New royalist government re-opens Nepal communications

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Nepal phone lines working again:
"The armed forces say that detentions and the suspension of liberties are necessary to let security forces concentrate on fighting the Maoist rebels.
"Some 11,000 people have died since the Maoists began their insurgency in 1996."

Against this backdrop (an equivalent death toll in the US would be around 150,000), the king of Nepal recently fired the government and appointed a new one as part of an effort which appears to combine stepped up security measures with a willingness to negotiate the issues on the communists' agenda. Phone and internet connections were severed at the time the king acted, but they have now been restored although cell phones have not.

This is one of those "little" wars that simmer for years, largely unnoticed by the rest of the world. Except, it isn't "little" for those who have to endure it close up.