Kathmandu, March 19: Nepal cabinet has named Dr Chandra Kanta Poudel and Maoist central leader Ram Karki as the ambassadors to India and France respectively.

The ambassador-nominees are required to undergo parliamentary hearing before being appointed to their posts.

Paudel, 54, holds a doctorate in economics from Tribhuvan University. He served as headmaster at Birendra Secondary School in Nuwakot before moving to Kathmandu where he has since been working as principal of Gyankunja College at Rabibhavan.

Paudel will replace Durgeshman Singh, a Nepali Congress appointee.

Kathmandu  - At least eight people were injured Thursday when two bombs exploded outside a college in southern Nepal, police said.

The bombs went off as students gathered outside Thakur Ram College in the town of Birgunj, about 90 kilometres south of Kathmandu.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the blasts, police said.

"The bombs exploded just as students prepared to vote to chose their representatives in college elections," the Birgunj police office said. "Eight students received shrapnel wounds."

Kathmandu, Mar 16 : Maoist People''s Liberation Army (PLA) commanders have urged Prime Minister Prachanda to expedite the process of rehabilitating disqualified cadres staying in the cantonments.

At the meeting of the PLA general staff here on Sunday, the commanders asked Prachanda, who is also the coordinator of Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) to shift disqualified cadres from the cantonments and make suitable arrangement for their rehabilitation.

Kathmandu - An ethnic minority called off a two-week general strike in Nepal's southern plains Sunday following an agreement with the government.

Shops, main markets, offices and educational institution began reopening across the region known as Terai, as public and private transport resumed on major highways.

Kathmandu  - Nepal police arrested a Frenchman wanted internationally on paedophile charges, media reports said Sunday.

Jean Jacques Haye, 60, was arrested in the north-eastern outskirts of Kathmandu on a tip from an organization working for children, the Himalayan Times newspaper quoted police as saying.

French authorities were seeking Haye on charges of sexually abusing of children, and an Interpol warrant was issued.

Kathmandu  - Police shot and killed two demonstrators Saturday in south-western Nepal as members of the Tharu ethnic group defied a curfew and attacked officers and vehicles, government officials said.

The fresh violence came on the 13th day of a general strike by the Tharu across the southern plains known as the Terai.

The clash occurred in Dang district, about 420 kilometres south-west of Kathmandu, when protestors attacked dozens of passenger buses being escorted by police.