[The Circle of Silence: A Personal Testimony before, during, and after Balibo Author: Shirley Shackleton, Publisher: Pier 9, 2010, Pages: 390.]

East Timor says it will go ahead with a planned four billion dollar oil and gas hub on its southern coast whether Woodside Petroleum commits to onshore gas processing or not.

Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta – Journalists have criticized Thursday's "vague" court ruling that upheld the government's ban on the controversial film "Balibo" as an indication of the government's unwillingness to confront its "dark past."

Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta – The Jakarta Administrative Court on Thursday rejected the Alliance of Independent Journalist's appeal to overturn the ban on the Australian film "Balibo."

Dili – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday he was waiting for the new Australian government to be installed before talks about a regional refugee centre could "re-open."

Abdullah Alamudi, Jakarta – The discovery of a grave in a South Jakarta cemetery of the five Australian-based journalists killed in Balibo, East Timor, nearly 35 years ago, may soon shed some light on their ashes or remains.

The journalists, known as the Balibo Five, died on Oct. 16, 1975 while covering the Indonesian invasion on the then Portuguese colony.

Dili – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday his country had "no plans" to build a detention centre for asylum seekers as proposed by Australia, but remained open to discuss the idea.

"The government of Timor-Leste has no plans to build or authorise a processing centre to be opened in Timor-Leste," he told AFP, using his tiny country's formal name.

The Australian Government's proposal to develop a regional processing centre for asylum seekers East Timor looks more shaky by the day.

The Government says an Australian delegation visited East Timor last week for discussions and had productive talks. But East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister says the Australians arrived when many Timorese politicians were visiting China.

Mark Dodd – Negotiations for an offshore refugee processing centre in East Timor appear to have stalled.

Although talks are continuing, The Australian understands they are severely restricted by caretaker provisions during the election and no deal can be reached until after the poll.

Indonesia appears lukewarm on Australia's plan to build a regional asylum-seeker processing centre in East Timor.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith briefed his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa on the Gillard government's proposal during talks in Jakarta today.

Andrea Booth – Australia's failure to consult Indonesia about an asylum processing centre in East Timor is likely to exacerbate tensions between our two northern neighbours.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith arrived in Indonesia yesterday, with talks on the issue anticipated. Officials here won't say it, but it was wrong of Australia not to consult Indonesia on its policy.

East Timorese Deputy Prime Minister Mario Viegas Carrascalao yesterday rejected an Australian proposal to process asylum-seekers.

Mr Carrascalao said East Timor had too many problems of its own to deal with Australia's as well.

Talek Harris, Sydney – Australia said on Tuesday it remained in talks with East Timor over a regional asylum seeker center despite a rejection by the tiny country's Parliament, which dealt the pre-election policy a severe blow.

Jakarta – A government spokesman said Sunday he had never heard of a grave at Tanah Kusir cemetery in Jakarta, believed to be the final resting place of five foreign journalists killed in then East Timor in 1975.

Nelson da Cruz, Dili – Timor's parliament voted Monday to reject an Australian proposal for the impoverished country to become a regional refugee processing centre for Australian-bound asylum seekers.

Australian officials will travel to East Timor this week to continue discussing plans for a regional asylum processing centre.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said today he had spoken with East Timor's foreign minister Zacarias da Costa about the plan.

The widow of one of the Balibo Five has paid her first visit to his grave, 35 years after the death of the five newsmen in East Timor.

Shirley Shackleton, 78, sat today beside the grave in a Jakarta cemetery which holds the remains of her husband Greg Shackleton, together with those of Brian Peters, Gary Cunningham, Malcolm Rennie and Anthony Stewart.

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – More than three decades have passed since Shirley Shackleton heard the devastating news that her husband, a journalist covering the conflict in then East Timor, was killed.

But Shackleton, now 78, still embraces every opportunity given to her to seek out the truth behind the tragedy.

Sydney – Australia's new prime minister Julia Gillard on Friday talked up her plan for a regional refugee centre to tackle people smuggling but backed away from suggestions it should be built in East Timor.

Damien Kingsbury – A few years ago, a Burmese couple on the run from that country's brutal military regime sought asylum in Australia. They had landed in East Timor and went to the embassy. Their application for refugee status was ultimately refused and, unable to return to Burma, they stayed in Dili.

Damien Kingsbury – The announcement by the Gillard government that it intends to use East Timor as a processing stop-over for asylum seekers is either a very clever political ploy or a blunder that has the potential to derail her run for a second term for her government.

Sara Everingham, Dili – Prime Minister Julia Gillard's plan to send asylum seekers to a regional processing centre in East Timor is running into increasing opposition from the country's politicians.

Dili, East Timor – East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao said Thursday his government was open to discussing Australia's proposal to process Australia-bound asylum seekers in the impoverished nation.

Stephen Coates – The wife of an Australian reporter allegedly killed by Indonesian forces in East Timor in 1975 told a Jakarta court on Thursday that she believed her husband was shot after surrendering to the Army.

Rohan Sullivan, Sydney – East Timor's president said Wednesday he supports in principle an Australian plan to turn his country into a regional center for processing asylum seekers but does not want his tiny, impoverished nation to become an "island prison."

Meagan Weymes – East Timor's voters went to the polls Saturday in parliamentary elections seen as a key test for the young and fragile democracy and likely to determine if UN peacekeepers can leave by the end of the year.

The wife of an Australian reporter allegedly killed by Indonesian forces in East Timor in 1975 said on Wednesday that she trusted the Indonesian people to make up their own minds about what happened.

Stephen Fitzpatrick in Jakarta and Paul Cleary – East Timor MP Jose Teixeira was thoroughly perplexed yesterday by Julia Gillard's announcement of plans for an asylum-seeker processing centre.

Hamish McDonald, Asia-Pacific editor – The East Timorese President, Jose Ramos-Horta, is "sympathetic" to the Australian Prime Minister's request to set up a processing centre for asylum seekers in his country, but has not yet given his agreement.

Rohan Sullivan, Sydney – Australia's new leader proposed Tuesday to stop an influx of asylum seeker boats by making East Timor a hub for processing UN refugee claims for people fleeing war and persecution – an idea the tiny, impoverished nation said it was still considering.

Sara Everingham, Kerri Ritchie and staff – East Timor's deputy prime minister says his country does not have the capacity to set up a regional processing centre for asylum seekers.

Earlier today Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the Government was negotiating with East Timor on setting up a centre to handle new boat arrivals before they arrived in Australia.

Karlis Salna – Julia Gillard has flagged offshore refugee processing through East Timor as she seeks to reposition Labor on the asylum seeker issue ahead of the federal election.

The prime minister, in her second full week in the job, has torn up elements of Labor's border protection policy under Kevin Rudd and embraced the processing of refugees in third countries.

AI Index: PRE 01/206/2010

Amnesty International is urging Timor-Leste to close a legal loophole that is allowing war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1975-1999 Indonesian occupation to go unpunished.

People who committed war crimes in East Timor during Indonesia's 1975-1999 occupation are going unpunished because of a loophole in the country's penal code, Amnesty International says.

Dili – East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao on Friday welcomed new Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and thanked ousted leader Kevin Rudd for his "steadfast support".

Kirsty Needham – Bringing an oil pipeline to East Timor would do more to alleviate poverty than Australia's $100 million aid program could achieve, East Timor's President, Jose Ramos-Horta, said last night.

Matt Chambers – When East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta fronts the National Press Club in Canberra today, the Greater Sunrise gas partners – led by Woodside Petroleum – are hoping for a softening in rhetoric from the small country, which has railed against development plans for the huge resource.

East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta is using a state visit to Australia to try to calm escalating tensions over the development of the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field in the Timor Sea. He's still pushing for a pipeline take the gas for processing in East Timor, rather than go with Greater Sunrise Consortium's preference of a floating processing facility.

Linda Mottram, Canberra

East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta is using a state visit to Australia to fight against plans to process gas from the Timor Sea on a floating platform, and not via a pipeline in East Timor.

Ray Brindal and Rachel Pannett, Canberra – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday a decision on a site for a plant to process gas from the Greater Sunrise field will be made on commercial grounds, but whether the plant goes ahead will depend on the cost of a pipeline needed to haul the gas to East Timor.

Damien Kingsbury – Australia's relationship with East Timor is at its lowest ebb since 2005 when Alexander Downer bullied then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri into accepting a fundamentally unfair division of the Timor Sea between the two countries.

Adam Gartrell – An Australian woman cleared of plotting to assassinate East Timor's top political leaders intends to sue the country's president for defamation.

Angelita Pires says President Jose Ramos Horta was a driving force behind allegations of her involvement in the February 2008 attempt on his life and the life of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

On 14 June 2010, East Timor community figure Joao Quintao (57), a retired Indonesian military senior sergeant, said that the thousands of refugees from East Timor living in refugee settlements in East Nusa Tenggara have poor living conditions and were disappointed with government policy. Quintao made his comments at the Tuapukan refugee camp in Kupang.

Paul Toohey – East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has taken in recent weeks to heavily bagging Australia, including a strange speech in which he, seemingly apropos of nothing, dug deep into the past and said Australia had selfishly cost the lives of 60,000 East Timorese by coming to Timor to "wage war" against the Japanese in World War II.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta has attacked international aid agency AusAID for forcing the closure of what he says is one of his country's few successful aid projects.

Simon Roughneen – East Timor's government has declined a proposal by Australian oil and gas company Woodside to process gas drawn from the Greater Sunrise field on board a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the Timor Sea, claiming that it would be deprived of tens of billions of dollars in much needed revenues under the arrangement.

East Timor's government is emphatic it would rather leave the Greater Sunrise gas deposits under the Timor Sea than drop its demand the gas be piped to East Timor for processing.

A military parade and blessing ceremony is planned in East Timor later this week to formally mark the arrival of two patrol boats purchased from China. The Shanghai-three-class vessels will be used to combat illegal fishing and other illicit activities in East Timor's territorial waters.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Two 43-metre Chinese-made navy patrol boats mounted with 30-millimetre cannon, initially to be crewed by Chinese sailors, will be launched in East Timor this week in what observers say is a slap in the face for Australian diplomacy.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor has accused Woodside of "grandstanding" over its plans to build a floating liquefied natural gas platform above the Timor Sea's Greater Sunrise field, in the latest salvo in an acrimonious stand-off over the multibillion-dollar project.