The fourth and last day of the seven party nationwide general strike and the second day of curfew in Kathmandu saw continued defiance by local communities.

Police fired tear gas, fired rubber bullets and chased demonstrators into side alleys. In Pokhara, where the king has been staying for the past two months, the situation is volatile after the shooting death of Bhimsen Dahal, a protestor on Saturday. Dahal's home village of Ugrachandi in Kabhre is marching on to the town of Banepa and the situation there is said to be tense.

Tens of thousands of people have been out in the streets in Chitwan after one of the three women injured in police firing died on Sunday morning. Similarly protesters from surrounding villages have taken to the streets in Butwal, scene of a major Maoist attack on Satuday night.

In Kathmandu, reporting has been difficult because police refused to issue curfew passes to journalists on Sunday to prevent news of protests from getting out. But newspapers and radio stations are being flooded with calls from locals volunteering information and they have been broadcasting hourly updates.

Home Minister Kaml Thapa has called a four o'clock press conference and there is speculation he may announce a state of emergency. However, except for government journalists, no one will able to attend Thapa's press conference because of the government's own curfew.

In Kathmandu thousands of protesters have defied the curfew in Ghattekulo, Balaju, Gonga Bu, Sat Dobato. Riot police and soldiers have been deployed in Kiritpur which has been most defiant in opposing the king's direct rule.

Twenty-five human rights activists, doctors, and journalists who were detained on Saturday from Teaching Hospital for defying the curfew were taken this morning to Duwakot in Bhaktapur for detention. They include Padma Ratna Tuladhar, Daman Nath Dhungana, Laxman Aryal, Kapil Shrestha, Madhu Ghimire, Kedar Sharma, Sundar Mani Dixit, Kanak Mani Dixit and his wife Shanta Dixit.