Rebels attack radio station in Nepal

AP, KATMANDU
MAY 20: Communist rebels on Friday stormed and ransacked a private radiostation whose programming was critical of their efforts to overthrow Nepal'sgovernment, an official said.Armed rebels attacked the Ghodaghodi FM station in Kailali, about 600kilometres (375 miles) west of the Nepalese capital, Katmandu, said RamPrasad Sharma, a local official.No one was hurt in the attack, but the guerrillas made off with much of thestation's broadcast equipment, Sharma said.The station had been critical of the Maoist rebels, who have a strongpresence in the area.Leaders from Nepal's largest political parties met Friday to organise newprotests in an effort to pressure the king to restore democracy in thekingdom.The seven major parties who have opposed King Gyanendra since his seizure ofpower in February, met to plan coordinated protests scheduled to begin nextweek."All of us are working together on a strategy to gather massive support forour movement to restore democracy," said Shobhakar Parajuli, a spokesman forthe Nepali Congress party. "We are using all the resources available instepping up the movement."The king fired the government, seized absolute power and jailed politicianson Feb. 1 citing the failure of successive governments to control acommunist insurgency and to curb corruption.Since then, there has been several street protests, but they have generallybeen attended by only a handful of party workers, who have been swiftlyarrested by the police.The parties said the planned protest rallies on May 22 and May 27 over the country would be massive.