Kathmandu - At least 13 Nepalese soldiers were killed Thursday trying to put out a forest fire in central Nepal, officials said.

The soldiers were killed when the forest fire in Ramechaap district, about 100 kilometres east of Kathmandu, changed course, cutting off the soldiers' escape route, the district police office said.

The soldiers who died were part of a 130-member team deployed to put out the massive blaze in a pine forest in the Srikandanda hills close to the town of Ramechaap Bazar.

Kathmandu, Apr 23: Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist chairman Jhala Nath Khanal on Thursday said that after keeping in view the ongoing peace process, it is advisable to give priority to the main task that lies ahead – that of taking the peace process to its logical conclusion - rather than “tampering with the Army”.

Khanal, who hastily arrived in Kathmandu on Thursday morning, said that though it has become increasingly necessary to “discipline the Army”, it is not the time to meddle in its affairs just now.

Kathmandu, Apr 23 : Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has started talks with the diplomatic mission chiefs here over the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Rookmangad Katawal row.

Envoys from eight countries including the United States, United Kingdom, India, China and Japan are attending the meeting at the PM''s residence in Baluwatar today.

Finance Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai is also present.

Dahal has deferred action against General Katawal due to increasing international pressure.

Kathmandu- An indefinite general strike called by the ethnic Tharu community Wednesday paralysed normal life across the southern Nepalese Terai plains.

Protestors attacked vehicles and forced markets to shut down in over a dozen districts to impose the strike, polices said.

As a result, transport along the main highway linking eastern Nepal with the west and from Terai to the capital Kathmandu was interrupted, stranding thousands of passengers.

Kathmandu  - What is probably the world's highest-altitude cybercafe has opened near the Mount Everest base camp in north-eastern Nepal, reports said Wednesday.

The internet cafe, located at 5,180 metres above sea level at Gorakse in Khumjung district, about 200 kilometres north-east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, is to provide internet access to tourists visiting the area, the Ekantipur website of Kantipur newspaper reported.

The area is popular with tourists on their way to the base camp of the world's highest peak, 8,848-metre Mount Everest.

Kathmandu, Apr 22 : Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal met President Dr Ram Baran Yadav at his residence early this morning and briefed him about the row involving his government and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Rookmangud Katawal.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Dahal said President Yadav had directed him to seek a political consensus on the issue.

"The discussion was positive," Dahal added.

Dahal will hold an emergency meeting of the central secretariat, his party and council of ministers to discuss the matter later in the day.