This afternoon, three judges in Dili will deliver the most important court verdict in independent Timor-Leste’s history. From ABC:

Australian woman Angelita Pires will today learn her fate over the alleged assassination attempt against two of East Timor's leaders.

Pires is one of 28 people standing trial over the alleged assassination attempt against East Timorese president Jose Ramos-Horta and prime minister Xanana Gusmao in February 2008.

The Australian media loves this story. You can expect it to be all over Aussie media today and tomorrow. Will Angie Pires be found guilty? If so, will she be pardoned? Ramos-Horta has said he may pardon anyone found guilty, but only after an amount of time to be decided by him. Judge Horta. He is the law.

Professor Damien Kingsbury told AP that “[t]he judiciary is under a great deal of scrutiny at the moment and this is easily the single most important case to have ever gone before it”.

We’ve learnt all about Angie Pires thanks to the Australian media. One reporter even went so far as to refer to her as “beautiful”. Are any of the men on trial handsome? Who can be sure?

The big question on my mind is: when is the book coming out?

I don't know what is going on, but upon my return to Dili, I appear to have come down with all sorts of illnesses, all at the same time. First of all my tonsillitis came back, which was unpleasant. Then I caught a cold, which I'm just getting over now. And then I did something weird to my neck, which at first I thought was because I slept funny, but now I'm starting to think it might be something else because one side of my neck, not my throat, hurts a bit when I swallow.

It's been difficult to get back to work with this going on. I think I'm on the mend, but you can never tell with these things. There is definitely something about the water in Dili that my body doesn't agree with. I had some weird skin problems before that went away when I left Dili last year. I don't think it's the climate because I've lived in Southeast Asia for a while now. Maybe it's the dust.

The UN Security Council needs to step up and take action to address the lack of accountability for human rights violations committed in East Timor to ensure there isn't a repeat of the violence that has marred Dili, the nation's capital, in recent years, says Amnesty International.

"On two separate occasions since independence, in 2006 and again in 2008, political violence erupted in [East Timor]," wrote Renzo Pomi, Amnesty's representative at the UN, in a letter dated Tuesday.

"Although there were complex reasons for each situation, the failure to rebuild the justice system effectively and to bring those responsible for past human rights violations to justice contributed to an environment where there was no strong deterrent to political violence and human rights abuses."

With the UN's current mission in the East Timor up for renewal this Friday, Pomi said it's time to tie up loose ends, complete investigations and push ahead with prosecutions for the many human rights violations that occurred during the brutal 24-year occupation by the Indonesian military between 1975-99.

"I am writing to urge the Security Council to take immediate steps to address the continuing lack of accountability for crimes against humanity and other grave human rights violations which occurred in [East Timor] under Indonesia’s occupation," wrote Pomi.

A technical assessment of the UN's mission in East Timor, carried out last month, echoed the findings of last year's independent needs assessment of the country's justice sector, added Pomi.

"Both reports identified deficiencies and challenges regarding the rule of law, judicial independence and confronting impunity, inter alia."

More than 100,000 people died through fighting, disease and starvation as a result of the Indonesian occupation. East Timor became formally independent in 2002 but today is still one of the world's poorest nations.

For the sake of informing the world, I am now back in Dili and working once more, writing stories about this, that and the other. I will be here for the foreseeable future. Got a project you think deserves attention or a burning issue you reckon needs covering? I can be contacted by email or else I'm back on my old phone number, contact details here.

Dili seems much the same as ever. I haven't been here since October last year, I think. There is a lot more traffic and it's still very hot, but otherwise everything looks in order. And my goodness, what a monstrosity the Chinese embassy has turned out to be. It's an enormous white cube.

The nightlife is as banging as ever. I'm also feeling rather sick today, possibly a return of the tonsillitis I had previously. Fun and games.

I'm not on the ground in Dili and I'm getting my info from a UN press release at this time, so I don't have all the details yet. There was a shooting on Monday in the Comoro neighbourhood of Dili. Supposedly there was some kind of situation to which local officers were called, one of whom is alleged to have shot someone dead.

There are investigations ongoing, so it's difficult to make a judgment, but a Timorese police officer shooting someone dead is terrible news. Another person was shot and injured. The fact that the police have guns is bad in itself. And this is the police force the UN is handing back after "training" them.

If you live in Dili, you will have seen the way some Timorese police officers deal with volatile situations. They sometimes fire warning shots, or else just hit people with batons. I remember being at the finish line of the Tour de Timor and seeing officers kick people, even children, out of the way.

What kind of precedent does this set for the Timorese people now? They see their national police force using guns and shooting people. Of course, we don't know the full details of the situation that unraveled that night. Maybe the PNTL had guns pulled on them, but violence in that area is more likely to involve rocks or maybe knives.

Not a good way to end the year. No word yet on who was killed.

Addendum: The pieces are starting to come together. It sounds like there was a brawl at a wedding and police fired live rounds into the crowd. A 25-year-old man called Kuka was killed.

It will be interesting to see how Longuinhos deals with this. He does seem to think he is in control of a military force, after all.

Earlier this month, Tempo Semanal reported that a PNTL officer shot shot a youth in the chest at a party in Dili. The same story went on to say that the Timorese police force had requested more weapons, a request that was turned down by the government.

The idea of putting guns in the hands of inexperienced, untrained, immature police officers is frightening. There needs to be tighter gun control. I don't want to hear about investigations into this or that, or empty promises — they need to get guns off the street.

This is a real test for the PNTL and the UN. Just recently, Atul Khare was talking about the importance of police accountability and disciplinary measures against officers who violate the penal code.

Addendum two: A slightly edited account from Dili:

Many in Dili were prepared for possible clashes this morning at, during and after Kuka's funeral, funeral procession and his sad burial. The prime minister was in lockdown with immense security around his home on and off all day. The PNTL have so far kept their distance. President Jose Ramos-Horta has condemned the tragic and unnecessary killing of this young, talented and deeply loved university student and vowed there will be consequences for those PNTL involved.