Canberra, Australia – Lawyers prosecuting a former spy and his lawyer who accuse Australia of illegally bugging the East Timorese Cabinet while negotiating a deal to share oil and gas revenue have made an application that could lead to the court being closed during the trial.

Paul Karp – Lawyers for the whistleblower Witness K and lawyer Bernard Collaery have pushed the ACT magistrates court to make a ruling about national security information in a bid to head off a possible closed court hearing.

Nelson de la Cruz, Jakarta – East Timor's ruling coalition in parliament has voted to block a planned trip by President Francisco Guterres to the Vatican, where he was due to meet Pope Francis, saying the president must first break a political deadlock at home.

Opposing barristers in a commonwealth spying case are at loggerheads over what national security information can be made public.

The case of a former spy, known as Witness K, and Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery was back for its second appearance in ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

David Hutt – Timor-Leste, Southeast Asia's newest and poorest nation, is slowly but surely drawing closer to China, a move that is raising antenna among its allies and neighbors and initial concerns it could fall into a potential Chinese debt trap.

Christopher Knaus and Jessica Bassano – The nation's spy watchdog is carefully considering a complaint alleging Australia broke the law when it bugged Timor-Leste's cabinet during lucrative oil and gas negotiations, documents show.

James Elton-Pym, Brett Mason – The "emasculation" in Australian aid and the amount of money flowing to expensive consultants has forced Pacific nations to accept grants and loans from China, according to the former president of Timor Leste.

David Hutt – After more than a year of political uncertainty – which included two general elections in the space of eleven months, one failed minority government, impeachment threats against the president and still some ministries without ministers – Timor-Leste's governing class looks close to agreeing budgetary matters.

The case against a spy-turned-whistleblower and his lawyer is Australia's "Watergate" and should be kicked out of court, crossbench MPs and senators say.

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick has joined MPs Andrew Wilkie and Rebekha Sharkie in demanding all commonwealth charges against a man, known only as Witness K, and his lawyer Bernard Collaery to be dropped.

Paulina Quintao – The Chief of the Suku of Soba, in the Laga Administrative Post, Baucau Municipality, Francisca Monica said the government needs to strengthen training programs for women in rural areas including on financial management and accounting.

Paulina Quintao – The Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations of Timor-Leste (FONGTIL or NGO Forum) challenges the new government and its commitment to solve water issues across the country, 16 years on since the country gained independence given communities continue to complain about lack of access to clean water.

Justin T. McPhee – "There is an air of unreality about this stated case. It has the appearance of a Law School moot based on an episode taken from the adventures of Maxwell Smart".

The news editor for National Media Group (GMN) in Timor-Leste has been dismissed due to his role as the TL Press Union (TLPU) representative on the country's Press Council.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the TLPU has condemned the dismissal of the editor as "outrageous" and called for his immediate reinstatement.

Dili – The Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste, Taur Matan Ruak, received on Thursday the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Marcelino Medina, who is on a working visit to that country.

Paulina Quintao – The government of Timor-Leste together with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Agency conducted an in-depth analysis of the main challenges for the country's economic development, to elaborate a future integrated plan to solve issues and to together develop Timor-Leste's economy.

Steve Cannane – Former attorney-general George Brandis was asked to approve the controversial prosecution of an Australian spy and his lawyer more than two years before consent was finally granted, a document obtained by the ABC has revealed.

Peter Williams – Sunrise LNG operator Woodside Petroleum has left open the prospect of over-riding a deal for the East Timor Government to buy a 30 per cent stake in the undeveloped project.

East Timor and ConocoPhillips today jointly announced the $US350 million ($484 million) deal for the US company to sell its shareholding in the Greater Sunrise fields in the Timor Sea.

Jonas Guterres – Fighting corruption is one of the key essential actions needed to support good governance, poverty eradication and the creation of a sound and safe environment for economic development.

Stephen Dziedzic – Timor-Leste's leaders want to build a 150-kilometre pipeline, stretching all the way from the tiny south coast hamlet of Beaco to the vast Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields of the Timor Sea.

That's not all. They see a new port and a huge LNG plant springing up in the village, processing the 5 trillion cubic feet of gas which lie under the waves.

Melbourne – East Timor has signed a deal to buy ConocoPhillips' stake in the Greater Sunrise gas field off the country's southern coast for $350 million, the Australian Financial Review reported on Monday.

Estevao Nuno – The Head of the Vocational Training Providers Department (DFFP), Leonor Bernado said the rates of unemployment in the country continue to rise due to the lack of industry that can provide employment to the youth of Timor-Leste.

Benny Mawel, Jayapura – Abraham Hubi, thinks he's a very lucky boy to be studying at St. Antony of Padua, a Franciscan-run school in Sentani not far from Papua's provincial capital Jayapura.

Paulina Quintao – The Acting General Director for Health Services at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Horacio Sarmento da Costa said socio-economic limitations represent the major problem to the health sector to reduce the incidence of Tuberculosis (TB) across the country.

Christopher Knaus – Prosecutors sat on evidence for three years before charging former spy Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, parliament has heard.

Katharine Murphy – The Labor MP Julian Hill has implicitly criticised the prosecution of the former spy Witness K and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, telling caucus colleagues the attorney general has failed to justify his decision to support the legal action.

Clinton Fernandes – The first step in the trial of the former Australian spy known only as Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery has taken place in the ACT Magistrates Court.

Paul Karp – Minor parties and independents have called on Labor to promise to drop the prosecution of former spy Witness K and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, for blowing the whistle on Australia's spying on Timor-Leste.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison believes "justice will be served" to a spy-turned-whistleblower who revealed Australia bugged East Timor's cabinet rooms.

Lawyer Bernard Collaery and his client, known only as Witness K, are facing criminal charges of conspiring to communicate secret information. They are due to front the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Alexandra Back – Lawyers for a Canberra barrister accused of breaching national intelligence laws told a court on Wednesday that they want as much of the trial to take place in open court as possible.

But a laborious court process might be looming over how material that is deemed to disclose sensitive information about Australia's national security will be dealt with.

Gordon Taylor – The case of two men charged with revealing that the Australian Government bugged the highest levels of the East Timorese Government has been heard in court for the first time in Canberra, amid calls for the charges to be dropped.

Paulina Quintao – The General Manager of Cooperative Cafe Timor (CCT), Sisto Monis Piedade said they will be able to export 2500 tons of Timorese coffee to America, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany in 2018.

He said 800 tons have already been sent out of the country with the rest of the consignment to follow shortly.

Bikash Kumar Bhattacharya, Dili – "Munir was a genuine friend of the East Timorese people, and all other oppressed peoples across the region," said Diamantino da Costa Freitas.

Steve Cannane – The lawyer who helped expose an Australian spying operation on its ally Timor-Leste was given a chilling warning by the Federal Government, just months before charges were filed against him for breaches of the Intelligence Services Act.

Ian Morse – The people of East Timor (also known as Timor-Leste) join the world in mourning the death of international diplomat Kofi Annan who died in Switzerland at the age of 80 on August 18, 2018.

Helen Davidson, Dili – The actions of Witness K and Bernard Collaery were a valued part of the "collective effort" that led to the historic maritime boundary treaty between Australia and Timor-Leste, the Timorese foreign minister has said.

Estevao Nuno – The government through the Secretariat of State for Arts and Culture (SEAK) is ready to support the construction or rehabilitation of the sacred houses of Timor-Leste.

Secretary of State Teofilo Caldas said the law allows the government to support the sacred houses across the country.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has held the position for five years but made her first official visit to Timor-Leste, a country Australia helped found, only two weeks ago.

James Plested – It says everything you need to know about the connection between big business, politics and national security. In 2004, then foreign minister Alexander Downer presided over an Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) operation to install listening devices in the offices of the government of the newly independent, and desperately poor, nation of East Timor.

Estevao Nuno – The executive director (CEO) of NGO Timor Aid, Florentino Sarmento, said the original culture of Timor, handed down from the ancestors will go extinct unless young Timorese develop an interest for its development.

Christopher Knaus – New South Wales Labor will move a motion to condemn the "entirely inappropriate" prosecution of former spy Witness K and his lawyer, breaking with the silence of their federal colleagues.

Michael Leach – When the newly formed Change for Progress Alliance, or AMP, secured an outright majority at Timor-Leste's 12 May election, the prospects for stability seemed promising.

Bec Strating – Last week, an Australian leader visited Dili for the first time in five years. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop spent 36 hours in Timor-Leste as part of a four-country diplomatic trip around Southeast Asia.

Kerrin Thomas – An Australian dentist and a small group of volunteers have managed to check more than 1,200 mouths in just two weeks on Timor Leste.

That amounted to 527 extractions and 406 fillings for Charmaine White, from Narooma on the New South Wales south coast, and her volunteers.

Paulina Quintao – The general director for Tourism Jose Quintas appealed to all citizens to be responsible for keeping the capital, Dili, clean and beautiful because doing so will attract more tourists to Timor-Leste which will also raise the country's national revenue.

Australia is trying to reboot its troubled relations with historical friend East Timor, with Julie Bishop the first foreign minister to visit in five years.

Julie Bishop kept to her daily routine of a morning run this week when visiting East Timor's capital Dili.

Steve Cannane – Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of East Timor Jose Ramos-Horta says charges should be dropped against two men who exposed Australia's spying operation on the East Timor cabinet room during a lucrative oil and gas deal in 2004.

Sophie Raynor – Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop arrived in Timor-Leste at the weekend, on her first official visit and the first by any Australian minister to the country in five years. Bishop arrived with the promise of a beatific "new chapter" in the two nations' previously fraught relationship.

Helen Davidson and Christopher Knaus – Australia should drop its prosecution of Witness K and lawyer Bernard Collaery because the two men "acted out of conscience" and "reflected the very best of Australia", former Timor-Leste president Jose Ramos-Horta has said.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has rejected suggestions Australia has bullied East Timor in the fight over natural gas and says it's time to renew the friendship in the first visit by a federal minister in nearly five years.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will be the first Australian minister to visit Timor-Leste in five years when she goes as part of an Asian tour.

Ms Bishop will visit Timor-Leste, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia from July 29 to August 7 and reaffirm Australia's commitment to its regional neighbours in southeast Asia.