12 April 2004	Monday	21 Safar 1425

KATHMANDU, April 11: Police dispersed 200 anti-royal protesters in Kathmandu on Sunday as they cracked down on two weeks of demonstrations ahead of the return of King Gyanendra to Nepal's capital, witnesses said.

Baton-wielding police stopped the march of 200 people carrying flaming torches, left-wing symbols that are banned in Nepal. No one was reported injured, but witnesses said protesters damaged two police vans by hitting them with sticks.

The royalist government on Thursday banned demonstrations indefinitely in Kathmandu after opposition parties, which had brought tens of thousands of people to the streets since the start of the month, threatened to storm the palace. The threats were scuttled for two days straight as police rounded up demonstrators near the palace. -AFP