Lindsay Murdoch – Australian troops will withdraw from East Timor in 2012 – six years after hundreds of them arrived in the half-island nation to quell violent upheaval.

Australia will phase out more than a third of its adviser positions in East Timor over the next two years. Australia's aid agency, AusAID, will cut 29 of its 82 advisory positions in East Timor in a shake up that is aimed at making its aid more effective.

Stephen Coates, Dili – A jade elephant rears majestically in the corner as patrons tuck into their burgers and fries at one of only three US-style fast-food joints in East Timor, all of which are Chinese owned and operated.

Paul Cleary – East Timor is continuing to entertain plans to drill for oil in waters as deep as 1900m. In one instance, it is using the contractor that was operating the Deepwater Horizon rig which exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in May.

Aubrey Belford, Gleno, East Timor – Gastao Salsinha, retired rebel and failed assassin, says it is probably politics that explains why he is free to roam East Timor's cloud-covered hinterlands rather than languishing in jail.

Dili – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has defended his decision to pardon rebels in the tiny nation following criticism by a UN envoy.

The UN special representative for East Timor, Ameerah Haq, raised concerns earlier this week about policing and the commuting of prison terms for some involved in unrest.

Bernard Lagan in New York and Yuko Narushima – East Timor has declared it does not want to become a mere transit point for boat people picked up in Australian waters.

Rina Jimenez-David, Bangkok – From 1975 to 1999, East Timor (or Timor-Leste as the people call their country) was subjected to a harsh and brutal conflict between the Indonesian occupying forces and a rebel force fighting for independence.

Aubrey Belford, Dili, East Timor – To Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho, the explosion last spring on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico – and the oil that then gushed for months into the surrounding waters – held alarming portents for his young, fragile nation.

Kupang – After taking refuge for 11 years at Belu regency, East Nusa Tenggara, following the 1999 referendum, 24 people returned to Timor Leste, facilitated by CIS Timor and the Care for Women and Children Forum (FPPA).

"They have been returned home through Mota'ain border in the north of Belu on Monday afternoon," CIS coordinator Deonato Moreira said Tuesday.

UN Security Council members and a special envoy have expressed concern over policing in East Timor and some decisions by President Jose Ramos-Horta.

Julian Drape – Australia will pay a "significant proportion" of the cost of building a refugee processing centre in East Timor, a senior government official says.

Labor is currently in talks with East Timor about opening a centre in the fledgling nation to house potentially thousands of asylum seekers.

Piers Akerman – Tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of the killing of five Australian newsmen at Balibo in East Timor.

Their executions by Indonesian special force troops was the subject of an inquiry by NSW Deputy State Coroner Dorelle Pinch in 2007, with Ms Pinch finding that the men were killed because they may have made public Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.

Larine Statham – Fresh concerns have emerged that East Timor's economy will be dealt a savage blow, leaving hundreds of people without work, when United Nations forces withdraw from the country.

East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta has a plan to keep the country's many taxi drivers, hospitality workers, landlords and moteliers in business.

Kirsty Needham – East Timorese and Australian officials will develop jointly a proposal for a refugee processing centre to be put to both governments by early 2011, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says.

Dili – East Timor has many problems of its own and is not ready to accept thousands of asylum seekers under an Australian plan to build a refugee hub in the tiny country, a lawmaker said Wednesday.

Tonight Ms. Dinorah Granadeiro, Director of Timor-Leste's NGO Forum, presented a public petition to the Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship at an invitation only reception in Dili.

Karlis Salna – Prime Minister Julia Gillard's vision for a regional refugee processing hub has been dealt a blow with East Timor's President insisting it will only be considered as a temporary solution.

Margie Mason, Oe-cusse enclave, East Timor – If there really was a place so remote it could be called the end of the earth, Adelino Quelo's shabby little hut would be prime real estate.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says he won't return from East Timor this week with a final deal to address people smuggling and the offshore processing of asylum seekers.

Mr Bowen will travel to East Timor for talks with President Jose Ramos-Horta and other senior Timorese officials in Dili on Tuesday, before flying to Indonesia and Malaysia.

Dili – Australia's Woodside Petroleum has changed its position and will consider processing gas from East Timor's vast Greater Sunrise liquefied natural gas fields on East Timor shores, East Timor said on Friday.

Dili – East Timor on Tuesday got a favourable write-up in a United Nations human rights report that pointed to progress four years after unrest that killed nearly 40 people, despite some continued problems.

East Timor's deputy prime minister and foreign minister have been indicted over corruption allegations and may be suspended from parliament to face charges in court.

Liam Cochrane – The indictment of two senior ministers in the East Timor government over corruption allegations could disrupt negotiations with Australia over a regional asylum seeker centre, according to observers.

Nicholas Jones – East Timor will lose more than revenue if a dispute with Woodside Petroleum over where gas from the Greater Sunrise field will be processed is not resolved, says an academic researching politics in the country.

Karon Snowdon – Woodside Petroleum has denied reports it is willing to consider processing gas from the Greater Sunrise field in East Timor.

Australia's Woodside Petroleum has promised East Timor it will re-examine Dili's demands for gas from the Greater Sunrise field to be processed on East Timorese soil, an official said on Wednesday.

Dili – About 400 protesters shouted anti-Australia slogans on Tuesday asofficials from Canberra held talks with their East Timorese counterparts over a troubled joint gas development project.

Bernard Lagan – East Timor has declared it does not want to become a mere transit point for boat people picked up in Australian waters.

Mark Dodd – East Timor wants Julia Gillard's proposal for an asylum-seeker processing centre linked to better co-operation with Canberra on maritime security.

Speaking by telephone from New York yesterday, Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa told The Australian he would meet his counterpart Kevin Rudd today to discuss the plan on the sidelines of the UN.

Helene Hofman – Human rights advocacy groups for East Timor have urged the US president to overturn the appointment of Indonesia's new ambassador to Washington.

Human rights advocacy groups for East Timor are calling on the president of the United States, Barack Obama, to reject the appointment of Indonesia's ambassador-designate to Washington.

Katharine Murphy and Yuko Narushima – Immigration Minister Chris Bowen will head to East Timor to revive plans for an offshore immigration processing facility following talks between Julia Gillard and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

East Timor's foreign minister says setting up a regional asylum seeker processing centre is not a simple bilateral matter for his country and Australia to decide.

Yuko Narushima – East Timor has refused to be party to humanitarian "trade-offs" in order to satisfy Australia's search for a country to detain asylum seekers.

Ambassador Abel Guterres said his country understood the plight of refugees and would not be bought by economic incentives offered by Australia.

Lindsay Murdoch – East Timor has rebuffed Julia Gillard over her plan to build a regional processing centre for asylum seekers there, referring the negotiations to a 50-nation meeting on people smuggling.

The decision means any talks to establish a centre will be more difficult and delayed for months until a meeting in Indonesia.

Paul Toohey – Attempts by Julia Gillard to get moving on her proposed asylum-seeker processing centre in East Timor have come at a bad time for Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who is presiding over a shaky government and cannot afford unpopular distractions.

Damien Kingsbury – As the new consolation prize, Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd's first job will be to try to implement the government's "East Timor solution" for asylum seekers. The issue is whether this policy has any chance of success.

Daniel Flitton – Julia Gillard's plan to turn East Timor into a regional hub to process refugee claims has been boosted after the government in Dili identified a possible site in the country's south to house asylum seekers.

Hamish McDonald – The minority government era of openness and co-operation has begun with strike one for secrecy against an attempt to open up 35-year-old defence intelligence information.

Guido Goulart, Dili – Prime Minster Xanana Gusmao said Friday that the resignation of his deputy, whose party has threatened to withdraw from the ruling coalition, will not lead to the collapse of East Timor's government.

Guido Goulart, Dili, East Timor – One of East Timor's deputy prime ministers said he has resigned after Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao publicly called him a "liar" for his outspoken critiques of the government's failure to tackle corruption and improve people's lives.

Peter Alford – Australia remains East Timor's key strategic partner, says its Foreign Minister, Zacarias da Costa.

Mr da Costa said Australian fears of increasing Chinese influence on his tiny nation are "groundless".

Lindsay Murdoch – The President of East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, has pardoned 23 rebels involved in attacks in 2008 during which he was shot in the back and almost died.

Dr Ramos-Horta survived only after being flown to Australia for emergency surgery. The newspaper Tempo Semanal quoted Dr Ramos-Horta as saying he was releasing the rebels because they were also victims.

Sara Everingham – East Timor's prime minister, Xanana Gusmao, has thanked the Chinese government for funding the construction of the country's new military headquarters.

In Dili this morning China and East Timor signed a contract for China to fund a new $9 million headquarters for Timor's fledgling army.

Simon Roughneen, Bangkok – Burma Foreign Minister Nyan Win concluded a three-day goodwill visit to Timor Leste on Sunday, after being met by protestors at Dili's international airport on Friday.

On 20 August 2010, coinciding with the 35th anniversary of the establishment of Falintil, the President of the Republic of Timor-Leste issued Presidential Decree No. 31/2010 to pardon 26 convicted persons who were found guilty in a court of law for their involvement in the 2006 crisis as well as the attack and attempted murder that took place on 11 February 2008.

East Timor has taken exception to comments by Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the development of a gas field in the Timor Sea.

The development of the Greater Sunrise field has stalled because of a dispute between East Timor and Woodside. Yesterday Ms Gillard said Woodside's decisions should be in the best interests of its shareholders.

Dili – East Timor's president said Friday his country is seeking to improve relations with Myanmar, including commercial ties.

"We want to increase our relations," President Jose Ramos-Horta said after meeting Myanmar's foreign minister during a visit that drew protests over human rights abuses in military-ruled Myanmar.

Dili – Human rights activists clashed with police in East Timor on Friday as they protested the visit of Myanmar's foreign minister and demanded the release of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.