UN extends Nepal mission but wants to wrap up activities in July

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The UN Security Council is extending the mandate of a scaled-back UN peacebuilding mission in Nepal to help integrate Maoist rebel fighters and monitor arms, but wants the UN's activities wrapped up in six months. A resolution adopted unanimously by the council on Friday would maintain 73 arms monitors but abolish most of the 18 remaining civilian posts. The Security Council established a peacebuilding mission in Nepal in January 2007 to monitor and help enforce a November 2006 peace deal between the government and Maoist rebels, which ended a bloody 10-year insurgency that left more than 13,000 people dead.