Nepal's shoot-to-kill policy against curfew-busting rioters is against international law, a UN human rights expert has said.
As more trouble flared on the outskirts of Kathmandu - outside the curfew zone - with seven protesters injured by rubber bullets, rights expert Philip Alston said instructions to soldiers to shoot dead protesters was a crime against humanity. Mr Alston urged besieged King Gyanendra to scrap the policy.
Meanwhile, US embassy staff have been told to leave the country. All non-essential staff and their families have been ordered home by the State Department.
Sky's Alex Crawford said a weekend of violence in the capital left the city "thick with suffocating smoke" from teargas used by police who had been pelted with rocks. At one stage mobs turned on a number of young men who they thought were government informers and beat them senseless. Local hospitals are "teeming with wounded," Crawford said.
Kathmandu is under a curfew for the fifth consecutive day as opposition parties demand an end to the king's rule and a new constitution. At least 14 people have been killed and hundreds hurt by police using teargas, rubber bullets and live rounds.
Opposition parties say they plan only small gatherings for today, ahead of a massive anti-monarchy protest on Tuesday on Kathmandu's ring road. Hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to turn out.
