NEPAL: Stalemate, One Year After King’s Coup

One election candidate is dead, another is recovering from a gunshot wound and dozens more live in fear in army barracks across Nepal. Nearly two weeks of daily skirmishes between armour-clad police and rock throwing, tyre-burning protesters have filled jails and turned town centres into zones of fear.

NEPAL: Few Takers for King’s Peace Plan

The Nepali king's roadmap to peace appeared to have serious wrinkles Thursday after no one emerged to contest many posts for the Feb. 8 local elections and hundreds of activists were arrested as week-long protests continued.

NEPAL: Day Curfew Follows Political Arrests

Except for heavily-armed police and troops, the streets of Nepal's capital city were nearly empty Friday but opposition leaders were still vowing to hold planned protests after a dawn-to-dusk curfew ended.

NEPAL: Religious Leaders Want to Be Peacemakers

Mother Teresa's successor has urged the warring sides in Nepal's conflict to trade their guns for love just as religious leaders are pushing to play a peace-making role in the land where the Buddha was born. Sister Mary Nirmala, head of the Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity, and Nepal-born herself, believes that love and compassion can help bring peace to this land, torn by a decade of civil war.

NEPAL: Maoist Rebels Flaunt Firepower

Boom! A young policeman in blue fatigues jumps as the bomb explodes, echoing in the narrow streets and alleys of the Charkhal quarter in Nepal's capital. A colleague standing nearby laughs at his fear but none of the small group of police move from the shelter of the three-storey building onto the main street.

NEPAL: Squeezed to Death Between King and Rebels

A month before a contentious election, Maoist rebels in western Nepal have resumed bombing and killing, the king is campaigning in the east and caught between these two warring forces are ordinary Nepalis bled dry by a decade of civil strife.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: Torture, Routine After Arrests

Arrests are growing in Nepal as protests against the king's rule and soldiers' abuses rise. Media often report that "all those arrested were freed by the end of the day". But not everyone detained is so lucky.

NEPAL: Slow Return to Democracy

Thousands of Nepalis hit the streets Thursday, and many more will stay off the capital's roads Friday, as a protest against the king's rule but overall the democracy movement has been sluggish in fulfilling some of its leaders' pledges.

NEPAL: Make Way for Women, Marginalised Groups

Although the 12-point pact agreed by the country's main political parties and Maoist rebels is still far from becoming a road map to peace, women's groups and marginalised sections are already asking if they will finally be represented in a 'new' Nepal.

NEPAL: King Cornered by Maoists, Political Parties

Communist Party leader Bamdev Gautam was hustled into a cafe to avoid skirmishes with police, Friday, as King Gyanendra motored past with an army escort but it seems Nepal's political parties have gained the upper hand during the monarch's three-week trip outside the country.

NEPAL: Political Pact With Maoist Rebels Checks King

An alliance between Nepal’s mainstream political parties and Maoist rebels brings hope of resolution to a crisis, brought on by King Gyanendra’s Feb. 1 assumption of direct rule, citing the failure of democratically-elected governments to deal with a bloody, decade-old communist uprising.

MEDIA-NEPAL: Radio Faces the Music, Again

Eastern classical music has been playing across a wider than usual band of the FM radio spectrum in Nepal's capital, since Sunday night, when the government shut down the country's first community radio station for "encouraging terrorism".

RIGHTS: Media Enemies to Share UN Spotlight

At least two enemies of media freedom will share the spotlight at this week's United Nations meeting dedicated to making the information age accessible to all the world's people.

MEDIA-NEPAL: Court Refuses to Restrain King’s Gov’t

The future of one of Nepal's best known radio stations, and the country's entire media, was hazy Friday after the Supreme Court refused to issue an order preventing the government from acting against Kantipur FM.

NEPAL: Court Verdicts Bring Small Victories to Women

Legislation providing that Nepali women be treated on par with men is no guarantee that such treatment will occur.

NEPAL: A Sliver of Silver in Cloudy Skies

Nepal's strongman King Gyanendra named dates for elections earlier this month-and then enacted a law that hamstrings journalists' reporting of politics.

NEPAL: On The Road to Failed State?

When does a conflict become a crisis? In Nepal's case it could be very soon, says the United Nations.

NEPAL: City of Peace in a Time of War

The birthplace of the Buddha exudes peace on an autumn afternoon so hot that a lazy stroll on the meditation platform atop the birth temple quickly becomes a dance on sun-baked tiles.

NEPAL: Villagers Await Gov’t Nod to Peace

No more deadly gunfights between Maoist rebels and soldiers, no late-night knocks on the door with orders to feed insurgents and fewer demands for travellers to pay 'tax'-the villagers of western Palpa say life has improved since the Maoists called a unilateral ceasefire on Sep. 3.

NEPAL: Crowds Matter in Street Protests

"There's going to be a clash now," says a smartly dressed young man, turning away from the small crowd squeezed into a narrow lane and quickly walking away.

MILLENNIUM GOALS-NEPAL: Surprisingly, Hope

Nearly 30,000 Nepali children die yearly in their first month of life, the third highest rate in the world. Yet, the battered country is on track to slash under-five mortality by two-thirds within a decade, says the United Nations.