President of East Timor is Wounded ; World News Bulletin

THE president of East Timor was seriously ill in an Australian hospital yesterday after being shot during a failed coup.

The attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta and another against his prime minister, were a reminder of the bitter rivalries in Asia’s newest nation.

Neighbouring Australia immediately announced it would send more police and troops to help keep peace in the country, which won independence from Indonesia in 2002.

President Ramos-Horta, 58, who won a 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent resistance to the decades-long Indonesian occupation, was shot in the chest and stomach.

Doctors are “hopeful of a very good recovery”.

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