NEPAL: Parliament Opens Doors to Maoists

Former Maoist rebels entered the parliament that once outlawed them Monday, filling enough seats to become the second-largest party in the temporary government.

SOUTH ASIA: India Abandons the Raj Approach to Neighbours

India is fashioning a major shift in its relations with its smaller neighbours Bhutan and Nepal by revising bilateral treaties which embody asymmetry, inequality and imbalance.

NEPAL: Women and Children Count too, in Maoist Camps

United Nations monitors will begin counting weapons and soldiers of the Maoist army in camps across Nepal next week, and activists are concerned that the needs of women and children there could be overlooked.

NEPAL: Civil Society Protests Laggard Gov’t

Civil society activists who led the fight against the former royal regime are now risking jail to protest against the government they helped push to power.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: US – Last Stop for Bhutanese Refugees?

Washington's offer to resettle most of the 106,000 Bhutanese refugees who have stagnated in camps in Nepal for 16 years has provoked a whirlwind of reaction that could finally sweep away official inertia toward their plight.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: A ‘New Nepal’ for All?

Cycle and foot traffic will swell on the two-lane highway that runs through Nepal's 'tarai' (plains region) Dec. 25. Normally the road teems with buses that pack passengers onto their roofs and careen from stop to stop, speeding trucks with squealing brakes and a few personal cars. But the Nepal Sadhbhawana Party (NSP)has called a general strike on that day and motorised vehicles risk being attacked by mobs.

POLITICS-NEPAL: Women Push for Space in Peace Plans

Government and Maoist leaders holding high-level talks to finalise Nepal's interim constitution have discovered they have one thing in common: none of them can say that at least a third of their party workers are women.

HEALTH-NEPAL: Mobile Camps Treat Uterine Prolapse

While women in the capital Kathmandu fight for representation on the political bodies designing the 'new Nepal', in the remote western region Bhakti Oli has just claimed her right to health care after more than 35 years.

RIGHTS: Indigenous Declaration Still Powerful – UN Forum Chief

The United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will remain influential despite being sidelined by an arm of the UN General Assembly last week, predicts the chairperson of the world body's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: Children Feared Bound for Maoist ‘Peace’ Camps

Even before Maoist leaders could assign their soldiers to camps as part of the peace deal ending Nepal's 10-year insurgency, United Nations officials appeared on the doorstep Monday warning that children will not be allowed into the cantonments.

NEPAL: Peace Delayed, Dying Continues

Government and rebel leaders failed to sign an agreement Thursday to formally end a 10-year insurgency that killed up to 14,000 Nepalis, scarred the lives of tens of thousands more, and continues to claim victims.

POLITICS-NEPAL: A Deal’s Not Enough

Since Monday, small groups of journalists and onlookers have stood for hours at a time on the roadside outside the Nepali prime minister's house waiting for word of a deal between the government and former Maoist rebels. But keeping a sitting vigil on the street, civil society leaders say a breakthrough will mean the hard work is just beginning.

LABOUR-NEPAL: Workers’ Friend or Foe?

Nepal's government says it is poised to give some protection to the majority of its workers who labour in the informal sector but a bill now circulating in government would remove some rights of employees in 'special economic zones'.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: Doubts Over Leaders Cloud Sustainable Peace

"We believe that a nation that has suffered many horrors - murders, rapes and other crimes - is able to progress only if those experiences are told."

NEPAL: Peace Talks Stalled, Maoists Turn to Law and Order

The rumours flew fast as young men doused and set alight piles of tyres at strategic intersections around Nepal's capital: the Maoists have taken over the city, reported one homeowner on the phone with a relative; they are asking for one person from each house to join their ranks, said the owner of a small furniture shop.

NEPAL: Aid Must Double to Even Approach MDGs

Nepal needs to double its foreign aid to 7.9 billion US dollars if it wants to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)set out by the United Nations, but more cash alone will not solve the country's development needs.

NEPAL: Peace Talks Postponed but Hopes High

Sunday's postponement of peace talks between Nepal's government and former Maoist rebels does not signal a failure of the process, say civil society leaders.

SOUTH ASIA: Meeting MDGs Requires Better Basic Services

Nine years ago Nepal's health ministry set up two health posts in remote Dhugesadh village, where the nearest hospital is a three to four day walk away. Till today, no doctors have arrived to staff them.

REFUGEES: Tibetans Survive Border Guards, Reach Nepal Capital

A group of 43 Tibetans shot at by a Chinese border patrol while trying to cross into Nepal, was to arrive in the capital late Monday, according to the United Nations.

LABOUR-NEPAL: Garment Industry Unravels Amid Uncertainty

Business and labour are fighting to gain the upper hand during Nepal's political transition, a process that has helped to sideline the unemployed workers and anxious factory owners of the troubled garment industry.

POLITICS-NEPAL: Fate of Monarchy a Sticking Point

As Nepal emerges from a week-long annual holiday to celebrate the Dasain, the most important religious and cultural festival of the majority Hindus, the country is again faced with the problem of getting the coalition government to sit down for talks with armed Maoist rebels.