Police fire on protesters in Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Police opened fire on rampaging protesters in western Nepal on Wednesday, killing at least one of them a day ahead of a landmark election to chart the country's political future, officials said.

The protesters, enraged by the slaying of a candidate a day earlier, began smashing stores and vandalizing buses in the mountainous Surkhet district, prompting police to fire at them with live ammunition, said the area's police chief, Ram Kumar Khanal.

The protesters were defying a curfew imposed in the area following the killing Tuesday of the candidate, Khanal said. One of the protesters was killed Wednesday, he said.

Voting in the area also was suspended, although the rest of Nepal will hold the election as planned on Thursday. The polls are meant to cement a peace deal with communist rebels and elect a so-called Constituent Assembly to rewrite the country's constitution.

The campaign has been repeatedly marred by violence with the United Nations blaming the majority of incidents on the former rebels, known as the Maoists, who fought a decade-long rebellion that left some 13,000 people dead.

The slain candidate, Rishi Prasad Sharma, was a candidate of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), a political party that rivals the Maoists. Police have not yet said who they suspect of killing Sharma.

Authorities plan to select a new polling date for the constituency where Sharma was killed about 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of Kathmandu.

Violence and protests in the past year have already forced two delays in the elections, the first since King Gyanendra was forced to end his royal dictatorship by widespread unrest nearly two years ago and the Maoists declared a truce.

On Tuesday, six former rebels were killed in clashes with police in the southwestern town of Satbaria, after the ex-rebels tried to attack a former minister, police said.

Police official Deepak Kumar Thapa said the situation was now under control. Initial reports had said only one person was killed in the clash.

On Monday, the last day of campaigning, bombings in two key cities wounded at least 13 people. In one attack, a motorcyclist threw a bomb near the site of an election rally in Katmandu

Europe clears mobiles on aircraft

Mobile phone calls will be allowed on planes flying in European airspace under new European Commission rules.
The decision means that mobiles could be used once a plane has reached an altitude of 3,000m or more.
It follows six months of consultation by the European regulator and the first services could launch next month.
Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner, has warned operators to keep the cost of calls made on planes at a reasonable level.
"If consumers receive shock phone bills, the service will not take-off.
"I also call on airlines and operators to create the right conditions on board aircraft to ensure that those who want to use in-flight communication services do not disturb other passengers," she said.
The European Commission has introduced new rules to harmonise the technical requirements for the safe in-flight use of mobile phones.
The commission is also making it possible to enable the national licences granted to individual airlines by a member state to be recognised throughout the EU.
The decision to offer the services now falls to individual airlines. However, there are other regulatory hurdles to overcome before the technology is considered to be fully approved.
The European Aviation Safety Agency still needs to approve any hardware that would be installed in aircraft to ensure that it did not interfere with other flight systems.

How does the system work?
The plan is to install small mobile phone base stations, called pico cells, in aircraft that will be switched on after take-off. The base station generates a bubble of coverage in and around the aircraft.
Calls made via the pico cell will be routed to terrestrial networks via satellite link. Across Europe radio spectrum has been set aside for the technology.
The services could stop working once aircraft leave European airspace.
Martin Selmayr, spokesman for Ms Reding's office, said that flight captains would be able to switch off the on-board service if they felt it necessary.
Initially, only second generation networks will be offered but growing interest would mean that third generation, or 3G, services will follow.
The first flights offering calls could start as early as next month.
Air France is believed to be ready to deploy the technology while Ryanair is expected to submit an application.
The cost of making a mobile phone call from a plane will be higher than making one from the ground.
In the UK, regulator Ofcom said it would investigate and address any evidence of "excessive charges and abuses of competition" if prices were set unfairly by airlines and mobile networks.
Ms Redding has said the EC had no plans to cap the cost of calls made on planes.
The European Commission backing means planes registered in one country would be able to offer mobile communications services to passengers when flying over other EU countries without having to apply for additional national licences.