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Nepal yesterday imposed a fresh 12-hour curfew in a bid to quell widespread protests in the Kathmandu valley and other parts of the Kingdom as public anger continued to boil over following the killing on Friday of 10 royals, including King Birendra.

Riots and curfew marked the ascension of Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev to the throne of this ancient Himalayan kingdom, Nepal's third king in four days, after the death of his nephew King Dipendra yesterday.

In the first direct eyewitness account of Friday's carnage that wiped out Nepal's royal family, the son-in-law of slain King Birendra's youngest brother named the late Crown Prince Dipendra angered by his family's refusal to let him marry the woman of his choice

Eleven days after the horrific palace massacre that killed King Birendra and almost his entire family, Nepal began exorcising the ghosts of its royal massacre with a traditional Hindu ceremony that marked the official end of the mourning period for the king.

Princess Shova Shahi, sister of the late King Birendra unwittingly played a part in the bloodbath at the Narayanhity palace on June 1 that claimed the lives of the former king and his family.

Devyani Rana, daughter of a prominent politician and allegedly the woman for whom Nepal's then Crown Prince Dipendra snuffed out almost his entire family declined to reveal the nature of her relationship with the late prince, saying "it is my personal affair; I would not like to make any comment on it."

Gruesome details of Nepal's palace massacre emerged yesterday as authorities declared a six-hour overnight curfew in Kathmandu, the third to be imposed in the capital this week as a precautionary measure.

Three Nepali journalists were arrested yesterday on charges of "sedition and treason" against the monarch for publishing an article by underground communist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai which called on the army to rise against the new king.

The editor of a Nepali daily and two top executives of Kantipur Publications were remanded to custody for a further four days at a closed hearing by a special court yesterday following their arrest on treason charges, deepening concern the press was being muzzled in this Himalayan kingdom in crisis.