E. Timor extends emergency rule by one month

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor's Parliament on Friday extended by 30 days a state of emergency imposed after attacks by suspected rebels on the country's two top leaders.
The state of emergency, which bans rallies and imposes a nighttime curfew, was due to end Saturday.

After a request by the acting president, lawmakers voted 34-12 to extend it by 30 days.

"Criminal groups still walk free and are a serious threat to the organs of the state and to the people as a whole," the government said in statement after requesting the extension.

Also Friday, more than 1,000 police and soldiers paraded in the capital, Dili, in an apparent show of force following the Feb. 11 attacks that critically wounded President Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

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A group of dismissed soldiers is suspected in the strikes.

"Wherever they are hiding, in rat holes or under stones, we will chase them," East Timor army commander Brig. Gen. Matan Ruak said. "Our operations will also be against their supporters."

Assailants shot at Ramos-Horta close to his home. His guards opened fire, fatally shooting a wanted rebel leader. An hour later, attackers fired on a motorcade carrying Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. He escaped unhurt.

Ramos-Horta is recovering from bullet wounds to his upper body at a hospital in nearby Australia.

A day after the attack, the country declared a state of emergency.

The attacks were apparently a sudden escalation in a bitter dispute between the government and several hundred ex-soldiers who were fired in 2006 after going on strike to protest alleged discrimination.

The country has been calm since the attacks on the leaders, despite fears of more unrest.

East Timor, formerly occupied by Indonesia, has struggled with political turmoil and violence since it gained independence in 2002. Most of its 1 million people live in poverty.

About 1,000 Australian police and soldiers and a separate U.N. police force are stationed in the country.

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