Nepal's Parliament Faces Stalemate

The political crisis in Nepal continued this week. The Nepalese
Maoists' demands to end Nepal's monarchy and adopt a proportional
representation voting system went unanswered. The current interim
parliament met twice to resolve the crisis. But Maoists rebuffed the
political body's attempts, refusing to budge from their two demands,
which the congress had rejected outright.

Meanwhile, the Nepalese speaker of the interim parliament rescheduled
for a third time its meeting on the issue. The parliament is waiting
until the end of a 10-day national festival to meet. October 29th is
the new date, and the two camps will continue to try and reach a
consensus on the issues. But political observers are skeptical that the
Maoists and the Nepali Congress will be able to hash out an agreement.
And the conflict threatens to dismantle last year's peace deal.

PC Dubey reports from Katmandu.