Bandar Seri Begawan – Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has said the three-day official visit by Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao to his country would pave the way for greater cooperation between both states, The Brunei Times reported on its website on Sunday.

In 1976, the Australian ambassador to Indonesia wrote that, in deciding whether to support the right of the Timorese people to self-determination or to instead accede to Indonesia's annexation, Australia faced a choice between "Wilsonian idealism" and "Kissengerian realism." For reasons having a lot to do with petroleum, Australia decided to go with what it saw as the latter option.

Tom Clarke – Since the discovery of vast oil deposits under the Timor Sea in the early 1970s, oil has been the ever-present third player in Australia's relationship with East Timor.

Susan – In 1974, with the prospect of an Indonesian annexation of Timor on the horizon, Australia faced an important question: would Australia receive more favorable access to the gas and oil fields in the Timor Sea if Timor had an (a) Portuguese government, (b) Indonesian government, or (c) independent government?

When the doorbell rang about 9.30am at 5 Brockman Street, Narrabundah, in suburban Canberra, Chloe Preston was starting her day at work as a legal clerk. She opened the door of the home that doubles as a law office, and was confronted by a team of national intelligence agents, who began combing the building. They seized papers, an iPhone, a laptop and a USB.

Susan – In 1974, with the prospect of an Indonesian annexation of Timor on the horizon, Australia faced an important question: would Australia receive more favorable access to the gas and oil fields in the Timor Sea if Timor had an (a) Portuguese government, (b) Indonesian government, or (c) independent government?

Mong Palatino – To allegedly protect the rights of media practitioners, the government of East Timor is proposing a media law that is now being deliberated in the parliament. But journalists and human rights groups have thumbed down the bill, which they believe would institutionalize excessive regulation of the media sector.

Ezequiel Freitas – Member of National Parliament (MP) Paulino Monteiro said the use of Indonesian to teach, which is particularly prevalent in private higher education institutions, disadvantages students.

Lindsay Murdoch – Jose Belo was shackled, hung upside down, electrocuted, beaten, burnt and jailed for three years in the mid-1990s because of his resistance to Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor.

Tom Allard – Australia has been ordered to cease spying on East Timor and its legal advisers, in a landmark decision by the International Court of Justice relating to a bitter dispute between the two countries over $40 billion of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Kate Lamb – The highest court at The Hague ruled on Monday that "Australia shall not interfere in anyway in communications between Timor-Leste and its advisors in connection with the pending Arbitration under the Timor Sea Treaty of 20 May 2002 between Timor-Leste and Australia..."

Havana, Cuba – Cuban doctors in East Timor are drawing up a comprehensive strategy to fight Cancer based on the records on the disease collected by the medical brigade in that country and with the contribution of human resources trained in Cuba.

East Timor's journalists' union has criticised the country's proposed media laws for being too restrictive on journalists.

A provision for a press council to decide who can be a journalist has attracted particular criticism. The government, however, says its draft press law will guarantee, protect and regulate journalistic activities in East Timor.

Tonight in the Hague, the International Court of Justice will deliver its orders in a case that East Timor brought against Australia following the dramatic ASIO raids on the offices of Timor's lawyers preparing for a significant legal proceeding about an oil and gas treaty.

Jakarta – The border between Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province and Timor Leste remains prone to drug smuggling, although the police have stepped up efforts to detain suspected individuals entering the area.

Havana, Cuba – Mari Alkatiri, former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, requested from Cuba on Friday in this capital professional and technical assistance in the construction of a special zone for the development of that Asian nation.

Kim Doyle – In early 2013, the Australian Signals Directorate was spying on Indonesian officials involved in trade negotiations with the US. The private communications recorded were most likely relating to disputes over clove cigarettes and prawn exports.

The prime minister of Timor-Leste, Xanana Gusmao, plans to step down in September so a younger generation can lead the tiny nation, his deputy has said.

The vice-prime minister, Fernando La Samma De Araujo, said the resistance leader just wants to be the father of the nation, to oversee the administration as an observer.

Hagar Cohen: Hello, and welcome to Background Briefing, I'm Hagar Cohen.

It was late morning, on the 3rd of December when ASIO launched a raid on the Canberra legal office of Bernard Collaery. His assistant, Chloe Preston, was there alone.

Mong Palatino – East Timor journalists and human rights groups are opposing a government-proposed media law which they believe would lead to possible media censorship and repression in the country. The draft legislation was approved by the Council of Ministers last August, but was introduced in the Parliament just two weeks ago.

Paulina Quintao – The majority of female workers in the private sector do not claim their full maternity leave entitlements due to a fear of losing out on wages, according to Alola Foundation advocacy program manager Maria Barreto.

David Winning, Sydney – For nearly a decade, East Timor has relied on revenue from a huge natural-gas field to rebuild after the country's war of independence with Indonesia. Now, the tiny nation's outlook is becoming less certain as that gas field runs low on reserves.

Attorney-General George Brandis has again defended security service raids on Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery who was helping East Timor in its case against Australia.

"As the minister who authorised the warrant on the basis of an intelligence case put before me by ASIO that it was a strong case," Senator Brandis told a Senate estimates committee hearing.

Jakarta – Authorities of Silawan village in East Tasifeto, Belu regency, East Nusa Tenggara, which lies on the Indonesian border with Timor Leste, have started to identify and deport citizens of Timor Leste staying in the village ahead of the April 9 legislative election.

Claims that Australia spied on East Timorese negotiators during oil and gas treaty talks in 2004 are at the centre of a legal row that could throw the treaty into doubt. Did Australia seek and gain an unfair advantage for itself and the petroleum company Woodside? Hagar Cohen investigates.

Simon Roughneen – A proposed new media code in Timor-Leste is raising hackles among the country's press, who see an attempt to impose curbs on journalists and criminalise transgressions in what has been one of the freer press environments in southeast Asia.

Paulina Quintao – According to research by the Alola Foundation (FA), many female laborers in urban and rural areas are unaware of labor laws ratified in 2012.

Paulina Quintao – The recent spread of HIV/AIDS poses a big threat to the entire population of Timor-Leste. Member of National Parliament Ilda Maria da Conceicao called on the government to take serious action help prevent the spread of the violence.

Timor Leste's (East Timor's) Oil Fund ended 2013 with assets of US$14.9 billion, the Timor Leste Central Bank said in Dili Tuesday.

On Monday (February 10, 2014) Timorese Prime Minister and Defense Minister Xanana Gusmao met with Indonesian Defense Minister Poernomo Yusgiantoro to sign a defense memorandum of understanding meant to boost security and defense ties between the two nations.

Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste (East Timor) was due Friday to start a re-evaluation of the bilateral oil agreements and a study to set up a consortium for onshore exploration of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), the Sao Tome National Oil Agency (ANP) said Thursday.

Daniel Flitton – Vandals have targeted the Australian embassy in East Timor, spray painting a blood-stained parody of the Australian coat of arms with a kangaroo and emu sucking a barrel of "Timor oil".

David Robie, Auckland (Cafe Pacific/Pacific Media Watch): Timor-Leste Press Club has this week transformed itself into the fledgling Timor-Leste Press Union and now seeks to become affiliated to the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists.

Mario Filomeno da Costa Pinheiro – The Government of Timor-Leste has indicated that it is committed to joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2015, but as the date for the planned accession draws near, questions regarding the benefits of membership, and the young country's readiness, remain unanswered.

Jakarta – The Indonesian and Timor Leste governments have agreed to boost security and defense ties during a meeting between Defense Minister Poernomo Yusgiantoro and visiting Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, which was a follow-up to a memorandum of understanding signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then Timor Leste president Jose Ramos Horta in Dili in 2012.

Paulina Quintao – The Monitoring and Advocacy Officer for Programs at the Timor-Leste Coalition for Education (TLCE), Joao Soares R. Pequinho, said language is a barrier to the quality of education in Timor-Leste and reality shows more children have greater command of the Indonesian language than of Portuguese.

Paulina Quintao – Minister Isabel Amaral Guterres warned the MSS will halt natural disaster relieve assistance to victims because of cases where construction materials given by the government are re-sold.

Minister Guterres said the government's support is to assist victims of natural disasters repair their homes not for them to re-sell the materials provided.

Loro Horta – Contact between Chinese and Timorese dates back to the early 15th century when the ships of the legendary Chinese explorer Admiral Zheng He arrived on the island in search of the famed sandalwood highly valued in Ming China for incense and medicinal purposes.

David Robie – The proposed Timor-Leste media law is a draconian mixed bag. And it is ironical that such a document with lofty claims of protecting the freedom of the press should be shrouded in secrecy for the past six months.

Ezequiel Freitas – The Timor-Leste Parliamentary Women's Group (GMPTL) intends to propose legislation to regulate pornography in the country.

GMPTL member MP Brigida Correia said the group held consultations with representatives from other nations about the implementation of similar legislation in their countries.

Philip Dorling – Australia's chief intelligence watchdog has been drawn into a legal battle over government claims that Australia's relations with Indonesia are too fragile to allow the release of secret archives about military operations and war crimes in East Timor.

David Robie – A year after Indonesian troops killed more than 270 peaceful demonstrators at the cemetery of Santa Cruz in the Timor-Leste capital of Dili in 1991, news footage secretly shot by a cameraman surfaced in a powerful new film.

Thea Cowie – The Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Canberra has ordered declassification of a number of documents which the federal government argues may inflame already tense relations with Indonesia.

Paulina Quintao – The Disability Working Group (DWG) Timor-Leste President, Joaquin Soares, demands the Government of Timor-Leste ratify the International Convention on the Rights of the Disabled so the rights of Timorese living with disability are protected.

Rose Iser – Concerns about Australia's troubled relationship with Indonesia are behind the government's refusal to release secret 30-year-old documents about the war in East Timor.

Tunggal Pawestri – In the second week of December 2013, I visited Dili, Timor Leste. It was not my first visit. Since 2009, every year I go there two or three times a year because of my work in the development sector.

Paulina Quintao – Human Rights Activist, Joao Soares Pequinho, believes the Timor-Leste's government failed to implement the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for better legislation protecting the rights of Timorese children and in providing children with adequate social assistance.

Philip Dorling – Federal Attorney-General George Brandis has moved to block the release of secret archives that would reveal the Australian government's knowledge of Indonesian war crimes in East Timor.

Tom Allard – In the International Court of Justice this week, as lawyers from Australia and East Timor traded barbs and legal argument in equal measure, the emotions have been raw.

Paul Cleary – It was a case of saving the best to last. On the third and final day of the proceedings brought by East Timor before the International Court of Justice in The Hague this week, vice-president Bernardo Sepulveda Amor put what seemed like a very tough question to Australia's phalanx of 15 legal representatives.