Nepal

Prem Raja Mahat bustles through the lunch rush, topping off the ice water and making cheerful small talk. He weaves between the clothed tables. He recommends a refreshing glass of iced mango yogurt. He buses the dirty buffet plates - in every way the consummate Charles Street restaurant manager. It's a performance that provides a comfortable life for Mahat, his wife and four children. But it is his other gig - headlining concerts and singing in villages nestled atop the world's highest mountain ranges - that makes him a favorite son in his native Nepal.

Baltimore now has at least two - count 'em, two - restaurants that specialize in cuisine from Nepal. Mount Everest opened in Parkville last October. And this week, Kumari should open right smack-dab in the middle of downtown. For first-time restaurant owner Mohan Thapa, it's a dream come true. Thapa has spent the last 12 years working in several Baltimore-area restaurants - most recently at Bombay Grill. All the while, he says, he was working his way to his goal of bringing some of his native Nepal to his new home here.

Add another exotic cuisine to the growing list of those offered at Baltimore-area eateries. A new Parkville restaurant/carryout claims to be the first here to have food from Nepal on its menu. Nepal native Chandra Chhantyal opened Mount Everest at 1842 E. Joppa Road about a month ago. His cousin - and Everest manager - Lok Chhantyal - describes Nepal's cuisine as similar to Indian, but says it's not as spicy. He says the restaurant serves some of the most popular dishes from Nepal, including mo mo - a meat dumpling mixed with Nepali spices, cooked in a steam pot and served with a traditional Nepali soup ($8.99)

NEW DELHI, India - The warfare between the Royal Nepal Army and Maoist guerrillas has intensified over the past week in the heartland of Maoist-controlled western Nepal, an isolated, mountainous region where battles are being fought many hours' hike from the nearest road. Four days after Nepal's security forces struck a major Maoist base hidden deep in the forest, hundreds of rebels began a devastating counterattack late Tuesday night on an army and police post in a remote village called Gam, Nepalese military officials said yesterday.

KATMANDU, Nepal - As regional leaders gathered here to talk about getting along better, India kept the heat on rival Pakistan by insisting again that Islamabad hand over at least 20 alleged terrorists and criminals for trial. The two nuclear powers continued to mass forces along their border yesterday in a crisis that flared Dec. 13 when militants attacked India's Parliament, and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh offered little hope of a diplomatic breakthrough during a summit of South Asian leaders here.

A MEMORABLE PLACE A great trek, leeches and all By Heidi Nevin SPECIAL TO THE SUN I have been living in Nepal and India learning Tibetan Buddhism for the last five years. This summer, my little sister, Liv, came to visit me in the Katmandu Valley. She is a beautiful, athletic, ambitious young woman from California; the transition from the stimulating pace of Berkeley to the utter calm of that Nepali village was not easy. She was ready for an adventure. Two days after Liv arrived, the royal family of Nepal was murdered in their palace, and the nation lay silent in a state of stunned despair.

It can happen overnight: Your travel destination turns into a newsmaking trouble spot. Do you cancel or go? Joan Weber, co-owner of the touring company Journeys International, just went through this process. She was scheduled to lead a small group to Nepal on June 17, just weeks after the assassinations of nine members of the royal family in Katmandu. The assassinations were followed by street violence and bombings. There was concern that the instability might continue or escalate. Two factors helped Weber make the decision to go: First, this particular trip was a specialty tour, designed for American women to meet Nepalese women.

THE DREAM of a free press in the fragile 10-year-old constitutional monarchy of Nepal has received a severe blow with the detention of the editor and two top publishing executives from the nation's largest newspaper. The arrests on charges of sedition for publishing a politically sensitive commentary by a Maoist underground leader in the wake of the massacre of King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and other royal family members has placed this Himalayan kingdom - once viewed as a steadily maturing democracy coming to grips with freedom - in a precarious position that could unravel its hopes and dreams.

THE ROYALS of Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom, are sent to Eton College to be English schoolboys and return to the high Himalayas to become gods. It is a challenging transition. The slaughter of the royal family last Friday undermines a monarchy that was absolute until 1990 when it limited its own powers and brought in elective democracy, leading to a Communist government followed by one akin to India's Congress Party. For a century, the Shah kings were held prisoner by the Rana prime ministers, but for the past half-century, the Shahs have prevailed by marrying Rana women.

In a wholesale killing of royalty not seen since the deaths of the last Czar of Russia and his family in 1918, the King of Nepal and at least a dozen relatives were reported shot to death in their palace in Katmandu over dinner last night. Early reports were sketchy and contradictory. The Associated Press said that Crown Prince Dipendra, a 30-year-old graduate of Eton College in England, opened fire, killing his parents, King Birendra Bir Birkram Shah Dev and Queen Aiswarya, and the other royal family members before shooting himself.