Bruce Haigh – The NSW coronial inquest into the killing of five journalists in East Timor in 1975 has achieved far more than earlier government inquiries into the deaths.
The Deputy NSW Coroner, Dorelle Pinch, has been able to uncover facts that other investigations could not, and the inquest has confirmed the cover-up engaged in by successive Australian governments.
Australia's defence chief says a former Indonesian general who was invited to give evidence at the Balibo inquest during a visit to Sydney last month was not involved in the 1975 killing of five Australia-based journalists in East Timor.
Criminals in East Timor will be offered the chance of clemency for crimes committed in the past year under a new bill passed by the fledgling nation's parliament this week.
Christine Kearney – Ugly. Rapacious. Bruising and governed by the narrowest definitions of national interest. These are a few of the descriptions that spring to mind after reading this devastating portrait of Australia's negotiations over oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.
Evidence given by different witnesses to the Sydney coroner's court inquest into the death of Brian Peters and four other journalists in the East Timor town of Balibo on 16 October 1975 indicate that former Gen. Sutiyoso, now governor of Jakarta, may have been an army captain in "Team Susi," the Indonesian military unit responsible for taking Balibo that day.
Shirley Shackleton – The sudden departure on May 29 of visiting Jakarta governor, General Sutiyoso, after being asked to give evidence at the inquest into the death of Brian Peters in East Timor in 1975, further incriminates him in the plot to kill five Australian journalists in Balibo, East Timor, in 1975.
Jakarta – Aware that the Indonesian language is spoken by most people in Timor Leste, the country's government has decided to make the Indonesian language, or Bahasa Indonesia, its working language.
Visiting Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta said that Bahasa Indonesia was even used in state offices for day-to-day communication.
Jakarta – Indonesia and its former colony East Timor agreed Tuesday to extend by six months the work of a joint truth commission tasked at gathering the facts surrounding Indonesia's military rampage ahead of East Timor's 1999 vote for independence. The commission's mandate now extends until February.
East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta has praised a much-criticised commission probing the violence that accompanied his nation's break from Indonesian rule in 1999, saying it could be a model for other nations.
A Darwin-based East Timor activist says there is more than enough evidence for the Northern Territory coroner to hold an inquest into the death of an Australian man 32 years ago.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Two supporters of East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta have been shot dead by off-duty police as trouble mounts ahead of parliamentary elections.
East Timor's new president Jose Ramos Horta says the nation's police force continues to suffer from a lack of discipline, after officers allegedly shot dead two activists during rallies for a new party headed by former East Timor president Xanana Gusmao.
Saying the deaths had embarrassed the nation, Ramos Horta declared those responsible should receive "severe punishment".
Dili – A mob hurled rocks at the motorcade of East Timorese independence hero Xanana Gusmao and one of his supporters was shot dead Sunday amid growing violence ahead of parliamentary elections on June 30, police said.
Gunmen shot dead a political activist during a campaign rally for a new party headed by former East Timor President Xanana Gusmao, a witness and an official says.
The Sydney coronial inquest into the deaths of the five Australian based journalists at Balibo in East Timor on October 16, 1975 has just concluded with a hard-hitting summation from the Coroner's legal counsel.
Hamish McDonald – Families of the five newsmen killed at Balibo, East Timor, in 1975 have told a Sydney inquest they were tricked by Australian officials into agreeing to the burial of the purported remains in Jakarta.
Janet Fife-Yeomans, Sydney – The families of five young Australian journalists "executed" by Indonesian forces at Balibo in East Timor called yesterday for the killers to be prosecuted for war crimes.
Lindsay Murdoch – East Timor's ruling Fretilin party says it will support the prosecution of people responsible for atrocities committed in the country, including former Indonesian military officers.
The commander of an Indonesian special forces unit accused of murdering five Australia-based journalists in East Timor in 1975 has more lately styled himself as a champion of free speech.
Tom Allard – East Timor's former prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, and his officials were convinced the Australian Government was spying on them during the often heated negotiations for a treaty over oil and gas in the Timor Sea.
Reporter: Mark Colvin
Mark Colvin: "Shakedown" is a slang term for an act of extortion, and a shakedown is what the writer Paul Cleary calls the way Australia acted towards East Timor over the oil and gas in the sea between our two countries.
My husband was convinced he would die young – that's why I married him. Just before he went to Timor Leste, as it is now called, I asked him, "What became of the idea that you would die young?"
"I've been meaning to talk to you about that," he replied. "I think I was wrong about the time; right about the event."
When the governor of Jakarta, Sutiyoso, rejected a request earlier this week to attend and testify at the inquest into the death of British journalist Brian Peters now underway in Sydney, New South Wales, he was showing contempt for a long-delayed effort to examine the circumstances that led to the deaths of five journalists from Britain, Australia and New Zealand in October 1975.
Ben Saul – As the coronial inquest into the killing of five journalists at Balibo draws to a close, the critical question is: what happens next? Despite four Australian inquiries and a United Nations investigation in 2001, no one has been brought to justice for the killings in East Timor in 1975.
Sydney – The killing of five journalists in East Timor in 1975 returned to haunt Indonesia and Australia Wednesday as an inquest into their deaths drew to a close with a call for war crimes charges to be laid.
Reporters Without Borders voiced support today for Glebe deputy coroner Dorelle Pinch after her inquest into the 1975 murders of journalist Brian Peters and four colleagues in East Timor led to a diplomatic incident.
Tito Belo, Dili – Four people were injured on Wednesday when a grenade exploded during gang fighting in East Timor's capital as campaigning for next month's parliamentary elections got underway, police and hospital staff said.
Jon Lamb – Amidst allegations of intimidation and politically orchestrated violence in the wake of East Timor's recent presidential election, political parties are preparing for the June 30 legislative election.
Sydney – An Indonesian marine said five Australian-based journalists killed in East Timor in October 1975 had been "completed" or finished off by the military, an inquest was told Tuesday.
A truth commission investigating the violence surrounding East Timor's historic vote for independence in 1999 says it is having trouble accessing documents, including from the Indonesian military.
Jakarta – A worldwide coalition of some three dozen human rights groups have called on Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta to close the bilateral Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF), because it is "not-credible."
In an open letter to the presidents of Indonesia and Timor-Leste, a worldwide coalition of three dozen human rights organizations led by groups from Indonesia and Timor-Leste have called on President Yudhoyono and President Ramos-Horta to close the bilateral Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF).
In an open letter to the presidents of Indonesia and Timor-Leste, a worldwide coalition of three dozen human rights organizations led by groups from Indonesia and Timor-Leste today called on President Yudhoyono and President Ramos-Horta to close the bilateral Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF).
Stephen Fitzpatrick – East Timorese renegade soldier Alfredo Reinado has delivered yet another slap in the face to Australian troops hunting him, appearing on Indonesian television to taunt his pursuers.
Sleman, Yogyakarta – Local authorities have seized thousands of history school textbooks over reported factual inaccuracies concerning the Indonesian Communist Party.
Employees of the Sleman Education Office have since Monday been seizing books from schools across the city, and plan to continue the operation through the end of the month.
Tito Belo, Dili – Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's newly elected president, took the oath of office at a simple ceremony in Dili on Sunday, succeeding Xanana Gusmao as leader of the young nation.
Dili – Estanislau Aleixo da Silva was sworn in Saturday as East Timor's interim prime minister, succeeding Jose Ramos Horta, who was elected president of the tiny state in a landslide earlier this month.
Reporter: Anne Barker
Elizabeth Jackson: A special ceremony will be held in East Timor today to swear in the country's second president, Jose Ramos Horta, who replaces Xanana Gusmao.
Under the Constitution the new president must take office on the anniversary of independence. It's five years today since East Timor became an independent nation.
Markus Mannheim – A senior diplomat who refused to break the law by lying about Australia's aid program was later denied an extension to his overseas posting in apparent retribution.
A Sydney court has heard the foreign affairs minister in 1975 was pressured not to tell the families of the Balibo five that the men had been killed on the grounds of national security.
Geoff Briot was the foreign affairs minister's chief of staff when five Australian journalists were killed at Balibo in East Timor 32 years ago.
Hamish McDonald – The top foreign affairs official under the Whitlam government today slammed its policies on East Timor as "chilling".
Alan Renouf, 84, who had been head of the Department of Foreign Affairs selected by former prime minister Gough Whitlam, told a Sydney coroner of his conflicts over Mr Whitlam's policies towards Indonesia, which invaded East Timor in 1975.
Alyssa Braithwaite, Sydney – The Australian government was forewarned that Indonesian soldiers disguised as civilians or anti-Fretilin troops planned to invade East Timor on October 16, 1975, an inquest has been told.
Five Australia-based newsmen were killed in an attack by Indonesian special forces troops in the Timorese border town of Balibo on October 16, 1975.
Phillip Winn – After decades of dominance, Fretilin's star appears on the wane.
The mood for change in East Timor has been tangible and leaders of the ruling Fretilin Party have sensed it.
Dili – Timor Leste President Xanana Gusmao expressed the gratitude of the nation s authorities and people Tuesday, for Cuba s medical and educational cooperation.
[Max Lane spoke to Avelino Coelho, general secretary of the Socialist Party of Timor (PST) about East Timor's presidential election, the second round of which was held on May 9.]
Tony Iltis – The second round of East Timor's presidential elections, held on May 9, resulted in the victory of Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta. Ramos Horta, running as an independent, had won 73% of the vote with 90% of ballots counted. He won a majority in 10 out of 13 districts.
Political clashes and street fights between machete-wielding rival gangs in East Timor have left one person dead and injured more than 20 people less than a week after a presidential run-off, officials said on Wednesday.
Fugitive army rebel Alfredo Reinado says he is ready to give himself up to East Timor authorities after deciding he could get a fair trial.
Last August, Reinado and 50 other inmates escaped from a prison where he was being held on charges of involvement in a wave of violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes last year.
Dili – Incoming East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta's chances of achieving major reform in the troubled tiny state hinge on the outcome of next month's parliamentary elections, according to analysts.
Really encouraging news from East Timor is hard to come by, but the election of Jose Ramos Horta as its new president should be widely welcomed, and not only by his own citizens, some 70 per cent of whom voted for him in the second round run-off, but in the region and the wider community of nations.