Kathmandu - At least five people were killed and four were missing after a landslide swept away seven houses in western Nepal, officials said Thursday.

The houses in the village of Amkot were buried by falling rock and mud late Wednesday after the Bajura district, about 450 kilometres west of Kathmandu, was hit with heavy monsoon rains.

"Rescue officials pulled out five bodies, but four people remain missing," said Hom Prasad Adhikari, the chief government administrator in the district.

Kathmandu - Maoist pressure and threats from female activists has forced the indefinite postponement of Nepal's biggest beauty pageant, officials and media reports said Thursday.

The Dabur Batika Miss Nepal 2008 pageant was scheduled to start Thursday but was put off indefinitely, said Girendra Man Rajbanshi, managing director of Hidden Treasure, an event organizer that puts on the show each year.

Rajbanshi said opposition from Maoist members in the government's constituent assembly as well as threats against participants and organizers forced the postponement.

Kathmandu - Two bombings in Pokhara, a city in western Nepal that is popular with tourists, injured six people and sparked panic among residents, media reports said Thursday.

The bombs went off within 20 minutes of each other late Wednesday in the commercial district of the city about 180 kilometres west of Kathmandu, the Kantipur newspaper reported.

The bombs were placed in public places within a half-kilometre of one another, the newspaper quoted police as saying

A child was among the injured in the blasts, which damaged a house in the city where tourists organize treks into the Annapurna mountains.

Kathmandu - The Nepalese government is to provide compensation to family members of those killed in the communist insurgency and release unpaid wages to Maoist fighters, official reports said Wednesday.

The government's decision followed a World Bank assistance offer of nearly 3.04 billion rupees (44.96 million dollars) as part of the bank's Emergency Peace Support Programme, the official Rastriya Samachar Samiti news agency said.

The news agency quoted the Nepalese Ministry for Peace and Reconstruction as saying that family members of those killed during the decade-long communist insurgency would receive 100,000 rupees as immediate compensation.

New Delhi, Aug 4 : The caretaker Prime Minister of Nepal, Girija Prasad Koirala today met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukerjee here.

Koirala is transiting through New Delhi to Nepal after attending the 15th SAARC Summit in Colombo.

The leaders discussed bilateral ties and issues of mutual interest during their meeting.

Leader of opposition L. K. Advani also met Koirala separately.

Kathmandu, Aug 4 : The Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP) of Nepal has decided not to join the new government.

The Central Working Committee and the Parliamentary Party meeting of the TMLP has advised the leadership to stay out of the government.

TMLP leader Sarbendra Nath Shukla said the party would work to address all Madhes issues by remaining in the opposition.

According to nepalnews. com, the TMLP, the fifth largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), has decided that the new government should be led by the Maoists. It has also advised bigger parties like Nepali Congress (NC) and Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) to join the government and play progressive role.