KATHMANDU, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Nepal's Maoists and main political parties said Sunday they had delayed a parliamentary debate aimed at ending the deadlock in the country's peace process to allow more time for talks.

Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said the two sides remained 'at loggerheads' over the former rebels' demands for electoral reform and the immediate abolition of the monarchy, which are holding up the progress of the 11-month-old peace process.

KATHMANDU, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - Cancer survivors and musicians from across the world are planning to perform world's highest gig at the foot of Mount Everest to raise funds for cancer charities, organisers said Wednesday.

'On October 22 our team will perform a rock concert above Everest Base Camp in Kala Patthar (5,550 metres, 18,315 feet) and break the world record for the highest gig,' James Chippendale, co-founder of US-based Love Hope Strength Foundation told AFP in Kathmandu.

LONDON, Oct 6, 2007 (AFP) - The latest British soldier to be killed in Afghanistan was a friend of Prince William and his former platoon commander during his military training, royal officials said Saturday.

Major Alexis 'Lex' Roberts, 32, died after an improvised explosive device hit his vehicle as he returned to Kandahar airbase in southern Afghanistan early Thursday, the defence ministry in London said.

The officer, who was married with two young daughters, was serving with the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles at the time.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Friday that he was 'disappointed' by the postponement of elections to decide Nepal's future but said the world body remained ready to help the Himalayan country establish durable peace.

'The Secretary General is disappointed by the decision of the Interim Government of Nepal to postpone the Constituent Assembly Election which had been scheduled for 22 November,' Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement.

LONDON, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - A British soldier was killed and two others injured in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry in London said Friday.

The soldier was from the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles and had been taking part in Operation Palk Wahel, which aims to drive out Afghanistan's former hardline rulers the Taliban from the Upper Gereshk Valley.

KATHMANDU, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - Elections to decide Nepal's future were postponed indefinitely on Friday, ministers said, as government and Maoists squabbled over the fate of the monarchy and election systems.

The polls scheduled for November 22 were a key element of a peace deal sealed last year that ended a civil war launched in 1996 by the Maoists, who are demanding the abolition of the monarchy.

KATHMANDU, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - Crucial elections to decide Nepal's future were postponed indefinitely on Friday after the government and Maoists failed to agree on the fate of the monarchy and the election system, officials said.

'The seven party leaders (of the coalition government) have agreed to postpone the constituent assembly elections for an indefinite period,' Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chanda Poudel told AFP.

KATHMANDU, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Key elections that are central to Nepal's peace process may have to be postponed due to wrangling between former rebel Maoists and mainstream parties, officials said Thursday.

The elections, which have already been delayed once and are now slated for November 22, are for a body that will rewrite the constitution of the impoverished Himalayan nation and decide whether the monarchy should be kept.

KATHMANDU, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Efforts in Nepal to phase out images of unpopular King Gyanendra from coins and banknotes have hit a snag with the release of new bills which still feature the monarch in the watermark.

Banking officials in the impoverished Himalayan country, which is on the road to becoming a republic, admitted that keeping down costs meant their increasingly republican sentiment could only go so far.

KATHMANDU, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Nepal's premier is furious with King Gyanendra for making an unauthorised trip outside the palace to receive a highly symbolic blessing from a child 'goddess,' a minister said Tuesday.

Gyanendra has been politically sidelined and largely confined to a palace since Nepal's mainstream parties and Maoist insurgents signed a peace deal last November and put the country on track to being declared a republic.