In East Timor Thursday, clashes between the military and a group of dismissed soldiers left at least nine people dead and 27 injured. It was one of East Timor’s worst days of fighting since becoming an independent state in 2002. The conflict erupted weeks ago when the East Timorese government fired more than 600 striking soldiers. Tens of thousands of civilians have since been displaced. Most of Thursday’s dead were unarmed soldiers who had been shot by rebels after a ceasefire had been negotiated. Despite the unrest, East Timorese and UN officials say they hope peace talks could begin as early as this weekend.

• Jean-Marie Guehenno , the UN’s Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations: “We believe that with a swift display of force in Dili, the violence can be stopped very quickly, and so we hope that with the forces that are already being dispatched and the forces that will come in the next few days that violence will be stopped and then I think it will be up to the leaders of Timor to really reflect on the unfinished business of strengthening the institutions both of the police and the military and looking at the more solid, political base so that there is no factionalism, so that there is no divide within Timor-Leste that could create another occasion for violence.”