Meanwhile, in other news across this troubled sphere...

Women Dig Tunnel to Escape Jail

KATHMANDU, Nepal (Reuters) - Six women inmates, all suspected Maoist rebels, escaped from a jail in west Nepal through a small tunnel they had dug, newspapers reported on Sunday.

Home (interior) Ministry spokesman Gopendra Bahadur Pandey told Reuters the escape occurred at Gorkha district jail, 150 km (93 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, and said an investigation was underway.

The Kathmandu Post and other dailies said all six inmates were members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), a rebel group that is fighting against the Himalayan kingdom's constitutional monarchy.

Over 1,550 people have been killed in violence across Nepal since the Maoist insurgency started five years ago.

The rebel group has been compared with Peru's Shining Path movement, and says it is campaigning to set up a one-party communist republic in the impoverished nation.