Around three hundred and fifty Australian troops are by now on the ground in east Timor to help quell the rising violence in the small and newly independent nation.That’s on top of the troops still serving in Iraq, and presumably not including the ones that have just returned from helping calm things down in the Solomon Islands.Are we getting a little thinly stretched, considering we are an island nation that with an army that until the past few years didn’t really expect to see much active service.Professor Hugh White from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in Canberra, also a visiting research fellow at the Lowie Institute, says boots on the ground will be in short supply if Australia continues with this kind of regional crisis management.

When Prime Minister THAKSIT CHINAWAT bowed out of politics into exile two months ago, many Thai people were sceptical of him staying away from the position of power.And it turns out they were right.Earlier this week, Prime Minister CHINAWAT announced his return to keep the country of Thailand from spiralling out of control. JAY LAMEY, our south-east Asia Correspondent in Thailand, says what Prime Minister CHINAWAT’s return would mean for Thailand

Residents of Rathdownie in south eastern Queensland are ramping up their campaign against a dam planned for their area, a dam which they say would displace 3000 people and destroy a way of life. Local landowner Kathleen panitz says existing dams in the area have been dry for years and that another dam is not the solution to water shortages in the area. Campaign organiser John Robinson has called in Greens Senator Bob Brown, who will visit the area on the weekend and give the locals some tips on how to get their concerns noticed by the state government.

Today is national sorry day, and in Adelaide, hundreds gathered together in Victoria Square to mark the occasion. NORM HARPEL, one of the founding members of the Journey of Healing Association says why today is the day to remember. According to Link-Up, a program linking people from the stolen generation with their families, about ten people a year are successfully getting in contact with long lost loved ones. Sisters CHRISSIE and QUANYA JEAN-ANNE McKIERNEARNEY are two of eight from their family who were taken under the white Australia policy and they explain how their mother thought her children were going on a holiday.