The name of 58-year-old Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao has once more caught the Indonesian public's attention. Two weeks ago, Xanana met with Wiranto, former defense and security minister/armed forces commander, and now Golkar's presidential candidate.

Two martial arts gangs clashed in East Timor, leaving four dead including a 70-year-old man who tried to break up the brawl, police said Saturday.

The clash started late Tuesday when one gang accused the other of attacking innocent civilians in Urahu village, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) outside the capital Dili, National Police Commissioner Paul Fatima Martins said.

[While President Xanana Gusmao makes overtures of friendship towards Indonesia, there are many East Timorese who may never be able to forgive their country's former oppressors. Filmmaker Neil Barrett took their testimony.]

Amy Chew, Jakarta – Indonesian presidential candidate and former armed forces chief General Wiranto publicly apologised for the first time for the violence in Timor Leste, then called East Timor, that killed more than 1,000 people in 1999.

Andi Hajramuni, Makassar – Hundreds of East Timorese refugees who hail from South Sulawesi sealed off the province' high court on Wednesday to vent their frustration over the court's verdict in an embezzlement case.

An Australian man facing charges in East Timor claims he has been framed by local authorities.

Julian King, a freelance journalist and activist from Darwin, is charged with possessing ammunition and illegal documents and is still awaiting trial in Dili.

Kathy Marks – From the refugee camp of Sunkaer Laran, the mountains of East Timor are so close you can almost touch them. It is so close, and yet so far, for people gazing towards the border from their scruffy plywood huts in Indonesian West Timor.

The meeting between Xanana Gusmao and General (ret) Wiranto reaped condemnations in Timor Leste. As soon as he landed at Nicolau Lobato Airport, Dili, unlike his usual self, Timor Leste President Xanana Gusmao descended the steps with a sour expression. Carrying his son, accompanied by his wife, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, he stepped outside the airport on Monday, two weeks ago.

Mark Dodd – An Australian businessman has been hounded out of East Timor by anti-Australian sentiment whipped up by claims that Canberra is ripping a $1 billion oil and gas bonanza off the region's poorest country.

David Kennedy, Jakarta – When Kirsty Sword Gusmao stepped off the plane from Dili this week to launch her autobiography in Jakarta, she must have given a little smile.

The Australian-born mother of two spent much of the 1990s in the Indonesian capital as an undercover activist for the East Timorese independence movement.

A former East Timor governor sentenced for human rights abuses will be housed in a prison cell with an en suite bathroom because of his service to the Indonesian nation, reports say.

The Koran Tempo reports the attorney-general's director for gross human rights cases, I Ketut Murtika, says a special room is being readied for Abilio Soares at Jakarta's Cipinang prison.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The notorious former East Timorese militia leader Joao Tavares has again been forced to leave a border town near his old homeland where he was living in breach of an agreement he signed with the Indonesian military, TNI.

Kupang – The Commander of Korem [Military Sub-Area Command] 161/Wirasakti Kupang, Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), Col M Moesanip was of the opinion that East Timor's separation from Indonesia via the referendum on 30 August 1999 was the result of poor leadership, in particular in developing the cultural and public life of the East Timorese people who had been integrated with Indonesia fo

Sian Powell, Jakarta – The acquittal of an Indonesian military commander accused of human rights breaches in East Timor in 1999 has been upheld by the Supreme Court in Jakarta, prompting activists to again condemn the entire process as a whitewash.

Brendan Nicholson – Australian authorities may have charged an SAS soldier for allegedly kicking the body of an Indonesian soldier in East Timor because they did not want to worsen relations with Jakarta, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.

It's hard enough being the mother of two young boys let alone the Mother of the Nation.

Yet that's the role Kirsty Sword Gusmao, who describes herself as "a very ordinary middle class girl from Melbourne," finds herself playing as wife of East Timor's independence hero and president Xanana Gusmao.

Timothy Mapes and Patrick Barta, Dili – Tiny East Timor fought for nearly a quarter of a century to free itself from Indonesian invaders. Now it faces a struggle with this region's other giant, Australia, over lucrative oil fields critical to its economic survival.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – The World Bank's representative in East Timor, Elisabeth Huybens, is keeping a watchful eye on the protracted maritime border dispute playing out between Canberra and Dili.

John Phaceas, Perth – Woodside Petroleum might have to defer its Sunrise gas project for at least five years – costing it billions in delayed revenue – if the impasse over Timor Sea production rights was not resolved by Christmas, the company warned yesterday.

Indonesia's Supreme Court has upheld a special court ruling acquitting a former military commander in East Timor of gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999, when its people voted to separate from Indonesia, a court source said Tuesday.

A small group of protestors is rallying outside an international oil and gas conference in the northern Australian city of Darwin, angry over Australia's treatment of East Timor in natural resource negotiations.

Darwin – A US oil company challenged East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri to appear in a US court to respond to allegations that he accepted a multi-million dollar bribe from a rival firm.

Dili – A US-based rights group denounced Australia yesterday, saying Canberra should be "ashamed" for allegedly robbing East Timor of much-needed oil and gas revenues from the disputed seabed between the two nations.

Lisbon/Portugal – East Timor said today it is willing to reach a compromise with Australia to solve a long-running territorial dispute over seabed oil and natural gas deposits between the two countries.

Catherine Best – Jose Ramos-Horta exudes a warmth and charisma that belies his nation's bloody struggle for independence.

A freedom fighter for more than three decades, the Foreign Minister today champions the cause of East Timor on a global platform.

Twelve-year-old Julmira Babo collapsed unconscious while playing outside in her village in East Timor's Ermera district. Her family carried her to a hut and gave her traditional medicines but, a few days later, she died.

Denpasar – East Timor Attorney General Longuinhos Monteiro denied reports that his government had closed its investigation into the alleged involvement of former Indonesian military chief Wiranto in human rights violations in East Timor in 1999.

It may not have quite the power of the image of Nelson Mandela applauding his former jailer, F.W. de Klerk, when the two were awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1993, but yesterday's beaming photo in The Australian of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao and Indonesian presidential candidate General Wiranto was a stunner.

Rowan Callick – Two years after guiding his country to independence, East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos-Horta, is struggling to contain issues that threaten to set the impoverished nation at odds with both of its much bigger neighbours, Indonesia and Australia.

Dili – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao returned home Monday from a weekend meeting with former Indonesian military chief General Wiranto to face dozens of angry demonstrators, demanding justice for atrocities committed by Indonesian forces in 1999.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has publicly embraced the man accused of responsibility for the deaths of 1500 East Timorese.

In a dramatic sign of his determination for East Timor to put the past behind it, Mr Gusmao met former Indonesian armed forces commander Wiranto in Bali for two hours late on Saturday night.

Nigel Wilson – Australia could face a compensation claim from East Timor for up to $US6 billion ($8.4 billion) because Australia did not halt production in the disputed oil fields of the Timor Sea.

Pamela Bone – Australia gives to poor countries with one hand and takes back with the other.

Lenore Taylor – Woodside Petroleum is increasingly wedged between a rock and a hard place as its multibillion-dollar Greater Sunrise joint venture becomes the bargaining chip in an increasingly bitter feud between the fledgling government of East Timor and Australia.

East Timor's Foreign Minister on Sunday criticized his head of state's meeting with an Indonesian presidential candidate indicted for war crimes for his role in the killing of some 1,500 people during the half-island's 1999 fight for independence.

Dili – Peacekeepers marked their withdrawal from Timor Leste yesterday, winding down a nearly five-year mission that ended Indonesia's brutal occupation and oversaw the birth of the world's newest nation.

Sian Powell – For the East Timorese, it's simple. Scratch a diagram of the Timor Sea into the dirt, with the island of Timor on one side and the great landmass of Australia on the other, and draw a line between them.

Jakarta – Despite strong opposition from a senior minister, East Timor President Xanana Gusmao is being firm in his decision to go ahead with a scheduled Saturday meeting in Bali with presidential aspirant Gen. (ret) Wiranto, who has been indicted by a United Nations-backed East Timorese court for crimes against humanity in the former Indonesian territory.

Dennis Shanahan – In a David and Goliath scenario, a row over oil revenues is threatening relations between Australia and its struggling neighbour East Timor

Richard Ackland – "After all we've done for them," moaned Alexander Downer, the Foreign Minister, on Four Corners a couple of Mondays ago. Those ungrateful East Timorese beating their wretched little chests and complaining about Australia wanting the lion's share of the oil and gas fields lying between the two countries.

Jon Lamb – Solidarity protests took place across Australia on May 20, the second anniversary of East Timor's independence. The actions condemned the Australian government for its refusal to negotiate a fair and just maritime boundary and for its ongoing theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources.

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – Officially it was a day of celebration, but there was an undertone of pessimism at ceremonies in Dili last Thursday marking East Timor's second independence anniversary and the drastic cutback of the United Nations' peacekeeping mission.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar – Around 300 former refugees of Balinese descent stayed overnight in tents at Niti Mandala square in front of the Bali governor's office on Tuesday, demanding compensation for their property abandoned in 1999 when East Timor broke away from Indonesia.

Dennis Shanahan – Australia has pressured the leadership of the fledgling state of East Timor, warning it that more public attacks over oil rights could severely damage the relationship.

[The following is abridged from a statement issued on May 20 by the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOTT).]

Dear Australian people,

Warm solidarity greetings from East Timor!

Sister Susan Connelly This anniversary is tinged with a lot of embarrassment for us as Australians. Despite all East Timor has been through, more often than not with Australian connivance and reluctance to help or tell the whole truth, today the Australian government is once again in the role of spoiler regarding the just sharing of the resources of the Timor Sea.

Australia, already exploiting the wealth of the Timor Sea, has bright prospects of much more to come. East Timor, still waiting and dependent on aid from Australia and elsewhere, is impatient. Its determination to win a better deal on Timor Sea resources is straining relations with Australia in a way not seen since it won its independence, with Australia's help.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao says he has told his country's top law officer it is not in East Timor's interests to try to prosecute Indonesia's former military commander Wiranto for crimes against humanity.

East Timor's independence hero is furious with Australia, he tells Peter Hartcher in Dili.

Xanana Gusmao, the President of East Timor, has accused the Australian Government of pursuing a policy on the rich seabed oil reserves between the countries that "offends our intelligence".

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Backs straight, arms swinging, faces set: the East Timorese troops and police officers marched slowly past the assembled dignitaries at this week's independence celebrations in Dili's football stadium.