New problem East Timor's president: World Cup

East Timor's version of the World Cup soccer tournament was about as close as anyone here will get to the real thing and provided a welcome respite from the tensions and violence.

Photo: New problem East Timor's president: World Cup

First Lady Kirsty Sword-Gusmao opened a children's "World Cup" Saturday afternoon at a camp where more than 13,000 people are sheltering from unrest in the tiny nation that was a Portuguese colony for four centuries until being occupied by Indonesia in 1975.

Eight teams taking their names from the world's strongest contenders at the real World Cup in Germany battled it out at the Don Bosco Roman Catholic community center in Dili, the largest of dozens of camps that are the temporary homes for more than 130,000 people across East Timor.

"I'm not a great soccer fan, unlike my husband, who subjects me to hours of football on the TV," she said. "But he couldn't find any coverage last night", reports the AP.

N.U.