Indonesian Police are maintaining control of the Kingmi Synod Church office in the capital of Papua province, Jayapura.

First to the Indonesian province of Papua, where police armed with water canon and M16 rifles are occupying a Jayapura church at the centre of a dispute over the synod's independence.

Jakarta – The Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) has responded angrily to a government official's allegation that churches have been used as a medium to spread anti-government pro

Lisbon – A leader of East Timor's Roman Catholics warned Thursday that although the recent dispute between his powerful church and the Dili government is resolved, "nothing is definitiv

Lisbon – Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Thursday that the resolution last month of the dispute between his government and East Timor's powerful Catholic Church opens the door for deb

Dili – Traffic moved freely through the center of the East Timorese capital Monday for the first time in nearly three weeks, following the signing of an accord between the government an

Mark Dodd – Armed East Timorese police were last night poised to break up a huge church-backed anti-government protest in Dili, the most serious challenge yet to the authority of the fl

Dili – Amid signs in recent days of an emerging settlement to church protests against the East Timor government, leading Catholic clergymen made new demands Wednesday on the Dili execut

Dili – The East Timorese capital braced Tuesday for the possibility of clashes between police and anti-government Catholic demonstrators, but a police deadline for the end of street pro

Reporter: Rachel Carbonell

Lisbon – East Timor's government and the nation's powerful Roman Catholic Church have settled a dispute over an end to compulsory religious classes in state schools, East Timorese Prime

Jon Lamb – A series of rallies organised by the Catholic Church in East Timor is another sign of the simmering discontent and frustration held by many East Timorese.

Reporter: Rachel Carbonell

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – About 5000 East Timorese protesters calling for the Prime Minister to resign were camped in Dili yesterday under banners reading "End the Dictatorship".

Dili – President Xanana Gusmao condemned the East Timorese Catholic Church's continuing demonstrations against the government Thursday, saying he would not allow street protests to brin

Dili – Hundreds of peaceful Catholic protestors kept up their pressure on East Timor's government for a second day Wednesday, but both the religious activists and the government toned d

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor was last night facing its worst crisis since independence after influential sections of the Catholic Church called people into the capital, Dili, to

Rosa Garcia, Dili – East Timor's influential Catholic clergy on Tuesday rallied thousands to protest against Dili's "dictatorship regime" in the latest sign of a growing rift between ch

Dili – Hundreds of East Timorese Catholics, angered by moves to demote religion classes in public schools, gathered in front of Dili's government building Tuesday to protest what they c

Dili – Police in East Timor prevented about 200 people entering Dili late Monday to attend a demonstration in the capital called by supporters of the country's powerful Roman Catholic C

Dili – The struggle between East Timor's government and influential Roman Catholic Church intensified Monday with the church hierarchy accusing Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's cabinet of

Dili – Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has accused leaders of East Timor's Roman Catholic Church of attempting to play the role of political opposition in its recent criticism of a governm

Dili – An increasingly bitter dispute between the government of East Timor and the country's spiritual leaders over plans to demote religious teaching in schools escalated Monday after

A boycott of today's Christmas visit to the capital of the Indonesian province of West Papua is an embarrassing rebuke to newly elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

John Filiatreau, Dili – Five years ago, this country reclaimed its independence from Indonesia, becoming the newest, and arguably poorest, nation in the world.

Dili – A moral and spiritual "darkness" still haunts East Timor's Catholics, the bishop of Dili said at the Easter Vigil service.

Jill Joliffe, Dili – The recent resignation of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo as head of the Catholic Church in East Timor has brought to a close a courageous and painful period in the life

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Thousands of people packed Dili Cathedral yesterday to hear Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's reasons for quitting as head of the East Timorese church and leaving the t

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – In Dili, widespread shock and disbelief met Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's announcement of his resignation.

East Timor's Nobel peace prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a symbol of resistance during the years of Indonesian occupation, said he was resigning as bishop.

[East Timor's spiritual leader and joint nobel peace prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo has announced that he'll step down as the Bishop of Dili, due to ill health.

Portugal's ambassador to East Timor, Rui Quartim Santos, Wednesday inaugurated the official residence of Dili's Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a euros 300,000 building entirely fi

[The nation of East Timor is barely a month old, yet already the issue of separation of church and state has reared its ugly head – in the person of Bishop Carlos Belo.

The head of East Timor's Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, has said that the Dili correspondent of the Portuguese Lusa news agency "should be withdrawn from East Timor"

Conservative and isolated for decades, East Timor's Catholic Church is the most powerful institution in the soon-to-be nation, with many Timorese saying its charismatic leader, Bishop C

Melbourne – Church leaders from Australia and Irian Jaya called here Friday for an East Timor-style independence ballot to stop escalating violence in the troubled Indonesian province.

Dili – The first Portuguese diplomat to visit East Timor since Indonesia's 1975 invasion met with the troubled territory's two Roman Catholic bishops Sunday, amid reports of renewed fac

Huw Watkin – Residents in East Timor's capital are turning to the Catholic Church for relief as supplies of rice and other essential foodstuffs continue to dwindle amid fears of escalat

Indonesian Ambassador-at-large, Lopes Da cruz, has refuted foreign allegations that a special program has been developed to spread Islam in the predominantly Roman Catholic province of

Patrick Walters, Baucau – The young men in black T-shirts came in their hundreds to the centre of Baucau.

Patrick Walters, Baucau, East Timor – Pope John Paul II yesterday delivered one of his strongest messages on the East Timor problem, calling for a truly just and internationally accepte

Sydney – The Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, Hilton Deakin, has said that an Indonesian soldier was killed on Christmas Eve after he was found to have been paid to assassinate 1