The good news is that male MPs don't file maternity claims. The bad news is that ministers are not paying their phone bills.

As evening approaches, Dhana Shrestha gets out large plastic covers and spreads them across her small pasal in Kupondole. The birds are about to come home for the night.

The reason the death toll in this year's annual encephalitis epidemic is not higher has nothing to do with preventive measures by public health authorities.

A hundred years after Ekai Kawaguchi (left) travelled across Nepal and Tibet looking for the Buddha 's original teachings,a Japanese anthropologist Jiro Kawakita (above)who retraced his footsteps is back in Nepal to see how development is faring under democracy.

Irregularities add up to Rs 25.7 billion, an amount almost equal to what the government plans to spend on the social sector this year.

Kathmandu may soon become famous not only for its electric tempos, but also for the women who drive them.

Nepal now has a remittance economy, money sent home by workers abroad equals the annual budget.

Forty years after it was first conceived, the East-West Highway may finally link Nepal's far west into the national mainstream.

This week Kathmandu celebrates Indra Jatra which is fused together with the festival of the Virgin goddess, Kumari.

Tourism is driven by fads. Last year it was Easter Island, this year it is Koh Samui. In Nepal itself, the flavour of the season is Dolpo.

Trade is essential for Nepal's survival. But Nepal must do more than survive, it needs to prosper.And to prosper quickly there is really no other way than to let trade flourish freely.