Nepal rebels offer ceasefire

The leader of Nepal’s communist rebels today offered a month long ceasefire in the six year guerrilla war after a week of fierce fighting in which the government said hundreds of combatants have been killed.

The guerrillas, fighting since 1996 to topple the Himalayan kingdom’s constitutional monarchy and to redistribute land to the poor, withdrew from a western stronghold after overrunning it on Tuesday night and killing at least 100 government forces.