Kathmandu - A German parliamentary delegation ended its visit to Nepal Saturday calling on the political parties to cooperate to consolidate multi-party democracy and human rights in the country.

The four-member delegation led by Wolfgang Thierse, the vice-president of the German parliament was in Nepal to observe the political process and the drafting of a new constitution.

Speaking to journalists on Saturday, the German delegation said political parties in Nepal must cooperate to ensure democratic system.

Kathmandu- A police officer was killed after an armed group attacked a police station in a remote village in western Nepal, officials said Saturday.

The attackers stormed a police station at Syawlebhan village in Pyuthan district, about 350 kilometres west of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu early Saturday morning.

Chief government district administrator Krishna Shyam Budathoki said the group surrounded the station and shot and killed an officer on sentry duty.

They then stormed the building, assaulting officers and making off with weapons and communication equipment, Budathoki said.

Kathmandu - Nepalese consumers have been hard hit by the high inflation rate which rose above 14 per cent, Nepal's central bank said Saturday.

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) said the year-on-year consumer inflation rose to 14.4 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal year which began in mid-July.

The current inflation rate is nearly three times higher than during the corresponding period last year, the bank said.

"The rise in the inflation had been attributed to soaring price indices of foods and beverages, non-food items and service groups in the review period," NRB said.

Kathmandu - Nepal's Election Commission has fixed April 10 as the date for by-elections in constituencies that have fallen vacant, the first elections since the country's former Maoist rebels formed a government, official media reports said Saturday.

The by-elections will be a gauge of the popularity of Nepals' Maoists who emerged as the single largest party in the constituent assembly last year.

Kathmandu  - Nepalese politicians have decided to remove thousands of former Maoist combatants from camps and attempt to reintegrate them into society after they were disqualified from the combatant rehabilitation process by the United Nations, official reports said Friday.

The decision came during a meeting Thursday of the Army Integration Special Committee, headed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, which members of the main opposition Nepali Congress party attended, the official Gorkhapatra newspaper said.

Kathmandu- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said Nepal's economy was expected by to grow by 3.5 per cent this year despite the global down-turn.

The ADB's country director Barry J Hitchcock said the projections were based on performance of key economic sectors.

The growth, however, depended the performance of the agricultural sector which contributes nearly half of the country's gross national product, Hitchcock said.