The authorities in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, have reimposed a daylight curfew for the second day running to try to stop demonstrations against King Gyanendra. There was violence on Thursday when police killed three protestors. This report from Charles Haviland:

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During the twenty five hours of curfew just ended, some one hundred thousand people rallied on the edges of the curfew zone. Three were shot dead by the police and gruesome pictures of bodies lying in the streets have now appeared on local websites.

There were also smaller rallies within the curfew area where the police did not enforce a shoot on sight policy. More than ten demonstrators have now died around the country in two weeks of protests.

The king is growing increasingly unpopular fourteen months after he took direct powers which he said were necessary to quell a long running Maoist insurgency.

Charles Haviland, BBC News, Kathmandu

Listen to the words

to rush
to hurry

with just an hour or two's notice
having been given a warning only an hour or two before

curfew
a regulation not allowing people to move, often requiring them to stay indoors between specified hours

increasingly
more and more

in favour of
supporting

gruesome
horrible, disgusting

rallies
gatherings of people (often to protest against a political situation)

a shoot on sight policy
when people get shot at as soon as the police or the army see them

to quell
to crush, put down or stop

insurgency
violent protests

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