RIGHTS-NEPAL: National Commission in ‘Deep Coma’

When government and Maoist leaders sit across from one another, a week from now, they will discuss a handful of deals on various issues that are supposed to culminate in a 'pivotal' meeting. At least two of the agreements specify a role in the peace process for the local United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) - none mention Nepal's own National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

NEPAL: Chopper Tragedy Blow to Nature Conservation

The decimation of the cream of Nepal's conservationists in a tragic helicopter accident on the weekend has plunged this Himalayan nation into gloom. Newspapers and TV channels have been reporting the grisly details of the crash and the efforts to retrieve the bodies of the 24 people who perished.

POLITICS-ASIA: Nepal Ripe for Army Coup?

Thailand's coup has hit close to home in Nepal's capital. Here, a hereditary monarch, who like his South-east Asian counterpart claims to be the incarnation of a god, sits in his palace brooding - or Internet gambling, depending on the rumours - after being forced to return power to the people in April, following three weeks of swelling street protests.

HEALTH-NEPAL: Custom, Ignorance Breed Severe Malnutrition

In Nepal's western terai (plains) districts, a silent epidemic is brewing. Children and women are racked by diseases arising from malnutrition and anaemia-not because of a lack of food but because of faulty food habits and traditional customs, say health workers in the region.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: Security Forces’ Excesses Still a Concern

As talk of the need for a second people's uprising swirls in the air, the United Nations human rights office here has released a report on excessive force used by security forces during April's uprising, warning that without reforms such acts could be repeated.

NEPAL: Selling Daughters Into Bondage May End

With a young daughter in her lap, Sudhani Chaudhary, 30, carefully picks freshly harvested corn inside a small mud hut in Deukhuri Valley of Nepal's south-western Dang district. One of her four young daughters, not quite aged 10, lives in a distant town working as a housemaid for a family, she says. "I am told she is attending school.''

NEPAL: Land Reforms, Key to Social Harmony

Before conflict and violence became synonymous with Nepal, this impoverished country wedged between India and China was known for some of the worst social abuses, linked closely to its feudal order.

CHINA: Moves to Rapidly Integrate Resource-Rich Tibet

China has intensified its long-term quest to integrate the remote land and people of Tibet by building new infrastructure and drawing up plans to tap the Himalayan region's virgin water sources and its rich reserves of copper, gold and hydrocarbons.

NEPAL: Peace Won’t Stop Human Trafficking – Official

An end in sight to Nepal's bloody, 10-year internal conflict is not necessarily good news for those fighting the growing problem of trafficking in girls and women.

NEPAL: Only Half of Women Know Abortion is Legal

As the 21st century began, more women were dying during childbirth in Nepal than in almost any other country and it was estimated that half of maternal deaths in hospitals were caused by unsafe abortions.

POLITICS-NEPAL: Maoist Rebels Drive a Hard Bargain

Nepal's armed Maoist rebels are upping the ante, refusing to honour a recent United Nations-brokered agreement and calling instead for full resolution of overarching political issues ahead of promised disarmament.

ENVIRONMENT-NEPAL: Some Flood Victims Unreachable

Emergency crews piloted five rubber boats across a swollen, racing river in west Nepal on Friday to deliver food and other essential supplies to families trapped by torrential monsoon rains and resultant floods during the past week.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: Peace Haunted by Missing Persons

In a rare case this week, Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the government to form a probe panel to look into the case of three persons who went missing from army custody soon after the civil war with Maoist rebels began in earnest, a decade ago.

NEPAL: A Nod to Indigenous People

Nepal's parliament moved again to right the wrongs of the past Monday, directing the government to ratify an international law on indigenous people.

POLITICS: Royal Tussle Over ‘New Nepal’

The committee formed to plot the next steps on the path to a 'new Nepal' handed in its blueprint Friday with most of the important decisions unrealised. The Interim Constitution Drafting Committee recommended that the role of the monarchy be decided in a referendum organised by a constituent assembly, whose shape would be determined in talks between the government and former Maoist rebels.

NEPAL: Fuel Fiasco Illuminates Revolution’s Rifts

Chanting members of the Maoist student union swarmed onto the streets of Nepal's capital Saturday to protest fuel price hikes - but had to cut short the demonstration when they ran out of kerosene to fuel their homemade torches.

POLITICS-NEPAL: And Now Ethnic Separatism

A splinter Maoist faction in Nepal's southern Terai plains is calling for full sovereignty and independence in what is turning to be the first separatist movement in the country's history.

NEPAL: Peace Comes Piecemeal for NGO Workers

A tall lanky youth rounds a bend in a mountain path and sees a group, stripped of their packs, resting in the shade of a tree near a small waterfall. He approaches, says hello and shakes hands with those nearest and then stretches and even clambers up a small incline to clasp hands with everyone, rare behaviour in this remote hill region.

NEPAL: UN to Ensure Army, Maoists Stay in Barracks

With the Nepal government and Maoist rebels agreeing to begin the process of arms management, all eyes are now focused on the United Nations to manage a difficult and touchy issue in Nepal's peace process.

NEPAL: Undying Hunger in the Hinterland

Here on the narrow trails carved into the steep, emerald hills that plunge into the winding Karnali River hundreds of metres below, villagers have one thing on their minds: emergency rice.

MEDIA-NEPAL: Community Radio Makes Reforms Inclusive

Nearly four months after successfully pushing the fight against royal dictatorship, community radio stations in Nepal are at the forefront of another revolution - turning the airwaves into an educational medium for constitutional reforms.