Maoists block election of new Nepal premier

September 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Unified CPN (Maoist) cadres waved black flags and pelted stones at Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal as he attended the 34th convocation ceremony of the Tribhuvan University on Wednesday. The Maoist cadres threw stones and black flags at the stage when the convocation ceremony was in progress.

September 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - A fresh dispute over the Nepal national flag has erupted between the UCPN (Maoist) and the other parties. The parties are divided on whether to retain the current flag or design a new one that should contain stars equal in numbers to the number of federal units after the restructuring of the state.

September 16th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Maoists re-opened the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) office of centuries-old Pashupatinath Temple here on Tuesday. It was locked about two weeks ago after the two Indian priests were beaten up.

September 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepal police faced a tough time in providing security to the country's Finance Minister, Surendra Pandey as Maoist protestors pelted stones at his vehicle on Saturday. Pandey, who was in Chipledhunga-Pokhara, about 200 kilometres from Kathmandu, to inaugurate Golden News Daily, had to return without attending the function.

September 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said here on Saturday, that peace cannot be established as long as the Maoist rebels do not surrender all their weapons. Addressing students Madhav Kumar accused the Maoists, led by former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ' Prachanda', of playing divisive politics.

June 29th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Maoist chief and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda Monday said the month-old ruling coalition of new premier Madhav Kumar Nepal would fall 'within weeks' and a new national government would be formed. Prachanda, whose party's top leadership Monday winded up their 13-day meeting to chalk out future strategy, dismissed Nepal's fledgling government as a 'drop of water' and said there was no question of his party joining it.

June 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Closely watching the battle in India's West Bengal state between security forces and tribals backed by Indian Maoists, Nepal, the survivor of a decade-old Maoist uprising, Wednesday said the neighbouring country's decision to ban the Left radicals was its own internal affair. "It is the decision taken by a sovereign country," said Shankar Pokhrel, Nepal's information and communications minister who is also the spokesman of the communist-led government that came to power last month after the fall of the country's first Maoist government.

June 22nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - CPN (UML) leader KP Sharma Oli has said that the Maoists would join the government within two months.peaking to journalists at Tribhuvan International Airport here on Sunday on his arrival after completing his ten-day visit to India, Oli said the peace process would not succeed without the participation of Maoists. "Peace process will not reach a logical conclusion just by a consensus among Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal," he added.

May 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Congratulating Nepal's new prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, India Monday hoped that the peace process, including the framing of the constitution, would move expeditiously and offered the country any support it needed. "We congratulate Madhav Nepal on his election as the Prime Minister of Nepal, External Affairs Minister S.M.

May 23rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - A 56-year-old former student of Bihar's Goenka College became Nepal's new prime minister Saturday after an election on the floor of the interim parliament had no challengers though the Maoists boycotted the exercise and announced they would not join the new government. Madhav Kumar Nepal, former chief of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), will now lead the republic's second communist-led government after a brief nine-month communist rule in the 1990s.

May 23rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - The Legislature-Parliamentary session of the Constituent Assembly (CA) is all set to elect UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal as the new prime minister of Nepal. Only Madhav Kumar Nepal has filed nomination for the scheduled election for the prime minister.

May 23rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - Madhav Kumar Nepal, a UML (Unified Marxist Leninist) nominee, was chosen as the new Prime Minister of Nepal in the Legislature-Parliamentary session of the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Saturday. Madhav, in the absence of any challenger, was chosen unopposed.

May 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Veteran communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal is all set to become new Prime Minister of Nepal after getting the backing of 22 of the 24 parliamentary parties. Twenty two parties including the Nepali Congress, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MFJ), the Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party, the Nepal Sadbhawana Party, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and the CPN-United have submitted the signatures of the lawmakers informing the CA chairman that they support Nepal as the Prime Minister of the new coalition government.

May 10th, 2009 KATHMANDU - A 56-year-old veteran politician, whose forefathers came to Nepal from the border district of Sitamarhi in India's Bihar state, could become Nepal's new prime minister, succeeding caretaker Maoist premier Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda. Madhav Kumar Nepal, the diminutive and softspoken communist leader known for his trademark Nepali cap, has been proposed for the top executive post by his Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), Nepal's third-largest party, that said it would try to form a new coalition under its leadership.

April 29th, 2009 KATHMANDU - As the bitter battle between Nepal's ruling Maoist party and army chief General Rookmangud Katawal showed no sign of any resolution, India's Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood Wednesday met opposition leader and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala for consultations. Sood met Koirala a day after Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' met the veteran leader, who is regarded as the architect of the peace negotiations that helped the Maoists return to mainstream politics and end the decade-old armed uprising.