Hamish McDonald – Tolstoy once wrote a short story about a greedy peasant offered as much land as he could get around in a day. The man ran off into the steppe, returning to complete his vast circuit at dusk, only to drop dead from exhaustion.

Helen Davidson, Dili – National pride is a serious business for Timor-Leste, a young country with a violent history. So on the eve of a presidential inauguration and the 15th anniversary of the nation's independence, the capital Dili is covered in flags. They adorn houses, fences, bikes and cars. They are draped over balconies and the arms of the half-dozen flag sellers on each block.

Lucy Marks – A program to find and treat children in East Timor with rheumatic heart disease is reducing the rates of heart failure and preventable deaths, researchers say.

For the first time, Australian doctors are working with East Timorese health workers to screen and treat children and young people with the illness, using methods similar to those used in Australia.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has joined its affiliates Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the South East Asia Journalist Unions (SEAJU) in strongly condemning the latest development in the slanderous denunciation case against Timor-Leste journalists Oki Raimundos and Lourenco Martins, reports the IFJ Asia-Pacific bureau.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliates the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the South East Asia Journalist Unions (SEAJU) in strongly condemning the latest development in the slanderous denunciation case against Timor Leste journalists Oki Raimundos and Lourenco Martins.

Havana – The map of Timor Leste has the shape of a crocodile, while the map of Cuba has the shape of a Cayman. Both countries fought long and hard for their independence and continue to fight against neo colonial tendencies. They share the Catholic faith and a common Iberian legacy.

Paulina Quintao - Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Combating the HIV/AIDS Timor-Leste (KNKS-TL) Daniel Marcal said HIV was a significant threat for the country's human resources in the future.

He said new cases of HIV transmission were increasing among Timor's population, which was at 1,167, 242 million according to the 2016 household census.

East Timor's first president to be elected as a member of a political party, Lu-Olo, is expected to renew his country's push for a maritime boundary halfway between Timor and Australia, according to a former president.

East Timor's relationship with Australia is too important to dramatically change under its new leader, according to former President Jose Ramos-Horta.

John Pilger – Filming undercover in East Timor in 1993 I followed a landscape of crosses: great black crosses etched against the sky, crosses on peaks, crosses marching down the hillsides, crosses beside the road. They littered the earth and crowded the eye.

Naaman Zhou – The former Timor-Leste president Jose Ramos-Horta has told the Australian government to abandon its "unsubstantiated" legal case to extend its borders into the Timor Sea, as the two countries attempt to negotiate a permanent maritime boundary over lucrative oil fields.

Paulina Quintao – MPs continue to arrive late for parliamentary sessions, according to observations made by the Judicial System of Monitoring program (JSMP).

East Timor's former president Jose Ramos-Horta has issued a blunt warning to Australia that the gas dispute between the two countries risks pushing Timor closer to China.

Dili – Coffee trees loom over a village in the hills above Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. Though their fruit has provided income for decades, Alarico Soares De Cruz, the local headman, says the pickings are gradually growing slimmer. Some of the trees are 40 years old, he explains, and ought to be pruned or completely replanted.

Damien Kingsbury – Timor-Leste is a country increasingly able to stand on its own two feet. At least, that is the sense within Timor-Leste. The success of Timor-Leste's presidential elections in March 2017 and the prospect of successful parliamentary elections again in early July have marked the country as a consolidating democracy in a region where such notions are often compromised.

Jon Andrews, Bayside Leader – Painters and Dockers' famous, flamboyant frontman Paul Stewart says he owes his life to the nuns of East Timor.

The rocker, an infamous rager on the music scene with the 80s punk band, spends much of his time now helping the poor of our northern neighbour.

Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Health has received $6.4 million in funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to implement a mass drug distribution program across the country from 2016-2021 to tackle lymphatic filariasis.

Venidora Oliveira – Army Chief Major-General Lere Anan Timor has called on the government through the Ministry of Defense to establish a maritime authority to protect the country's ocean's resources.

Dames Alexander Sinaga, Atambua – The Indonesian Ministry of Tourism has urged the government of Timor-Leste to modify its immigration regulations to boost tourism in border areas such as Atambua in East Nusa Tenggara.

Paulina Quintao – The head of the Department of Non-Communicable Disease Helder Juvinal said the tobacco control law had yet to be properly implemented as the Health Ministry was still in the process of raising awareness to communities across the country.

Emma Wynne – A small collection of objects in the Western Australian Museum honours the extraordinary story of the Timorese boys who risked their lives to help Australian commandos during World War II.

Jim Dowling – Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four.

It was with great interest that I recently read the following news item:

"The newly-elected president of Timor Leste, former guerilla fighter Francisco Guterres, will lead a 30-person delegation of veterans to Brisbane this Anzac Day.

Heather Merle Benbow – Australian soldiers have long relied on an East Timorese hospitality epitomised by its coffee.

The fond appreciation for the nation's beans traces back to the second world war, where Dutch and Australian commandos – known collectively as Sparrow Force – engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in what was then known as Portuguese Timor.

Susan Connelly – In the great traditions of Australian war remembrance we remember all those Australian youngsters who died in the World Wars and since. What is often forgotten, however, is the toll on the Timorese people in World War II on behalf of Australians.

Paulina Quintao – National Members of Parliament (MPs) have questioned teaching quality and education standards across the country as grade five students in basic schools are still struggling to speak Portuguese.

National MP David Dias Ximenes said that in the past first grade students already had a good understanding of the language, but students nowadays found it difficult to read.

Paulina Quintao – The Timor-Leste Coalition for Education (TLCE) has expressed concern over the Ministry of Education's policy to turn several high schools into vocational schools due to the lack of qualified teachers and proper equipment for practical activities.

Jeremy Luedi – The successful conclusion of East Timor's 2017 presidential election has been lauded as another positive milestone for the country's fledgling democracy. The recent election was the first to occur without assistance from the international community, and the first since the departure of the UN mission in 2012.

Paulina Quintao – The government has established a special independent authority to conduct routine inspection and monitoring of products and food sold in restaurants and supermarkets across the country.

Paulina Quintao – The National Hospital has issued a directive to doctors not to attend to patients with common illnesses such as headaches, coughs and colds.

The directive was issued in 2016 with the aim of improving secondary health care services at the hospital and to give more responsibility to health centres.

Venidora Oliveira – The Criminal Scientific Investigation Police (PSIK) Unit registered 221 criminal cases in 2016.

The head of the department of Legal, Consultation, and Public Relations, Adino Nunes Cabral said of the 221 cases, 139 were referred by the Public Ministry and the other 22 were cases caught by the PSIK.

Bec Strating – On 10 April this year, the 2006 Certain Maritime Agreement on the Timor Sea (CMATS) was terminated. CMATS was an agreement between Australia and Timor-Leste designed to facilitate development of the contested Greater Sunrise gas field, a 5.1 trillion cubic foot gas field in the Timor Sea.

Paulina Quintao – The National Eye Clinic has informed it now has the capacity to perform surgery on patients with sight problems including retinal detachment operations.

Eye Clinic (Officer in Charge) OIC Belmerio Jeronimo said the new equipment and additional human resources will mean Timor-Leste can now reduce the number of patients transferred overseas to treat eye problems.

Paulina Quintao – According to results from a quick data assessment report on blind prevention from 2016, 2.8% of Timorese people over the age of 50 suffers from some type of eye disease.

Darwin will be used as a logistic hub for a Queensland company which has signed a landmark onshore oil and gas deal in East Timor. The deal may also open the door for Darwin to establish an oil refinery.

Angela Macdonald-Smith – The private company of Australia's Fuller family has signed a deal to explore for oil and gas onshore Timor-Leste, with the ambitious aim of beginning oil production within four years.

Jonas Guterres – Corruption is a complex global problem that creates high obstacles to sustainable and prospective development and impairs the social, political, and institutional condition of a nation. Generally speaking corruption is understood, in Transparency International's words, as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gains."

Beijing – Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a congratulatory message to Francisco Guterres, also known as Lu-Olo, on being elected president of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

Paulina Quintao – Voters in this year's presidential election have urged the elected president to eliminate the life pension law.

Citizen Manuel Soares said there had been public concern about the law for a long time, but there had been no solution until now.

Paulina Quintao – The Timor-Leste government and partners are developing a prevention plan to respond to rabies in the case of an outbreak.

The European Union will support Timor-Leste (East Timor) with a budget of 57 million euros over the next five years, under a cooperation agreement signed at the end of last week in Dili by the head of the EU delegation in Timor-Leste and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Timor-Leste.

Paulina Quintao – Data from the Secretariat of Technical and Electoral Administration (STAE) showed lower rates of voter participation in this year's presidential election, with 214,337 of 743,150 registered voters not taking part.

Former Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta said he was concerned that many voters had decided not to take part.

Paulina Quintao – President elect Francisco 'Lu-Olo' Guterres has congratulated the Timorese people for entrusting him with their votes for the 2017-2022 term.

"I am happy for this and congratulate everyone," he said at the Fretilin central office in Dili.

Sue Ingram – Last week, Francisco Guterres became Timor-Leste's first party-affiliated president. While the election broke new ground structurally and procedurally, the office of president is still firmly in the hands of the 1975 generation of resistance leaders.

When she was only five years old, Isabelina Pinto was taken from her family by an Indonesian soldier. She was one of thousands of children taken to Indonesia during its brutal 30-year occupation of East Timor.

Decades later she found her family and now works to reunite others. The BBC's Rebecca Henschke tells her story.

A former guerrilla fighter vowed on Saturday to keep peace and unity as East Timor's new president, delivering a victory speech after the final tally showed he was on course to win the election.

Paulina Quintao – Clinical Director at the National Hospital of Guido Valadares Dr Flavio Brandao said that the number of kidney patients was continuing to increase each year due to problems accessing clean, filtered water across the country.

Venidora Oliveira – Timor-Leste Defense Force (F-FDTL) Chief, Major-General Lere Anan Timor has called on the government to give more attention to the wellbeing of 23 veterans who retired in 2015 and now live in miserable conditions.

He said the veterans were retired by the institution because of their age based on the military statute law.

Venidora Oliveira – The National Parliament has established a law making it illegal to carry weapons while inside a vehicle.

National MP Antoninho Bianco said the context of the law was to criminalize and condemn those who consciously brought weapons such as swords, machetes and barbed arrows inside a car.

David Hutt – Former guerrilla leader Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres is tipped to become the next president of Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, after exit polls showed he won a clear majority at this week's polls.

Preliminary results show that Guterres received 57% of the vote, while analysts speculate that figure will be closer to 60% when the official result is announced.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – When invading Indonesian troops parachuted into Dili in 1975 Filomena Gomes fled into East Timor's cloud-shrouded mountains and for four years scrounged food and cooked for guerrilla fighters.

A Timorese lawyer who helped draft Timor Leste's constitution says the way this week's presidential election ran demonstrates the country is growing as a nation.

It was the first election conducted by the Timorese without any direct assistance from the international community.