Nepal's newly proclaimed king barely clung to life on Sunday as confusion swirled around the palace massacre of his parents and six other members of the royal family. State radio, interrupting broadcasts of mourning music for King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and six others who died on Friday night, said the successor to the throne, Dipendra, remained critically ill. His pulse rate and blood pressure are still unstable. One ballistics expert said the scenario was impossible. It cannot go off on its own.
Someone has to pull the trigger first.
As speculation swirled round Kathmandu that the new king might already be dead, sporadic protests erupted over what many saw as an official failure to explain what really happened. Youths, their heads shaved in a Hindu mark of mourning, scuffled briefly with police outside the royal palace. Others blocked traffic and shouted slogans demanding the truth. Nobody from the palace is speaking out a single word. There is definitely a large conspiracy here.