Kathmandu - Four people were confirmed killed and four others were missing after an overcrowded boat capsized in western Nepal, police said Monday.

The boat capsized Sunday on the flooded Kanari River in the Dhangadhi district, about 440 kilometres west of Kathmandu, police said.

The boat was carrying 25 people, double its capacity, along with several bicycles and grain sacks when the accident occurred.

Police said rescuers were able to pull 17 survivors from the river but hopes were fading for the four missing.

Kathmandu - Former Maoist rebels say they could still form a new government provided three pre-conditions are met, official media reported Sunday.

The Communist Party of Nepal could still form the new government by proving majority in the Nepalese assembly, Maoist leader Prachanda said in an interview with the official Gorkhapatra newspaper.

Kathmandu, July 26 : Nepal President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav is all set to call upon the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) to form the next government, sources said.

Sources further added that the President will call the CPN-M first as it is the largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Meanwhile, Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) urged Dr. Yadav that if the CPN-M backs out then their party should be called to form the next government.

Kathmandu, July 26: The meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the Nepali Congress (NC) to discuss the party’s earlier strategies ended inconclusively here today.

Kathmandu, July 26 : CPN-Maoist spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara has said that President Dr. Rambaran Yadav has asked his party to take the initiative to form the new Government in Nepal.

“The president asked us to take initiative to form the government as we are the largest party. We informed the President that there will be no moral ground for us to lead the new Government while the alliance forged at the time of the presidential election remains intact," Kantipur quoted him, as saying.

Kathmandu, July 26 : Nepal Vice President Parmananda Jha has defended himself for taking oath in Hindi during the swearing in ceremony.

“Hindi is also the mother-tongue of some community in Nepal,” Nepalnews quoted Jha, as saying.

“As per the census, there are around 200,000 people whose mother-tongue is Hindi,” he said.

He also rejected accusations that using Hindi language would, in any way, undermine nationality and integrity.

Although he himself is a native Maithili speaker, he Jha said he chose to take oath in Hindi because it was a common language understood by Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi and other lingual groups of Madhes region.