| Crucial elections to decide Nepal's future were postponed indefinitely on Friday after the government and Maoists failed to agree on the fate of the monarchy and the election system, officials said. The Times of India, on its website, quoted Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chanda Poudel as saying, "The seven party leaders (of the coalition government) have agreed to postpone the constituent assembly elections for an indefinite period." The polls scheduled for November 22 were a key element of a peace deal sealed last year that ended a civil war launched by the Maoists in 1996. Voters were to elect a body to rewrite Nepal's constitution and decide the fate of the Himalayan country's embattled monarchy. |