Word: nepal
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...Nepal, a country of 25 million, used to have three centers of power--the King, the political parties and a rebel Maoist army holed up in the Himalayas. Now there's a fourth: an angry population that's fed up with the other three and determined to strip all power from a monarchy that has reigned for more than two centuries. For about two weeks, young Nepalese have clashed with police and soldiers along a ring road surrounding the city, hurling bricks, burning tires and dodging tear gas, baton charges and the occasional live round. After the country's political...
Rohit Bhandari isn't a natural rebel. He has a good job as a technician in a Kathmandu medical laboratory and is the son of a bureaucrat and mid-level leader for Nepal's pro-monarchy Rashtriya Prajatantra Party. And yet Bhandari, 26, found himself in a mob of thousands last Thursday shouting, "King Gyanendra, leave the country or we will kill you," part of a tide of violent protests ripping across the mountain kingdom. Bhandari isn't sure why he's risking his life, beyond an unformed belief in "freedom" and a burning sense that Gyanendra, Nepal's absolute...
...next evening, the King seemed to partly agree. In a brief televised address to the nation, Gyanendra offered to return "executive power of the kingdom of Nepal ... to the people," and asked the seven main political parties to nominate a Prime Minister, a position that he had suspended. But the King's statement was short on specifics. There was no mention of restoring Parliament, suspended for four years, of making changes to the constitution to prevent him seizing power again, or of surrendering command of the powerful army-demands that his political opponents had been making for months. The response...
...angrier now [with the King] because of the way he spoke yesterday," said Suwas Bhetwal, a 24-year-old sociology student. "We don't think he wants to give up power at all. We don't want a constitutional King or a ceremonial king. We want him out of Nepal. We want a republic." Some protesters carried a stuffed white shroud, marked with red drops. "That's the King's body!" shouted one of them. "His corpse...
...Nepal, Himalayan kingdom, home to Mount Everest, backpacker heaven, is a nation in crisis. A country of around 25 million people, Nepal used to have three centers of power: the King, the political parties, and a rebel Maoist army holed up in the mountains. Now there's a fourth: an angry population fed up with the other three and determined to strip all power from a monarchy that has reigned for more than two centuries. Gyanendra is supposed to be only a constitutional ruler. He inherited the throne when his nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, shot dead King Birendra and eight...