Jose Belo – The tale of East Timor's controversial proposed media law is a story of insiders versus outsiders, of the rich versus the poor. Those inside the elite classes are seeking to implement a restrictive new media law so as to limit and control the information available to Timorese outside the elite group, as well as all those outside of East Timor.

Rick Wilkinson, Melbourne – The Democratic Republic of Timor Leste (East Timor) is planning its first bid round for onshore acreage toward the end of this year.

The country's Minister for Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Alfredo Pires, said recently that his department is considering adding an onshore acreage release to the proposed next round of offshore permit bidding.

Shannon Gillies, Dili – Confusion reigns over a controversial media law adopted by Parliament but yet to be promulgated in the fledgling Asia-Pacific democracy of Timor-Leste.

Kristio Wahyono, Yogyakarta – When it was a non-self governing territory under the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), Timor Leste was the first neighbor former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid visited in February 2000.

Kuala Lumpur – Global Komited Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Weststar Group of Companies, has signed a RM2.2 million contract for the supply of 10 initial Weststar General Service (GS) cargo military vehicles with the Defence Forces of Timor Leste.

The new media law in Timor-Leste should be vetoed by the country's President, agrees the Pacific Freedom Forum.

PFF is backing the veto call from La'o Hamutuk, the Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis, an independent development watchdog, joined by the Pacific Media Centre, other NGOs and journalists.

Peter Taylor Presenter, Burning Desire – East Timor has one of the highest smoking rates in the world, with nearly two-thirds of its men hooked on the habit. Why is one of South East Asia's poorest nations so addicted to tobacco?

Anna Majavu – La'o Hamutuk, an independent development watchdog, has called on Timor-Leste President Taur Matan Ruak to veto a controversial new media law that has just been passed by Parliament.

The draconian law has faced widespread criticism by Timorese journalists, media freedom groups, opposition MPs and civil society advocates.

Dili – New data indicate that stunting among under-five children is being reduced in Timor-Leste, but experts warn much greater investment is needed in areas such as micronutrient supplementation, salt iodization and education to bring levels down further.

Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – Security personnel from Indonesia and Timor Leste have held a joint border patrol to guard the two countries' shared border.

Loro Horta – The leader and founding father of Asia's youngest nation, Xanana Gusmao, announced in November that he was resigning as prime minister and leaving politics.

Eduardo Mariz – The district of Oecusse, an isolated portion of Timor-Leste in Indonesian territory, carries under its name the nostalgic origins of a nation.

Josua Gantan, Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara – At a state-owned gas station in an Indonesian border town in Timor's Belu district, a liter of premium fuel on Sunday went for Rp 6,500 ($0.57) – less than half of the price at the pump in poverty stricken East Timor, just a few kilometers away, where the government does not provide generous subsidies.

Thomas Hornall – Twelve years ago East Timor, or Timor-Leste, was recognised as the 191st member of the United Nations after a devastating 25-year Indonesian occupation.

Dili – Taking judicial proceedings to rural areas of Timor-Leste with "mobile courts" is increasing citizens' access to justice as the young country builds its government from the ground up, experts and practitioners say.

Dili (Jornal Independente/Pacific Media Watch) – It was a stunt that arguably in any democratic country on any given day would have led the media headlines and stopped anyone that cared about their rights to speak freely in their tracks.

Paulina Quintao – Legal Assistance for Women and Children (ALFeLa) coordinator Laura Afonso de Jesus says resolving domestic violence criminal proceedings using methods of traditional justice is beneficial only to the perpetrators of the crimes, not to their victims.

Paulina Quintao – National Commission on Combating HIV/SIDA Timor-Leste (CNCS-TL) General Secretary Daniel Marcal has said education is key to combatting the rise of the rates of HIV/AIDS which is increasing each year.

Ted McDonnell – The East Timorese parliament has passed legislation that will restrict journalists.

Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Health has begun a campaign to raise awareness of the context of draft laws to control the sale and use of cigarettes in order to get ideas about how to improve the laws which are to be brought before the Council of Ministers for approval.

Paulina Quintao – Secretary of State for Vocational Training Policy and Employment (SEPFOPE) has established a National Commission against Child Labour (KNKTI) with the aim to protect children from child labour and to fulfill its rights under law.

Paulina Quintao – Upset to the point of tears. That's how Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SEPI) Idelta Maria Rodrigues felt when she met with child victims of sexual assault and incest at Dili shelter homes.

Paulina Quintao – University students have urged the HAK Association to organize a national seminar in Timor-Leste to encourage leaders, including those of the Japanese government, to speak with Timorese victims of sexual slavery.

Mr Gusmao met China's top leaders in the first visit by an East Timorese Prime Minister in 11 years.

In a joint statement, the two nations vowed to increase cooperation on issues from security to food production. China is enjoying relative economic and diplomatic success with Australia's near neighbour, at a time of heightened suspicion between Canberra and Dili.

Paulina Quintao – The Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SEPI), Idelta Maria Rodrigues said SEPI will this year hold a campaign toraise awareness and open dialogue with teachers and students in 13 districts about laws opposing domestic violence law as well as how to deal with countries which have ratified such laws.

Paulina Quintao – Catholic priests and nuns are refusing to baptise children born of incest, according to Timor-Leste Women's Communication Forum (FOKUPERS) shelter home coordinator Judit da Conceicao Ribeiro.

She said FOKUPERS has tried many times persuade clergy members to baptise the children, by meeting with them and explaining the situation.

Peter Klinger – Thailand's PTTEP hopes to sort out the ownership structure of its Timor Sea assets, including the big Cash-Maple gas fields, by the end of the year but says it is open to retaining a minority stake.

Forum Tau Matan – The tiny half island nation of Timor Leste is a young country in more ways than one. In the 2010 census it was found that 41.4% of the population was between the ages of 0-14. Decades of war and instability have contributed to a spectrum of human rights abuses involving children.

Beijing – Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao on Tuesday and both announced to forge an all-round cooperative partnership between the two countries.

China and Timor-Leste always respect, cooperate and treat each other equally in a friendly way, Xi said during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.

Sarita Ryan – According to Alexander Downer, former Australian Foreign Minister and subsequent board advisor to Woodside Petroleum, a country's reputation is on the line. Downer claims that Timor-Leste's appeal to terminate a key treaty with Australia in the Permanent Court of Arbitration reveals the tiny nation to be an unruly negotiator:

Timor-Leste's leaders often boast that the country's non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is growing more than 10% per year faster than global inflation – that is, at "double-digit rates."

Sixtus Harson, Jakarta – A human rights group has criticized the presidential candidacy of a former Indonesian general who has been accused of widespread human rights abuses in Timor Leste and several Indonesian provinces.

Once again, on 5-6 April, Christians will come together with the families of victims to commemorate the anniversary of the Liquisa Church Massacre. This massacre happened in April 1999 and led to the death or disappearance of more than 200 people.

Yuliasri Perdani, Atambua – Entering the fifteenth year of Timor Leste's separation from Indonesia, the Indonesian authorities are still struggling to diminish illegal border crossing and smuggling due to limited resources and poor infrastructure in the border areas.

Philip Dorling – The federal government has successfully blocked the release of secret archives that would reveal Australian knowledge of Indonesian war crimes in East Timor, arguing that relations with Jakarta are presently too strained to cope with the potential embarrassment for both countries.

Kupang – The Indonesian military (TNI) said on Tuesday it had thwarted an effort to smuggle 3,200 tons of fuel into East Timor.

"The 3,200 tons of fuel were confiscated by our soldiers on Saturday and Sunday night at a military post in Kabuna village, Kakulukmesak subdistrict," Belu district military commander Lt. Col. Hendri Wijaya told journalists on Tuesday.

Kota Kinabalu – University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and the Timor Leste's Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry and its Education Ministry today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in oil and gas (O&G) related training industry.

Jarrod Woolley – Watching a woman come out of mourning for the first time in 31 years was one of the most moving moments in husband and wife filmmaking team Luigi Acquisto and Stella Zammataro's careers.

The pair were filming East Timor's first feature film, recreating an Indonesian massacre using people who had lost loved ones in the actual atrocity.

Tom Allard – The government has told East Timor the fledgling nation can't tax a lucrative pipeline from a Timor Sea gas field, in a move that has further soured relations between Australia and its neighbour.

Leona Hameed – Charles Scheiner has worked for La'o Hamutuk ("Walking Together" – the Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis) since August of 2001, a year and a half after the Timorese NGO was formed. At that time, Charles explains, Timor-Leste was governed by the United Nations. The World Bank was the de facto development ministry, and the IMF ran finance.

Putrajaya – Malaysia and Timor-Leste are set to elevate bilateral relations by expanding the current co-operation and exploring untapped potentials in strategic fields in the two countries.

Malaysia also pledged its unwavering support for the inclusion of Timor-Leste in the Asean regional grouping, a membership that Timor-Leste is looking forward to.

Ezequiel Freitas – National Parliament members have criticized the recruitment of volunteer teachers to permanent positions, a process they say is unfair and nepotistic.

East Timorese police, or PNTL was set up by the UN in 2000, following the referendum for independence from Indonesia.

Since then, the PNTL has received a diverse range of advice and training from many donor nations, including Australia. But it's Indonesia that's had the most influence, becoming a reference point for Timorese police.

Presenter: Sen Lam

Venidora Oliveira – Quesadhip Ruak Center (SQR), in partnership with civil society groups and judicial institutions, has discussed how traditional justice can be incorporated into modern justice systems.

Sharna Jade Bremner – On 30 August 1999 an overwhelming majority of East Timorese voters rejected a continuation of Indonesian rule, with nearly 80 per cent choosing independence.

Sayomi Ariyawansa – On 3 December 2013, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) officers entered premises owned by Bernard Collaery, the Australian lawyer representing East Timor in international arbitration proceedings regarding the sharing of resources in the Timor Sea.

Tomorrow marks the 12th anniversary of when Australia quietly withdrew Australia's recognition of the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.

It did this just two months before East Timor became independent and the Timor Sea Justice Campaign's Tom Clarke said it was no coincidence.

Jose Belo, Timor-Leste's celebrated champion of investigative journalism and advocate for a free media, recently vowed he was prepared to go to jail rather than allow his fledgling independent nation to muzzle the press.

Marian Wilkinson and Peter Cronau – Late last year the office of Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery was raided by agents from ASIO and the Federal Police.

Peter Cronau – The Australian Government has warned East Timor there will be tough consequences over its decision to launch international arbitration proceedings over its maritime boundary with Australia.