Nepal MPs beaten by riot police

The MPs from the dissolved house were among 10,000 demonstrators who marched toward parliament but were stopped by riot police who charged them with batons and lobbed tear-gas grenades, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

He said around 10 MPs were injured and needed hospital care including R.B. Paswan, who was deputy speaker of the dissolved upper house, and Bam Dev Gautam, a senior leader of the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist, which was parliament's main opposition.

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King Gyanendra dismissed parliament a year ago under the advice of then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and called new elections for November 13.

But in October, Gyanendra also dismissed Deuba, calling him "incompetent" at dealing with Nepal's myriad ills including the long-running Maoist insurgency.

The king appointed as the new prime minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, known as a staunch royalist, to serve until new elections are called. All major parties have refused to serve under him.

The MPs, prevented from entering the Central Secretariat that includes the parliament, declared the assembly back in session at the Royal Academy Hall.

They elected as their "speaker" former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who launched a scathing critique of the king before the delegates.

"One of the main reasons for Nepal's economic backwardness is the crown. The king dominates Nepalese society and politics and he hasn't given a free hand for economic development," said Koirala, leader of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the last parliament.

The unrest comes one day before the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest, which Nepal has been promoting heavily in hopes of wooing back tourists scared off by a seven-year Maoist insurgency.

While Chand's government has failed to make peace with the political parties, his government can claim credit for reaching a ceasefire with the Maoists.