East Timor remains in a very tense state with president Xanana Gusmao demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri after allegations earlier this week about his involvement in the recent massacre of police in Dili. Former diplomat in the region Bruce Haig says he strongly suspects Indonesia has a hand in the current turn of events as Alaktiri's stand on many issues means he's not the preferred ruler in the eyes of either Indonesia or Australia.

Earlier this week, Australians were shocked to hear of the fatal mistake one of our soldiers had made in Iraq.After thinking the Iraqi trade minister’s bodyguards were insurgents, a group of Australian soldiers opened fire, killing one of the men.Now, the Iraqi trade minister, as well as demanding a full apology and compensation from the Australian Government, has also threatened to reconsider trade between the countries. Dr ANDREW O’NEIL, a senior lecturer in the School of Political and International Studies at Flinders University, explains what the incident would mean for the situation in Iraq

Since the late nineties, the Australian government has been trying to increase the regulation of the internet.Recently, the government has faced growing pressure from religious and family lobby groups, and the opposition, to crack down on internet pornography.Now the government has unveiled a new scheme, set to make Australia the ‘net nanny state’.

In the wake of this week's shocking expose of the connection between petrol sniffing and child abuse on at least one indigenous community, indigenous elder Mona Tur decided to send he own message of sadness and support for the elder who spoke out on the program. Mona has worked for more than thirty years on the problem of petrol sniffing and she says governments still try to solve it by bringing in experts rather than working with the communities themselves. Lillian Holt who has worked in aboriginal eduction for three decades says the media tends to either romanticise or demonise indigenous issues without really tackling the entrenched racism which she says is the heart of the problem.

Making this country's water go around fairly is a complex problem being worked upon by scientists, governments and farmers . Professor Mike Young formerly worked for the CSIRO in land and water management - he's now been appointed Professor of Water Economics and Management at the University of Adelaide and says he's been inspired by what accountants have to offer towards solving the issue.

With grape growers currently dumping their crops it was alarming to hear this week that citrus farmers are dumping oranges. Mike Cock os Vice President of the Citrus Growers Association of Australia - he says it's frost not a glut that's causing the dumping and that citrus growers are now used to dealing with what they say is unfair competition with overseas imports and they're relying on consumers to buy local and deliver a successful season.