No newspapers for five days

DILI, East Timor: All newspapers from outside the province have failed to reach their readers here for the past five days because all the cargo is being held up in the airport in Bali.

But while readers could still turn to the locally published Suara Timor Timur (Voice of East Timor) daily, the absence of outside newspaper is taking its toll on agents and delivery boys.

Some 150 people, including children, rely on the supply and delivery of Jakarta newspapers to earn their livelihood.

Some readers suspected that the newspapers had been deliberately held up because of recent tensions in Dili.

But a spokesman for the local office of the government-owned Merpati Nusantara Airlines said that the airline had to unload most of its cargo and free up more passenger seats during the past week because of a rise in volume coinciding with the end of the school holiday. (yac/emb)