KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal’s parliament elected a moderate communist leader as prime minister Thursday, ending a political stalemate which the United Nations had warned could risk a peace process in the republic.

Jhalnath Khanal, chief of the Communist UML party, was elected prime minister with the support of Maoist former rebels, who dominate parliament, following seven months without an effective government in the Himalayan nation.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal’s Maoist former rebels put thousands of their ex-fighters under government control on Saturday, in a move expected to boost a peace process that ended 10 years of civil war.

Maoist chief Prachanda and Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal signed a joint declaration giving control of more than 19,000 former fighters to a special committee headed by the prime minister in a public function telecast live from a Maoist camp.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal’s peace process risks failure with continued wrangling between former Maoist rebels and other political parties, the United Nations warned on Thursday as it prepares to withdraw from the country after four years.

Karin Landgren, who will bring the U.N. Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) to an end on Jan 15, warned that political infighting over assuming the U.N.’s responsibilities meant the failure of the peace process could “become a self-fulfilling prophecy”.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Foreign donors including the United States have urged Nepal’s leaders to end a political deadlock that they say has stifled development projects and could limit future aid to South Asia’s poorest country.

Nepal has been in political turmoil since June when Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned under pressure from the Maoist opposition who dominate parliament but have failed in 16 attempts to elect a new leader.

KATHMANDU, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Nepal’s government will run
out of spending money in two weeks time if a political row that
has blocked a new budget drags on, the finance minister said on
Monday, making it unable to service its loans or pay salaries.

The Himalayan republic, South Asia’s poorest economy, has
been without an effective government since Prime Minister
Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned in June, bowing to pressure from
Maoists former rebels who want to head a new coalition
government.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – A private telecom firm took high speed Internet facilities to the top of the world on Thursday when it launched Nepal’s first 3G services at the base camp of Mount Everest.

The installation could help the tens of thousands of mountain climbers and trekkers who visit the Mount Everest region in the Solukhumbu district every year.

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters Life!) – Nepal’s little Khagendra Thapa Magar has a big ambition. Magar measures 67.08 centimeters (26.4 inches), weighs 6.5 kilos (14 pounds) and was proclaimed the world’s shortest living man by the Guinness World Records in the same week he celebrated his eighteenth birthday.

Now, “he wants to become a doctor and marry a tall and beautiful girl,” Min Bahadur Rana, the chief of a charity that pushed Magar’s claim to the title, told Reuters.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – India’s environment minister said on Monday the country could not have high economic growth and a rapid rise in carbon emissions now that the nation was the number three emitter after China and the United States.

Jairam Ramesh’s comments come as negotiators from nearly 200 governments meet in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. The U.N. talks aim to reach agreement on what should follow the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the key treaty on climate change, which expires in 2012.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – A car said to have been a gift from Adolf Hitler to a Nepali king will be repaired and used to drive visitors around the grounds of a palace museum, a government official said on Thursday.

The 1939 Mercedes Benz was presented by the Nazi leader to King Tribhuvan, grandfather of Nepal’s last King Gyanendra, deposed two years ago.