State of emergency in East Timor after president is shot

EAST TIMOR President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot and seriously wounded yesterday by rebel soldiers in an assassination attempt that plunged the fledgling nation into a fresh crisis.

The Nobel peace laureate was airlifted to Australia for emergency treatment after being shot in a dawn gunbattle at his residence in which rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed, said Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

Gunmen also targeted the home of Mr Gusmao in co-ordinated attacks that prompted a state of emergency in the fragile nation, where international forces remain on patrol after being deployed amid unrest in 2006. After exploratory surgery at an Australian military hospital in Dili, the 58-year-old president was rushed to the Australian city of Darwin for emergency medical treatment.