Kathmandu, March 14 : Nepal's sitting Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi Thursday took oath of office as the chairperson of the Interim Election Council to hold Constituent Assembly elections by June 21.

Regmi was sworn in by President Ram Baran Yadav as the head of the interim government as a way out to end the political deadlock since the expiry of the first Constituent Assembly on May 27 last year, reported Xinhua.

A flight carrying 19 people bounded towards the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest crashed just outside the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu.

The craft came down in flames and all of the people on board have been killed in the incidence, including 7 people from the UK and 5 Chinese nationals. The twin-engine Sita Air craft, which was flying from Kathmandu to the gateway to the Mount Everest, Lukla town, crashed just after take-off.

Kathmandu, Oct 3 - When Nihita Biswas Sobhraj made entertainment history Monday night by becoming the first contestant from Nepal to take part in Indian TV channel Color's reality show "Bigg Boss 5", back home in Kathmandu her family's moment of pride turned into shock and consternation at the first barrage of questions raining down on the 23-year-old.

"I was shocked," said Nihita's mother Shakuntala Thapa, a senior lawyer practising at Nepal's Supreme Court, reacting to the question posed by one of the participants, news anchor Mandeep Belvi.

Kathmandu, Aug 25 : As Anna Hazare's public protest against corruption in the form of a fast in New Delhi's Ramlila Maidan reached its 10th day Thursday, support for the frail 74-year-old began to grow in neighbouring Nepal as well with civil society members and human rights activists showing solidarity.

On Thursday, dozens of Indians marched in a rally in capital city Kathmandu, holding up signs that said in Hindi, "All of us are with you, Anna".

Kathmandu, July 6 : After being put on hold for 48 hours following censors' objections to the expletives peppering its dialogues, Aamir Khan's home production "Delhi Belly" finally reappeared in Nepal's theatres Wednesday after the offending parts were addressed.

Kathmandu, July 4 : Two years after Bollywood action comedy "Chandni Chowk to China" was banned in Nepal, now it's the turn of Amir Khan's newest release "Delhi Belly" to land in the latest controversy in the Himalayan republic with the government Sunday stopping the film from being screened in Nepal.

Kathmandu, April 27 : After "Arekti premer golpo" (Just another love story) and "Memories in March", both of which have strong gay protagonists and Rituparno Ghosh stepping out in front of the camera, the Bengali film director has now completed shooting his first "queer" film, which is also a metaphor for his own sexual transformation.

Kathmandu, Feb 28 : Thirteen years after she acted in her last film of note, "Tirchhi Topiwale", Monica Bedi, better known as the companion of jailed mafia don Abu Salem, has begun a new innings in Nepal, acting in a new film that could be the mirror image of her own aspirations.

Kathmandu, Dec 2 - The more Nepali director Dev Kumar Shrestha read in the papers about fatal road accidents at Krishna Bheer - a cliff west of Kathmandu that was once prone to the worst landslides - the more he became convinced there was more to it than met the eye. His new film "Ek Din, Ek Raat" puts the spotlight on the mystery.

"It's not just bad roads or bad drivers that cause an accident," the 38-year-old director told IANS.

Kathmandu, Nov 10 - This is going to be a critical week for former "Indian Idol" Prashant Tamang. He is now aiming to become the new matinee idol of Nepal, the country that helped him win the popular Indian reality show three years ago.

The 27-year-old former constable from West Bengal Police Force starts his new innings as an actor with his debut film, "Gorkha Paltan", running in almost 60 theatres across the country.

Kathmandu, April 6: Bollywood actress and the daughter of one of the most powerful political houses in Nepal, Manisha Koirala, seems finally set to tie the knot - and in Nepal.

The 40-year-old actress, the country's most eligible single woman, will finally say "I do" to Nepali businessman Samrat Dahal with the wedding set for June 19.

Kathmandu, March 27 - At 74, veteran Bengal artist Suhas Roy is willing to explore new ventures and collaborations in Nepal and elsewhere. However, what the creator of the acclaimed "Radha" series is not even willing to contemplate are honours conferred by his own government.

"Padma Shris and Padma Bhushans don't come openly," he says. "They always have stories behind them. You need affiliations to the government, parties."

Kathmandu, March 1 - Bollywood actor Manisha Koirala, who became unpopular in her own country Nepal five years ago by supporting the army-backed coup of King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, is set to lend a helping hand to another member of the former royal family.

Next month, Manisha, who now also has a foot in the Nepali film industry, will launch in New Delhi's Oberoi hotel a third novel penned by Sheeba Shivangini Shah, who is married to the nephew of the deposed king, Lt Col Bikash Bikram Shah.

Kathmandu, Feb 9 - Two years after Ram Gopal Varma's remake of the Bollywood classic "Sholay" suffered censors' scissors in Nepal, the film director's new release "Rann" has met with an entirely different response here, with top Maoist leaders calling it "inspiring".

Nepal's former Maoist guerrillas, who had often called for a ban on Hindi films during their 10-year "People's War", have now trooped to see "Rann", starring Amitabh Bachchan, who plays a media tycoon grappling with wily politicians.

Kathmandu, Jan 11 - Ahead of Indian External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna's first official visit to Nepal, former Maoist guerrillas Monday kicked off an anti-India campaign, accusing the southern neighbour of grabbing Nepal's territory.

Maoist chief and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda led a protest rally in Kanchanpur district in far-west Nepal where the Maoists are condemning the Tanakpur barrage built on the Mahakali river by India, saying it gives undue irrigation facilities to the Indian side.

Prachanda said his party would spearhead a new campaign to save Nepal's sovereignty since the current coalition government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was being "manipulated by foreign powers".

Kathmandu, Jan 10 - After beginning the new year with a nationwide general strike, Nepal had its capital paralysed once again Sunday by a fringe party that is opposing the decision by major parties to restructure the former Hindu kingdom into a federal nation.

The Rastriya Jana Morcha (RJM), a splinter left party, began blocking main roads in Kathmandu valley and set at least two vehicles on fire Sunday to protest against the move towards federalism, police said.

The RJM split from the Jana Morcha in 2006 after the latter joined an alliance of major parties with the former Maoist guerrillas to oppose the army-backed rule of King Gyanendra.

Kathmandu, Jan 8 : Bollywood's current top-grossing film "3 Idiots", which has replaced James Cameron's "Avatar" in Nepal's cinemas, has now made its mark on the country's politics as well.

On Friday, when the three leaders of Nepal's major parties agreed to form a "high-level political mechanism" to end the protracted impasse created by the fall of the Maoist government last year, a popular weekly compared the politicians to the "3 Idiots" - the trio of bumbling students played by Bollywood icon Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and R. Madhavan.

Kathmandu, Jan 7 - Five foetuses in a plastic bag fished out by a ragpicker from a dump by the side of one of Kathmandu valley's holiest - and most polluted - rivers has raised the spectre of flourishing illegal abortions, police said.

Kajal Kumari, a ragpicker who had Wednesday gone to the Kuleshwor area of Kathmandu valley, the place where Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal's family residence is located, found the bag in a garbage dump by the side of the Bishnumati river that flows along some of the holiest Hindu and Buddhist shrines in the valley.

Kathmandu, Jan 7 - Reacting to the statement issued to Nepal's media by former MP Amresh Kumar Singh that his estranged wife Neetu Singh was deported by the Indian police over complaints by her father and brother, Neetu's family said it was a "pre-planned conspiracy" by Singh.

Agitation and tension prevailed in Neetu's parental home in Bhadrapur town in eastern Nepal's Jhapa district, where she has taken shelter since her deportation by the Maharasthra Police last month from Pune. She was a final year student at the Film and Television Training Institute.

Kathmandu, Jan 6 - The arrest of the son of a powerful Nepalese politician on charges of heading a major fake Indian currency and drugs smuggling racket allegedly sponsored by Pakistani intelligence agencies has exposed how Islamabad is quietly pouring money into Nepal with the underworld's help to unleash a propaganda war against India, well placed sources here say.