respect to darker aspects of a president's legacy.

Patrick Walters – Thirty years ago the Fraser government grappled with the consequences of the Indonesian takeover of East Timor.

The 1976 cabinet papers show the new government having to reconcile itself to the fact that it could do nothing to alter the integration of East Timor into Indonesia.

Patrick Walters – The Fraser government refused visas to prominent East Timorese left-wingers forced into exile after the Indonesian invasion of the former Portuguese colony in late 1975.

Russell Skelton, Canberra – The Fraser cabinet was warned by a powerful committee of defence chiefs that a prolonged war of independence by Fretilin rebels could lead to intervention by Vietnam or China in East Timor.

Tony Stephens – Just three months after Indonesia invaded East Timor 30 years ago, the Australian government of the prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, was covertly supporting the tiny colony's complete integration into its giant neighbour, according to cabinet documents from 1976, released today.

Former President Gerald Ford died last night at the age of 93. We begin our coverage of Ford's time in office with a look at his support for the Indonesian invasion of East Timor that killed one-third of the Timorese population. We're joined by Brad Simpson of the National Security Archives and journalist Alan Nairn. [rush transcript included]

Dili – East Timorese celebrated a peaceful Christmas on Sunday as church and political leaders called on them to reject violence which earlier this year forced 15 percent of the population to flee their homes.

Mark Dodd – More than 70,000 East Timorese are still living in emergency shelter as a result of ongoing gang violence that flared earlier in the year and left 37 people dead.

A UN survey has found at least 2000 homes in the capital Dili were destroyed in the violence, which started over claims of ethnic discrimination in the country's armed forces.

Nelson da Cruz, Dili – Baby Xestalino Soares lies fast asleep on a mat, sharing a cloth blanket with one of his older brothers, while his mother tries to cook as rain lashes the tarpaulin tent that has been their home for the past six months.

Dili – A shipment of emergency clothing, food and wheelchairs intended for impoverished residents of East Timor was unloaded from a port in the capital Friday, three years after it was sent by Australian donors.

Dili – An army rebel who played a key role in the revolt that sent East Timor into chaos earlier this year held reconciliation talks with the defence chief on Thursday on the crisis that has beset the country and its security forces.

Janet Fyfe-Yeomans – Crack SAS troops were poised to launch a secret mission into East Timor to rescue the five Australians three days before their deaths, but were ordered to stand down.

Special forces soldiers were disgusted when the operation was called off and they learned that the five – all journalists – had been killed, according to sources.

Dili – More than 400 Christians have been sheltered in East Timor's capital, Dili's largest mosque since Friday, when fighting between rival gangs forced them to flee.

Tom Hyland – Two mysteries have shrouded the deaths of five Australia-based newsmen, killed while reporting the Indonesian attack on the East Timorese town of Balibo 31 years ago.

The first – the broad circumstances of the killings – has largely been resolved, most recently by witness testimony to East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.

Karen Michelmore, Jakarta – The world had been too optimistic about the early achievement of East Timor, the new boss of the United Nations mission in the tiny nation says.

Hundreds of gang members battled with guns and machetes in East Timor's capital Dili today, officials and witnesses said, killing one and injuring two. A young man was shot dead near the city's largest mosque, apparently by a rival gang member, before UN police intervened, said UN police spokeswoman Monica Rodrigues.

Lisa Allan, Sydney – A NSW coroner says former intelligence workers may have important information about the deaths of the Balibo Five journalists in East Timor 30 years ago.

Janet Fife-Yeomans – Former prime minister Gough Whitlam should be forced to finally tell the truth about what his government knew of the fate of five young Australians killed in East Timor, an inquest heard yesterday.

East Timor activists are calling on Australian authorities to cooperate with an inquiry into the deaths of five journalists in Timor more than 30 years ago.

Dili – The political leaders of unrest-plagued East Timor on Sunday pledged to work together to return peace and order to the fledgling nation.

Five young Australians were executed on the orders of Indonesian military chiefs, according to sensational evidence omitted from official government reports.

The statement by a top lawyer, George Brownbill, contradicts the official line that the five men, all journalists, were caught in a crossfire in Balibo while covering Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975.

Hamish McDonald – A dramatic new lead into the deaths of five Australia-based newsmen in Balibo, East Timor, 31 years ago suggests they were captured and executed on the orders of Indonesian generals.

Canberra – New evidence claiming five journalists were executed by Indonesian troops in 1975 while working for Australian media was hearsay and might not be accepted in court, says an Indonesia expert.

Dili – UN police have arrested 26 people on suspicion of involvement in deadly clashes between East Timor martial arts gangs that have left two people dead and six badly wounded, a spokeswoman said.

The UN police confirmed two people had been killed during ongoing clashes between rival martial arts groups which erupted on Sunday in the capital Dili.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Former East Timorese living in West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara, rallied at the local provincial administration office in Kupang on Monday, urging the government to compensate them for the assets they left behind in East Timor in 1999.