Nepal parliament to end monarchy
Nepal’s provisional parliament approved a motion on Friday to abolish monarchy as part of negotiations with former Maoist rebels to move a peace deal forward, live television pictures showed.

The provisional parliament voted for Nepal, once the world’s only Hindu kingdom, to become a ‘’federal democratic republican state’’, reports Reuters from Kathmandu.

The motion was passed by a majority of 270 votes in the 329-seat parliament, which includes the Maoists. Three votes were cast against it. Live TV showed parliamentary officials reading out the result.

The vote comes days after the government agreed to abolish the Himalayan nation’s nearly 240-year-old monarchy, one of the few left in Asia. But Nepal will become a republic only after the decision is endorsed by the first meeting of a special assembly, which is due to be elected by mid-April next year.

Lankan army kills 31 LTTE rebels
At least 31 LTTE cadres and a soldier were killed in clashes in the embattled northern Sri Lanka even as Air force fighter jets on Friday pounded a strategic Tiger location in rebel-dominated Kilinochchi region, reports PTI from Colombo. “Air Force jet aircraft pounded a meeting place of LTTE militants South of Piramanthlakulam in Puthukudiyirippu today,” the defence ministry said.