OECUSSE, East Timor (AP) — A defrocked American priest went on trial Tuesday to face charges he sexually abused young girls at his shelter for orphans and children from impoverished families, in...

OECUSSE, East Timor (AP) — East Timor abruptly postponed the trial Monday of a defrocked American priest facing allegations he sexually abused young girls at a children’s shelter he ran in a...

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor's prime minister offered his resignation Tuesday after the budget failed to pass in Parliament.

Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak said he would continue to...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia for the first time has canceled a tourist's visa over undeclared food as the country tries to keep itself free of African swine fever.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Former Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who allowed democratic reforms and an independence referendum for East Timor following the ouster of dictator...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Former Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who allowed democratic reforms and an independence referendum for East Timor following the ouster of the dictator...

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor on Friday marked the 20th anniversary of a referendum that secured its independence from Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia on Friday announced a new maritime security agreement with East Timor in which the fledgling democracy will gain naval infrastructure and an undersea internet...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A former Australian spy charged with conspiring to reveal classified information about an allegation that Australia bugged East Timor's government during negotiations...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Two whistleblowers appeared in a Canberra court on Thursday charged separately with leaking classified government information that alleges Australia bugged East Timor's...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A former Australian spy will plead guilty to conspiring to reveal classified information about an allegation that Australia bugged East Timor's government during...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's Parliament has approved the ratification of a maritime boundary treaty signed with East Timor 16 months ago and the government is now under pressure to...

DILI, East Timor (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta has urged Indonesia's government to hold talks with the Papuan independence movement to help end a decades-long insurgency in the country's easternmost region.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Six people were honored Friday as this year's winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, known as Asia's version of the Nobel Prize, including a Cambodian genocide survivor who helped document the Khmer Rouge atrocities and an Indian psychiatrist who led the rescue of thousands of mentally ill street paupers.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's prime minister on Friday distanced his government from a decision to prosecute a former spy and his lawyer who accuse Australia of illegally bugging the East Timorese Cabinet while negotiating a deal to share oil and gas revenue.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A former spy and his lawyer who accused the Australian government of illegally bugging the East Timorese Cabinet while negotiating a deal to share oil and gas revenue have been charged with conspiring to disclose secret information.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor's president has refused to swear in 11 Cabinet ministers because of corruption investigations in a rocky beginning for a new government formed after a protracted political stalemate in the young nation.

Former President and independence fighter Jose Maria Vasconcelos, commonly known as Taur Matan Ruak, was sworn in as prime minister on Friday after a three-party alliance won a majority of parliament seats in a May 25 election.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timorese voted Saturday in their second election for parliament in less than a year after the collapse of a minority government.

A three-party alliance led by independence hero Xanana Gusmao's National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction party is vying against Fretilin, which headed the short-lived government formed following July's election.

Polls closed at 3 p.m. and preliminary results may not be known until Sunday.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta has waded back into the young country's politics ahead of parliamentary elections next month, calling the government a total failure in the past decade in crucial areas such as reducing child malnutrition and providing clean water.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor's political parties kicked off a month of campaigning Tuesday for new parliamentary elections due in May with promises to boost development in one of Asia's poorest nations.

It will be the second parliamentary election in less than a year for East Timor's fledgling democracy. A minority government formed after elections last July and led by the Fretilin party collapsed in January after its policy program and budget were defeated in parliament.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — Thousands of East Timorese lined the road to the capital's international airport on Sunday to cheer returning independence hero Xanana Gusmao for leading negotiations that settled the sea border between the impoverished country and Australia.

Gusmao, whose party lost power in parliamentary elections last year, was greeted at Dili's tiny airport with cries of "Viva Xanana Gusmao."

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Australia and East Timor signed a historic treaty drawing their maritime boundary Tuesday, ending years of bitter wrangling over billions of dollars of oil and gas riches lying beneath the Timor Sea and opening a new chapter in relations.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The latest on peace treaty between Australia and East Timor setting maritime border (all times local):

7:05 p.m.

Australia and East Timor have signed a historic treaty drawing their maritime boundary, ending years of bitter wrangling over billions of dollars of oil and gas riches that lie beneath the Timor Sea and opening a new chapter in relations.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor will hold new elections after the minority government formed last year was unable to get its policy program and budget through parliament, the country's president said Friday.

President Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres said he had dissolved the parliament. He has yet to announce an election date.

"I ask the people to vote again. We will all go to vote. We will all go to elections to improve our democracy," he said.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — Almost two dozen parties are contesting parliamentary elections in East Timor this weekend that are likely to return independence heroes to power despite frustration in the young democracy with lack of economic progress and warnings the country could be bankrupt within a decade.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An East Timor court on Thursday dismissed a criminal defamation case brought by the country's prime minister against two journalists due to lack of evidence.

Rights groups and press advocates had urged that the case be dropped, fearing it would further undermine press freedom in one of the world's youngest democracies.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — An unofficial vote count shows a former guerrilla leader has won East Timor's presidency in the first election without U.N. supervision since peacekeepers left in 2012.

The tally announced Tuesday by the country's election office indicated that Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres had a commanding lead over the Democratic Party's Antonio da Conceicao, who is minister of education and social affairs.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor voted for a new president Monday in an election that will test Asia's newest and poorest nation.

Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, a former guerrilla leader from the leftist Fretilin party, was up against seven other candidates. He and the Democratic Party's Antonio da Conceicao, the minister of education and social affairs, were the front-runners.

While East Timor's president has a mostly ceremonial role, the prime minister heads the government.

SAPPORO, Japan (AP) — For Alpine skier Yohan Goutt Goncalves, the chance to be East Timor's sole representative at the Asian Winter Games was too good to pass up, even if it meant missing the world championships.

Goutt Goncalves could have taken part in the Alpine skiing world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland but chose instead to travel to Japan to become East Timor's first athlete at the Asian Winter Games.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — Two East Timorese journalists are going on trial in a criminal defamation case brought by the country's prime minister that has alarmed press freedom groups.

Raimundos Oki and his former boss Lourenco Vicente Martins are charged with "slanderous denunciation" and face up to three years in prison if found guilty. The trial is set to begin Friday.

Rights groups and press advocates have urged that the case be dropped.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — East Timor and Australia opened conciliation talks Monday in their bitter legal battle to set a permanent maritime boundary that will carve up billions of dollars in oil and gas reserves underneath the seabed.

East Timor, one of the world's most impoverished nations, is seeking to draw a border midway between the two countries that would give it more of the sea bed than under current agreements with its wealthy neighbor to the south.