Dili – A former Australian diplomat said his country's "policy of failure" was partly to blame for Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor and its subsequent 24-year occupation that resulted in more than 150,000 deaths.

Kupang – East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province can no longer claim any assets in East Timor, as Thursday was the deadline for the refugees to do so back in the country of their birth.

Washington – US legislators have urged Australia to negotiate its maritime boundary with East Timor to give the tiny nation a fair share of Timor Sea resources.

The fate of substantial oil and natural gas deposits between Australia and newly independent East Timor depends on a boundary agreement to be hammered out between the two countries.

Jakarta – The Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of five top-brass military and police defendants in a case involving East Timor human rights abuses during 1999, a justice said.

Canberra – Australian opposition lawmakers on Wednesday held up legislation to ratify an oil and gas field development deal with East Timor, saying the agreement exploited the impoverished nation.

East Timor today welcomed proposals to form a new foreign police unit, including Australian officers, to boost security after the current United Nations mission is scaled down in May.

Brian Brady, Westminster editor – A fresh row has broken out over the brutal murder of a Scottish journalist and four colleagues at the hands of Indonesian troops almost 30 years ago, after an Australian company revealed they want to make a film of the tragedy.

Jakarta – Former president Soeharto's daughter Siti Hardiyanti Indra Rukmana visited former East Timor integration fighters at their "Seroja" housing complex here on Thursday, pledging to help them send their children to school.

Trevor Sykes with Andrew Burrell – East Timor's Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, has angrily rejected claims he accepted $US2.5 million in bribes from oil and gas company ConocoPhillips to secure an investment in the Timor Sea, threatening to sue the company for including them in a legal action in the US.

Nigel Wilson and Roy Eccleston, Washington – The battle over the Timor Sea's vast gas reserves intensified yesterday with political delays to the Greater Sunrise field development coinciding with a call from senior US Congress members for Australia to accelerate talks on a new maritime boundary with East Timor.

Less than two years after winning independence, war-ravaged East Timor is hoping to lure travelers to its coral reefs and colonial towns. Christopher R. Cox reports on the country's prospects for success

by Christopher R. Cox

East Timor's Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo says he will consider running for president in three years time.

Bishop Belo, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with Jose Ramos Horta for their opposition to Indonesian rule in East Timor, says his decison would depend on President Xanana Gusmao choosing not to seek re-election.

A proposal to extend a peacekeeping presence in East Timor has received widespread support from the United Nations Security Council, and strong support from East Timor itself. But some countries, including Australia, believe a UN police presence is more than adequate to the task.

Presenter/Interviewer: Anita Barraud

Sian Powell – The son of one of East Timor's most feared militia leaders stares deadpan as he says he is a man of peace. "We don't intend to remain opposed to our brothers there [in East Timor]," explains Arnaldo da Silva Tavares, whose father, Joao Tavares, ruled the East Timorese border region like a particularly manic king through most of 1999.

London – Many people are shot dead by police forces who do not follow United Nations standards on using lethal force only where necessary and in self-defence, Amnesty International says.

Rodney Dalton/New York, Sian Powell/Jakarta – Australia is trying to convince a divided UN Security Council that peacekeepers in East Timor should be replaced by police under a new mandate.

The rumours started four years ago. SAS troops in conflict with an Indonesian-backed militia group near Suai on October 6, 1999 had overstepped the rules of battle. They had tortured East Timorese militiamen, the rumours said. They had kicked corpses. They had taken photographs of bodies as trophies. One militiaman had been executed.

Dili – East Timorese officials Thursday welcomed a proposal by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to extend the UN support mission in the new nation for one more year.

"The president welcomes and fully supports the recommendations of the secretary-general," said Agio Periera, chief of staff to President Xanana Gusmao.

Atambua, E Nusatenggara – At least 319 resettlement units in Belu distrit set up in Indonesia's East Nusatenggara province between 2000 and 2002 for local people and former East Timor refugees have been abandoned, an Indonesian official said here Thursday.

Dili – Indonesian presidential candidate General Wiranto has won a political reprieve in East Timor after a UN judge denied a prosecutor's demand for a public hearing over a requested arrest warrant.

Dili – United Nations Secretary- General Kofi Annan has recommended that the UN's peacekeeping mission in East Timor continues after its planned May withdrawal, but with a significant reduction in personnel.

Kupang – The United Nations Peacekeeping Force (UNPKF) in East Timor aired its pessimism over the security conditions there following the withdrawal of the UN mission scheduled for May 20, an Indonesian Military officer said on Wednesday.

United Nations – Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the withdrawal of almost all UN peacekeepers in East Timor and a shift in the UN's focus to helping the newly independent country consolidate its political institutions.

The Army today admitted it made mistakes in investigating the case of a senior Special Air Service (SAS) soldier accused of kicking the corpses of two militiamen shot dead in East Timor in 1999. An apology had been made to the unnamed soldier.

Dili – A former militia commander was sentenced to seven years in jail Tuesday for killing a pro-independence leader during East Timor's bloody break from Indonesia in 1999.

Mataram – The Indonesian military will deploy soldiers to Batek Island in neighboring East Nusa Tenggara province, which borders East Timor, a senior officer said on Monday.

"So far we have not stationed any soldiers on the island because there have been no serious threats," Udayana Military Commander, Maj. Gen. Supiadin AS, said.

Atambua – Illegal border crossing into Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province from East Timor is something hard to control, a local military official said.

"Illegal border crossing is something hard to prevent or control because many of the border-crossers take narrow paths and do so at night," chief of the Security Border Task Force, Col Djoko Setiono said here Friday.

Dili – Production has begun at an offshore gasfield which is expected to earn impoverished East Timor more than $US100 million a year, a government statement said.

The Timor Sea Office said operator ConocoPhillips confirmed a regular flow of "wet gas" from the wells of the Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea.

John Roberts – Long-running disagreements between Australia and East Timor over their maritime border and therefore control of Timor Sea oil and gas erupted again late last year, focusing on revenues from the Laminaria-Corallina fields.

Australia – East Timor's neighboring nation, which East Timor has known since the Second World War, the Australian political position during the Indonesian invasion is still in East Timor's memory, finally Australia's most recent clear position in leading InterFET to quickly enter East Timor, in order to have a successful international force in East Timor.

Thalif Deen, New York – The United Nations plans to withdraw its 3,500 peacekeepers from East Timor in May, despite calls from the government in Dili and civil-society groups that the body's work in the world's newest country is not finished.

Indonesia's former military chief, General Wiranto, has agreed to testify to a public hearing of war crimes charges against him, relating to post-independence violence in East Timor in 1999. The presidential candidate is among a group of people indicted by the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in February last year.

Presenter/Interviewer: Linda LoPresti

An East Timor court has jailed a former pro-Jakarta militiaman for seven years for murdering an independence supporter during the territory's bloody breakaway from Indonesia in 1999.

Indonesian presidential candidate General Wiranto has agreed to testify to a public hearing of war crimes charges against him, East Timor's chief prosecutor said.

Dili – The UN Security Council will "probably" opt for a continued civilian and security presence in East Timor following the end of its current UNMISET mission in May, Foreign Minister Josi Ramos Horta said Friday.

Melbourne coffee roaster Wells Trenfield is the second-last person in a global coffee chain. Before him are the brokers, importers, exporters, processors and, at the head of the chain, the growers. After everyone has taken their cut, growers may receive about 16 cents a kilogram for their freshly harvested coffee cherries.

Radio Australia – The United Nations has announced it may maintain a presence in East Timor beyond the end of its peacekeeping mandate on May 20. The announcement comes amid concerns that East Timor's troubled border with Indonesia still poses a major threat to future political stability.

Presenter/Interviewer: James Panichi

A political dissident in East Timor says he is preparing to challenge the government when the United Nations mission to the country ends on May 20.

Brussels – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan assured East Timor Thursday that the UN would likely maintain a presence in the country after the end in May of its current security and aid mission.

The military chief in Indonesian West Timor has promised that members of an opposition group in neighbouring East Timor, an independent state, will be barred from crossing the border into West Timor.

Jill Jolliffe, Bobonaro – As the world's youngest nation battles to repress rebel groups, the harshness of the crackdown risks provoking the very instability the government seeks to prevent, critics charge.

Kupang – Wirasakti military commander Col. Moeswarno Moesanif accused an East Timor opposition group on Tuesday of infiltrating the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara to invite former militiamen to create chaos in the new country.

Honolulu – Although East Timor leaders know that building a constructive relationship with Indonesia is essential for a more secure future, the new nation's first lady said this poses a dilemma for a country badly scarred by violence under Indonesian rule.

Atambua – The people living in border areas shared by Indonesia's province of East Nusa Tenggara and East Timor did not care about the UN Peacekeeping Force (UNPKF)'s plan to withdraw its troops from East Timor in May.

Jill Jolliffe, Bobonaro – There is a palpable fear in the town of Bobonaro, which sits on the Timorese side of the border with Indonesia.

It is not apprehension at the possibility of invasion, but rather a brewing conflict between the Timorese authorities and a band of locals set on creating their own field of influence.

Jakarta – East Timor's top prosecutor says he will ask an appeals court for help in securing arrest warrants for Indonesian presidential candidate Wiranto and five other senior Indonesian army officers indicted for crimes against humanity.

Jakarta – A senior Indonesian army officer denied Wednesday that Jakarta had any "concrete plans" to station security forces on an islet disputed with East Timor, but reaffirmed Indonesia's claim to it.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) today urged the United Nations and United States to strongly condemn Indonesia's use of military force in a territorial dispute with East Timor. ETAN called on Indonesia to negotiate claims through normal diplomatic channels according to international law. Indonesia recently bombed a small contested island to establish its claim.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The Indonesian Military (TNI) says it will soon deploy troops to the disputed island of Batek, which is close to East Nusa Tenggara province and East Timor.

A UN assessment team returns to New York this week from East Timor amid speculation there may be an extension of its presence there.