NEPAL
A Nepalese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldier, left, walks past observers overseeing the transition of the former Maoist rebels at the Shaktikhor cantonment site in Chitwan, some 220km southwest of Kathmandu, yesterday.

After living more than four years in cantonments across the country, Nepal’s former PLA fighters will soon begin regrouping. Nepal’s former Maoist rebels said November 2 that a deal to integrate thousands of their fighters into the army will finally set the country on the road to peace, five years after the end of civil war. Under the agreement, the army will take in 6,500 former fighters and the remainder will receive a pay-off between Rs500,000 and 800,000 ($6,300 - 10,200)