Nepal authorities said today they finished vote-counting and were preparing to announce results from elections for a constitutional assembly, the first since communist rebels gave up their insurgency and joined mainstream politics.

A bus veered off a mountain highway and plunged into a river in Nepal today, killing at least 13 people and injuring another 25, police said.

Police opened fire on hundreds of protesters attacking government buildings in a south-eastern Nepalese town today, killing at least three people, officials said.