Nepal's tourism minister is reported to be among six people who were on board a helicopter which went missing amid bad weather in the country's mountainous region.

Brandname multinationals such as IBM and Vodafone have offices nearby, and a five-star Marriott hotel is going up on the main airport road in eastern Calcutta, not far from pricey pastel apartment blocks looking like Legoland in the hazy sun-baked distance.

An airport official says a Yeti Airlines plane has crashed in eastern Nepal, killing 17 people on board, including 14 foreign tourists and two Nepalese crew members.