Maoist ministers resign in protest

Nepal’s former communist rebels quit the country’s interim government in an effort to force the prime minister out and allow them to form a new administration.

The Maoists won the most seats in April’s election.

Though they don’t have a clear majority in the newly elected constituent assembly, they have enough support from other political parties to form a coalition government.

But the prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala of the rival Nepali Congress party, has refused to step down and make way for a new government. Women and Social Welfare Minister Pampha Bhusal, a leading Maoist, said all five Maoist ministers had resigned.