Venidora Oliveira – Poverty rates in Timor-Leste have declined from 47.2% in 2007 to 30.3% in 2014, according to government data.

Deputy Minister of Finance Helder Lopes said the data was based on research conducted by the Ministry of Finance between April 2014 and April 2016, and involved 5916 households across the country.

Venidora Oliveira – The government has been urged to establish regulations for traditional ceremonies to reduce the costs involved in funerals, weddings and engagement parties in Timor-Leste.

Venidora Oliveira – MPs have approved more than $17 million for the National Parliament's 2017 budget at a plenary session.

National MP Arao Noe said it would be allocated towards planned priority programs next year such as the completion of legislation that is still pending and other parliamentary reforms, including administrative functions.

Sonny Inbaraj Krishnan – This Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the Dili massacre, when 270 East Timorese – including Malaysian-New Zealander Kamal Bamadhaj – were killed when Indonesian troops opened fire on a peaceful demonstration at the Santa Cruz cemetery in East Timor's capital Dili on November 12, 1991.

Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Thousands of families residing in Timor Leste before its independence have returned to Indonesia's West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) after passing citizen verification and validation procedures.

Venidora Oliveira – The Judicial Reform Commission has been criticized for working too slowly and failing to make any significant progress.

The commission was established last year by Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo to assess the justice sector and identify any problems and weaknesses in the system.

Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Health in collaboration with international agencies is developing guidelines for health personnel to help provide better assistance to victims of gender-based violence in Timor-Leste.

Tony Moore – East Timor's former prime minister and president Dr Jose Ramos-Horta has appealed to Australia's sense of a "fair go", asking for a sea boundary to be changed to share $40 billion in oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Paulina Quintao – A total of 319 women have registered to run for suku (village) chief in the upcoming suku elections.

General Director of the Secretariat for Technical and Electoral Administration (STAE) Acilino Branco said 2071 candidates from 442 sukus across the country had registered to run in the elections, including 1752 men and 319 women.

Karen J. Coates – Timor-Leste will hold elections on Oct. 29 to determine the country's next local leaders. And for the first time since this tiny Southeast Asian nation gained independence in 2002, women occupy prominent spots on village ballots.

Lala Soares – With Hillary Clinton in the race to be the first female president of the United States and British Prime Minister Theresa May and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel leading some of the biggest economies in the world, gender and political leadership has never been such a hot topic.

Steven Schubert – Donald Trump would provoke instability and world disorder if he becomes the US president, according to Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of Timor-Leste, Jose Ramos-Horta.

Dr Ramos-Horta told the ABC he was in the process of asking other Nobel Peace Prize laureates to sign an open letter urging Americans to vote against Mr Trump.

Lita Aruperes, Manado, North Sulawesi – The North Sulawesi Police have uncovered an alleged charging of illegal fees in the disbursement of compensation funds to former residents of East Timor (now Timor Leste).

Paulina Quintao – The National Parliament (NP) has begun discussions on proposed law no. 26/III/III to combat human trafficking in the country. Its objective is to respond to cases of human trafficking, which occur in the country.

Paulina Quintao – The government through the Secretariat of State for Youth and Sport (SSYS) has allocated $120,499.25 to the November 12 organizing committee for National Youth Day, held to commemorate the Santa Cruz massacre of 1991.

Secretary of State Leovigildo da Costa Hornai said this year's event would differ from previous years as there would be a number of sports activities.

Isabel Ermelita – The Timor-Leste Health Ministry is continuing to promote the use of condoms to at-risk groups to prevent the transmission of HIV, but still recommends that the wider community practice self-control in their sexual relations.

Journalists around the world are trying to get the prime minister of Timor-Leste (East Timor) to abandon a criminal complaint against two Timor-Post reporters who say he was involved in government corruption.

Venidora Oliveira – Minister of Defense Cirilio Cristovao said execution of the general state budget for the Defense Ministry reached 67% by mid-year.

He said $26,217,240 had been allocated to the ministry, which mostly went towards treatment for veterans and boat maintenance.

Paulina Quintao – Three-hundred women candidates in 12 municipalities, including Oecusse, have been confirmed for the upcoming suku (village) elections later this month.

Spokesperson for the I am 100% Ready commission Yasinta Lujina said women's organizations would continue to provide training and accompany women during the campaign process and up until the election.

Paulina Quintao – Although the Education Ministry has formally included sexual health as a subject in the national curriculum, this has not yet been implemented as teachers still felt uncomfortable delivering the subject.

Semarang, Central Java – The immigration office in Central Java has deported 51 students who had come from Timor Leste but were found staying in violation of stay permit regulations.

China, Macau, Timor-Leste – Timor-Leste (East Timor) is expected to grant a license for fishing in its territorial waters to Chinese company Zhoushan Ningtai Ocean Fisheries Co., following the support provided by bilingual staff and professional services of the Macau Platform, reported the Macau Institute for Trade and Investment Promotion (IPIM).

Lauren Roberts, Rural Reporter – Territory mango farmers are flying to Timor in a desperate attempt to recruit workers ahead of a potential labour crisis.

NT Mango Industry Association president Leo Skliros said Ian Quinn and Saramat 'Tou' Ruchkaew from Tou's Garden were flying to Timor to recruit workers through the Federal Government's Seasonal Worker Program.

Amsterdam (Reuters) – Australia and East Timor [will] aim for an agreement over the disputed maritime boundary in resource-rich waters between their countries, a court said on Thursday (Oct 13), signalling a deal could be reached by next September.

Paulina Quintao – The Deputy President of the Timor-Leste Parliamentary Women's Group (GMPTL), Albina Marcal, said many women especially in rural areas were having multiple pregnancies close together every year because of a lack of information about reproductive health.

Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Education has still not created a policy to ensure school principals accept female drop-outs so that they can continue their studies after childbirth.

UA: 230/16 Index: ASA 57/4957/2016 Timor-Leste

Wendy Levy, Manahat, Timor Leste – Farmers in Timor Leste call the months from November to February "the hungry season", and this year could be even worse than usual thanks to poor harvests related to the weather phenomena El Nino and La Nina.

Jack Kerr for Earshot – If someone was to make an Australian version of Forrest Gump, they might look to Brian Manning's life story for inspiration.

Elisabeth Buchan – On 19 September, Timor-Leste won a minor victory in its ongoing dispute with Australia over rights to resources in the Timor Sea. The UN Conciliation Commission, convened under the Annex V conciliation proceedings of UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), rejected Australia's bid to block proceedings.

Venidora Oliveira – The government through the Secretariat of State for Land and Property (SSLP) is planning to evict Kaikoli residents in the near future.

Paulina Quintao – Alumni from the Timor-Leste Youth Parliament (ATLYP) are raising awareness about conflict resolution to high school students.

ATLYP President Zaulino da Silva said the program aims to change attitudes among young people and show them that they can resolve their problems without resorting to violence.

Paulina Quintao – The Timor-Leste Parliamentary Women's Group (GMPTL) with other women's associations is developing a law to enforce the legal age of marriage in Timor-Leste.

GMPTL president MP Florentina Smith said it was necessary to propose the law as high numbers of women were marrying young and this could potentially impact their health.

Thomas Ora, Dili – The Timor-Leste government has appreciated a Catholic plan to prioritize peace education in schools which is needed to heal societal trauma from years of conflict.

Ayomi Amindoni, Jakarta – State electricity company PLN is ready to supply electricity to areas on Indonesia-Timor Leste borders by the end of this year.

PLN is constructing power facilities in three transboundary posts (PLBN), targeted to completed in the end of 2016, on Indonesia-Timor Leste borders in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). They are PLBN Motaain, PLBN Wini and PLBN Matomasin.

Dili, East Timor – Two East Timorese journalists are going on trial in a criminal defamation case brought by the country's prime minister that has alarmed press freedom groups.

Prashanth Parameswaran – As ASEAN approaches the commemoration of its 50th anniversary next year, one of the key things to watch will be the organization's progress in admitting an eleventh member: Timor-Leste. With Dili's admission gaining traction over the past few years, it is worth looking more closely at the dynamics at play.

Expansion in ASEAN

Paulina Quintao – Every year almost 10,000 out of one million people in Timor-Leste will suffer from hepatitis, according to estimates from the Health Ministry based on data from the National Blood Bank

Mungo MacCallum – It may sound unpatriotic, but I could not help cheering when the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague brought down its decision last week against Australia.

After more than 12 festering years, this finally brings to a head a shameful and shameless exhibition of browbeating and exploiting our newest and poorest neighbour, Timor-Leste.

Nick Brown – Key stakeholders throughout the Timor-Leste have come together to form the first professional coffee trade organization in the origin's long history, the Timor-Leste Coffee Association (Assosiasaun Cafe Timor-Leste, or ACTL).

Roshni Kapur – After years of pushing for membership, Timor-Leste is now ready to become the 11th member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The process of Timor-Leste's accession into ASEAN has been ongoing for a number of years. The country was recognized as an ASEAN observer in 2002 and joined the ASEAN Regional Forum in 2005.

Isabel Ermelita – Timor-Leste's government has welcomed the conciliation commission's decision to proceed with the case involving a dispute with Australia over maritime boundaries in the resource-rich Timor Sea.

Paulina Quintao – Research conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Alola Foundation in 2015 showed that 1,904 children under six years old were suffering from wasting, a type of malnutrition.

Venidora Oliveira – The General Director for National Directorate for Land and Property (NDLP), Romao Guterres, has called on communities living on state-owned land to pay taxes.

Although 2000 people were paying taxes as required, he said many communities in Dili were occupying state-owned land and should pay monthly tax to the state through the NDLP.

Hao Duy Phan – On April 11, 2016, Timor-Leste initiated compulsory non-binding conciliation proceedings against Australia under Annex V of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). On September 26, 2016, the Conciliation Commission published its decision on competence. This is the first time the conciliation procedures in UNCLOS have been invoked.

Paulina Quintao – Women's activist and survivor Maria Domingas "Micato" Alves has encouraged other survivors of past crimes to be active and creative in contributing to the national development process.

She said survivors had managed to save themselves in difficult situations, including floods, earthquakes and crime.

Paulina Quintao – The Mobile mother's project has made significant progress in terms of the number of pregnant women accessing health facilities and receiving assistance from qualified midwives at home during childbirth.

Paulina Quintao – The Mother's Support Group (GSI) program implemented by the Alola Foundation has been recognized by the Health Ministry for its efforts to reduce maternal and child mortality in Timor-Leste.

Rachel Gold – In the 1990s, Brown's campus was a hotbed of activism on behalf of Timor-Leste, the Southeast Asian island then occupied by – and subject to human rights violations committed by – Indonesia. Over 15 years later, the leaders of what is now the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste arrived in Providence to reflect on the transition from a political movement to a sovereign nation.

Nyshka Chandran – A 14-year old border conflict between Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, and Australia was revived by The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on Monday.