Talks between the government of Nepal and Maoist insurgents got under way late Sunday, a week after they were postponed because the two sides could not agree on an agenda. Both sides emerged from several hours of talks, held in a Katmandu hotel, saying they had taken place in a “cordial atmosphere.” The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has been waging a rebellion since 1996. More than 7,000 people have died in the fighting, the majority of them since the last attempt at talks broke down in 2001. The current cease-fire came in January after a series of back-channel communications were initiated at the directive of the Himalayan kingdom’s monarch, King Gyanendra. Full Story